Two conflicting perspectives exist for the early history of Seattle. There is the "establishment" view, which favors the centrality of the Denny Party generally the Denny, Mercer, Terry, and Boren families , and Henry Yesler. A second, less didactic view, advanced particularly by historian Bill Speidel and others such as Murray Morgan , sees David Swinson "Doc" Maynard as a key figure, perhaps the key figure.
In the late nineteenth century, when Seattle had become a thriving town, several members of the Denny Party still survived; they and many of their descendants were in local positions of power and influence. Maynard was about ten years older and died relatively young, so he was not around to make his own case. The Denny Party were generally conservative Methodists , teetotalers , Whigs , and Republicans , while Maynard was a drinker and a Democrat.
He felt that well-run prostitution could be a healthy part of a city's economy. Thus Maynard was not on the best of terms with what became the Seattle Establishment, especially after the Puget Sound War. He was nearly written out of the city's history until Morgan's book Skid Road and Speidel's research in the s and s. What is now Seattle has been inhabited since at least the end of the last glacial period c. Archaeological excavations at what is now called West Point in Discovery Park , Magnolia confirm settlement within the current city for at least 4, years and probably much longer.
George Vancouver was the first European to visit the Seattle area in May during his โ95 expedition to chart the Pacific Northwest ; [ 12 ] the first White forays for sites in the area were in the s.
The group had travelled overland from the Midwest to Portland, Oregon , then made a short ocean journey up the Pacific coast into Puget Sound , with the express intent of founding a town.
