By L. Laile Di Silvestro
Special to The Reporter
In the early 1950s, Edward Seil was town marshal in an Issaquah that about 1,000 people called home. Known locally as “Nogs,” Seil dealt effectively with small-town criminals by housing them in jail overnight and feeding them breakfast with a stern lecture in the morning.
Meanwhile, the region was dealing with a more global threat. Nearby Seattle was a sizable population center and major producer of military aircraft. It seemed an obvious target for Russia’s new long-range jet aircraft, capable of carrying atomic missiles. The military needed elevated sites for electronic surveillance and missile defense. The terrain around the small town of Issaquah was perfect for this role.
Issaquah was no stranger to wartime surveillance. During World War II, residents set up a “spotters tower” and took turns watching for enemy aircraft. Issaquah resident Viola White Peterson remembered, “High School students were excused from class to man the aircraft warning tower on top of the fire hall.”
By the 1950s, surveillance technology had advanced considerably beyond a pair of binoculars on a tower. Nevertheless, aircraft spotters participating in the Ground Observer Corps remained alert at Beaver Lake and Pine Lake until 1959, purportedly calling in any aircraft they spotted, all of which were friendly.
According to Phil Dougherty of the Sammamish Heritage Society, residents also watched neighbors who appeared to have Communist leanings, and in at least one case attracted the attention of the FBI.
Meanwhile, the military began to install state-of-the-art surveillance technology on nearby peaks. Interception and relaying of radio communications was paramount, so electric cables were run up Tiger Mountain and Squak Mountain to antennas. Microwave installations came soon after.
In 1953, the military placed anti-aircraft guns on nearby Cougar Mountain. In 1957, the military replaced the guns with target and missile tracking radar, and installed a Nike missile launch site about a mile downhill to the southeast.
No Issaquah residents are known to have contributed to the installation or operation of these sites, and many were unaware of their presence and of the dangers they posed. Nevertheless, Cold War maps of nuclear targets placed Issaquah in the crosshairs.
Despite the nuclear danger, Issaquah embraced the Cold War atmosphere and thrived. George Rowley Sr. built more than 300 homes on Squak Mountain. Issaquah’s population grew to 1,870 in 1960 and reached 5,536 by 1980. In the area where Costco now stands, a new flight training school enrolled World War II soldiers funded by the GI bill. A government plane showered 30,000 leaflets onto residents as part of a Cold War communications test in 1951, and in 1978 the school district banned J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” as “part of an overall Communist plot.”
Yet, as Issaquah grew and prospered, its Cold War defense systems decayed. Hiking trails followed fraying electric cables up to nearby peaks. Bark consumed rungs climbing a trunk to a tree-top antenna. The aircraft defense system was dismantled and cell phone towers and modern microwave relay stations replaced the Cold War communications systems. Eventually “Catcher in the Rye” became required reading.
Issaquah’s Cold War era sites may no longer provide intelligence on enemy activity, but through a historian’s lens they can reveal a different kind of intelligence about the past and a community’s response to the threat of war.
L. Laile Di Silvestro is a volunteer with the Issaquah History Museums. More information is available at issaquahhistory.org
Learn More
Researcher Doug Bristol will present stories about the Cold War era Nike missile sites on nearby Cougar Mountain at a history program at 11 a.m. on Jan. 18 at the Issaquah Depot Museum, 78 First Ave. N.E. A full-size Nike missile mockup will be on display.
The Gilman Town Hall Museum has exhibits covering the Cold War era in Issaquah, as well as the World War II aircraft surveillance log. It is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at 165 S.E. Andrews St.
