Edmount Island

Edmount Island, also called Ballinger Island,[lower-alpha 1] is a 3-acre (1.2 ha) island in Lake Ballinger, in the Seattle suburbs of south Snohomish County, in the U.S. state of Washington.[2]

Edmount Island and bridge in 1925

Ballinger lodge on Edmount Island, 1915

A home was constructed on the island c. the early 1900s, in which lived settlers Ira Bartholemew and Julia Bartholomew, who may have built it as a hunting lodge,[3][4] then Seattle mayor Richard A. Ballinger and Julia Ballinger during the summers, and Richard Achilles' father Col. Richard Henry Ballinger, a U.S. Civil War veteran. The Bartholomews were from Pennsylvania and homesteaded the lake island in 1862[5] – "perhaps, the only homestead of its kind in the entire country" – requiring the United States government to re-survey the land which did not exist in official records.[6] A land patent was issued in 1902.[5] At one time, a wooden bridge linked the west shore to the island.[7]

As of the 2010s, the island is part of Mountlake Terrace's Ballinger Park.[3] The home and lodge are no longer standing.[8][9] The island is made of peat, which was completely engulfed in a runaway barbecue fire during a summer heat wave in 2009.[10] Since the fire, the island has been closed to public access, with emergency access provided by the local fire department's rigid inflatable boat.[11]