Denny Party Landing Site/Schooner Exact
Type: Markers/Monuments
Owner: Seattle Parks and Recreation
Phone: 206-684-4075
Designation*: N/A
Built: 1905
Location: 63rd Ave SW and Alki Ave. SW, Seattle
Map and directions (Courtesy Google Maps)
Hours: Dawn to dusk
Admission: FREE

*DOE=Designated eligible; NR=National Register of Historic Places; NHL=National Historic Landmark; WHR=Washington Heritage Register; City=Local city; County=Local county; N/A=Not applicable

Comments from site users
9/17/2007 3 out of 5
a lotta traffic

On November 13, 1851, 22 men, women and children arrived at a beach a few hundred yards east of Alki Point on the Duwamish Peninsula. Known as the Denny Party, they had first traveled overland to Oregon as part of the great western migration. But they found the area already crowded, and sent two men north to scout Puget Sound. When the men arrived at Elliott Bay and staked claims, they urged the rest of the party to “come at once.”

The schooner Exact delivered the balance of the emigrants on a cold, rainy day, and one pioneer recalled how the women, once their belongings were on high ground, “took a big cry.” A member of the group dubbed the area “New York Alki,” the last word coming from local trading jargon meaning “eventually.” Local Duwamsih Indians led by Chief Seattle helped the settlers through the first winter. But a year later, the party moved to the area in present-day Seattle now called Pioneer Square. An obelisk erected in 1905 at Alki Beach Park marks the landing place.