Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Lake Stevens, WA

Lake Stevens is a city in Snohomish County that surrounds the north and east sides of its namesake lake, the largest and deepest lake in Snohomish County at 1,040 acres with an average depth of 64 feet.

Curiously, the lake itself is not inside the city limits — it remains unincorporated county land even though the city has grown to encircle most of its shoreline.

The lake was named in 1859 for Isaac Stevens, the first governor of Washington Territory, and its shores were originally home to the Skykomish people of the Pilchuck River basin.

The first modern settlement on the lake was founded in 1889 at its northeastern corner, on a small townsite first platted under the name "Outing."

The Rucker Brothers opened a shingle and sawmill on the lake in 1907 that employed about 250 workers and was among the largest mills in the United States, but it closed for good in 1925 after a second major fire.

A locomotive from the old Rucker mill sank in the lake in the early 1910s and was rediscovered in 1995 by a U.S. Navy training team at the request of the local historical society.

After the mill era ended, Lake Stevens became a resort community whose public and private beaches drew as many as 3,000 visitors on busy summer days.

Downtown business owners pushed for incorporation to keep shops from fleeing to the new Frontier Village shopping center, and voters approved cityhood 299 to 40; Lake Stevens was certified as a city on November 29, 1960, with about 900 residents.

The 2020 census counted 35,630 people and 12,085 households in Lake Stevens, making it the sixth-largest city in Snohomish County.

A series of annexations — the largest, in December 2009, added more than 10,000 residents at once — roughly quadrupled the city's population between 2000 and 2010.