Sammamish Slough races

Boats could be heard before they came into view, and that was part of what made the Sammamish Slough Race special [1]. The spring event, run 47 times starting in 1928, went up and down the 13-mile waterway joining Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish [1]. Each division left Lake Washington every five minutes and headed upstream [1]. From Kenmore, the most-used starting point, the course twisted past Woodinville, then opened into long straight stretches where the F hydros reached speeds above 80 mph [1]. Drivers worked around logs, bridge pilings, trees hanging over the water and one another, and the Bothell bridge was remembered as the worst obstacle [1]. Fans turned out in numbers put at 40,000 to 80,000 [1]. Flood-control work by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over two years, costing $3.8 million, made the channel wider and deeper, a project racers called The Taming of the Slough [1]. The slough became the Sammamish River, though the race kept its old name [1]. It ended after a spectator was struck by a boat in 1976, when organizers could no longer obtain insurance [1].