Qualla: Japanese Gulch https://qualla.com/japanese-gulch en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/c/2/9/0/japanese-gulch-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Japanese Gulch https://qualla.com/japanese-gulch Japanese Gulch: Introduction https://qualla.com/japanese-gulch/ Photo credit Kalmgren, CC BY-SA 4.0. The steepest standard gauge railroad in the United States runs through a ravine in Mukilteo, Washington, and almost nobody knows it. Built in 1968 to haul materials to and from the Boeing plant at Paine Field, the spur climbs a 5.6% grade that split Japanese Gulch cleanly in two. The railroad is just one layer of a landscape that has been shaped by lumber mills, Japanese immigrant workers, wartime military installations, and -- in its most recent chapter -- a community that fought to keep it from becoming an industrial park.

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Image: Kalmgren | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/2/9/0/japanese-gulch-wp/c290-japanese-gulch-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Japanese Gulch: The Workers Who Named It https://qualla.com/japanese-gulch/ Photo credit Kalmgren, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1903, the Mukilteo Lumber Company set up operations in the gulch. The company, later known as the Crown Lumber Company, ran its mill until 1930. Many of its workers were Japanese immigrants who lived with their families in company housing clustered along the ravine. The settle...

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Image: Kalmgren | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/2/9/0/japanese-gulch-wp/c290-japanese-gulch-the-workers-who-named-it.mp3 0:06 2 full Japanese Gulch: From Lumber Mill to Wartime Outpost https://qualla.com/japanese-gulch/ Photo credit Kalmgren, CC BY-SA 4.0. World War II transformed the gulch again. The military recognized that Paine Field and the surrounding terrain could serve as a defensive position protecting both the Bremerton Shipyard across Puget Sound and the Boeing plant in Seattle. Japanese Gulch became part of this strateg...

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Image: Kalmgren | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/2/9/0/japanese-gulch-wp/c290-japanese-gulch-from-lumber-mill-to-wartime-outpost.mp3 0:06 3 full Japanese Gulch: Saved by Five Million Dollars https://qualla.com/japanese-gulch/ Photo credit Kalmgren, CC BY-SA 4.0. In late 2007, a development company bid on purchasing the property to build an industrial park. The community pushed back. A grassroots movement coalesced around saving the gulch, and the effort found an unlikely ally in municipal government. In 2014, the City of Mukilteo complet...

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Image: Kalmgren | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/2/9/0/japanese-gulch-wp/c290-japanese-gulch-saved-by-five-million-dollars.mp3 0:06 4 full Japanese Gulch: Salmon and Woodpeckers https://qualla.com/japanese-gulch/ Photo credit Kalmgren, CC BY-SA 4.0. The gulch is surprisingly wild for a patch of land sandwiched between a Boeing factory and suburban development. Pileated woodpeckers drum on old-growth snags. Black-tailed deer browse along the creek. Great blue herons fish the lower reaches, and coyotes patrol the ridges. Betwe...

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Image: Kalmgren | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/2/9/0/japanese-gulch-wp/c290-japanese-gulch-salmon-and-woodpeckers.mp3 0:06 5 full