Mukilteo ( ; ) is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is located on Puget Sound between Edmonds and Everett, approximately north of Seattle. The city had a population of 20,254 at the 2010 census and an estimated 2019 population of 21,441.
The current site of downtown Mukilteo (also named Old Town) has been inhabited by the Snohomish people for at least 1,000 years before present. The Treaty of Point Elliott was signed in Mukilteo in 1855, opening the region to American settlement. A new town was founded at Mukilteo and served as the provisional county seat of Snohomish County in early 1861. The area remained a trading post for loggers and was home to other industries, but was overshadowed by Everett and grew slowly.
Mukilteo was used during World War II as an auxiliary fueling facility, due to its proximity to the newly built Snohomish County Airport (now Paine Field). Mukilteo was incorporated as a city in 1947 and saw new suburban development, which accelerated after the opening of the nearby Boeing Everett Factory in the late 1960s. The city annexed large suburban areas on the west side of Paine Field in the 1980s and 1990s, including Harbour Pointe and the State Route 525 corridor, while also revitalizing the Old Town area in the 2000s.
Today, Mukilteo is a bedroom community with a small job base centered around manufacturing industries. It is also a major transportation hub, with connections to Whidbey Island via the Washington State Ferries system, Sounder commuter trains to Seattle, and public transit services to nearby cities. The city is recognized for its quality of life and is one of the most affluent in Washington state, with a high median income.
Etymology
The name Mukilteo is derived from Lushootseed, the language of the Snohomish people and other Coast Salish tribes. The name for the area in Lushootseed is variously spelled as bəqɬtiuʔ, bəqɬtiyuʔ, bəkʷəɬtiu, and bək̓ʷəɬtiwʔ. It has been historically anglicized as Muckl-te-oh and Buk-wil-tee-whu, before finally being named Mukilteo. The etymology of is disputed. According to anthropologist T. T. Waterman's sources from the Snohomish tribe and other written records, the name's meaning was unclear. Other sources claim that the name means "good camping ground" or "narrow passage".
History
Establishment and early history
The Snohomish people had a year-round village in the Mukilteo area for at least 600 years before the arrival of European and American explorers in the 19th century. Early artifacts uncovered during waterfront construction in the 2010s were carbon dated to 1,000 years before present.
The Vancouver Expedition, led by British explorer George Vancouver, visited the area on May 30, 1792, and landed at modern-day Mukilteo the following day. Lieutenant William Robert Broughton and botanist Archibald Menzies named the site "Rose Point" after the wild Nootka roses that grew along the shore. An American expedition led by Charles Wilkes in 1841 renamed the headland "Point Elliott" for Samuel Elliott, a midshipman.
After its 1853 establishment, the Washington territorial government looked to negotiate treaties with the local tribes of the Puget Sound region to secure land for settlement. On January 22, 1855, representatives from the territorial government and 82 local tribes signed the Treaty of Point Elliott, which ceded tribal territories in exchange for compensation, the establishment of Indian reservations, and access to traditional hunting and fishing areas. An American settlement at Point Elliott was established two years later by Morris H. Frost and J. D. Fowler, two merchants from New York. The two men established a store and saloon on the southwest side of Point Elliott, which was renamed to Mukilteo in 1860 by Fowler, using an anglicized name of the Lushootseed campsite.