06/11:
The Bubbling Forest
One quality that attracted the first settlers to their hill was that it bubbled. They moved over from the exposed Alki Point in 1852 both for the protected harbor of Elliott Bay and for the springs on First Hill. Even before his heroic clear-cutting of the hill, Seattle's first industrialist tapped its fresh water. Yesler collected the flow in a large cistern near the present site of City Hall Park. From there the hill's hydraulics was delivered along an elevated flume to his mill and to the few homes collected around Pioneer Place.
In 1875 -- years after Yesler had cleared First Hill of its forest -- the bridge builder Charles Coppin dug a six-foot wide well 135 deep at the southeast corner of 9th Avenue and Columbia Street. The spring Coppins tapped was capable of giving 900,000 gallons of "the finest quality water" every 24 hours. It was a prudent tap, for no one as yet needed 900,0000 gallons. When new, Coppin¹s pumping tower looked down on stump fields.