History:

In 1850, the first settlers arrived in the Bonney Lake area. They traveled across the Naches Trail, following paths made by Native American tribes on their east-west crossing, a route that closely parallels today's Old Sumner-Buckley Highway. One of the settlers, Sherwood Bonney, traveled here on this route by covered wagon, then stopped in 1853 and built the cabin on the lake named for him.

That same year, the Naches Trail became a military road for soldiers traveling from Fort Steilacoom to Fort Walla. Two years later, in 1855, four soldiers were killed by Indians lying in ambush at Connell's Prairie; first Colonels Miles and Moses on October 13, then Lt. McCallister and Michael Connell eight days later. Today these events are known as the Connell's Prairie Massacres, and a monument at Connell's Prairie commemorates the incidents.

Descendants of several of the land-grant homesteaders and pioneers still live in this area, including the Kelleys, Angelines, Vandermarks, Peoples, and Fadolas. Their stories of the spartan life-styles of the homesteaders illustrate the hardships and fears common to the western settlers of the era. 

William B. Kelley arrived from Tennessee in 1864, and raised his three sons and one daughter in a log cabin on Kelley Lake. He cleared his land in summer and taught school in the winter. Kelley donated land for a one-room school house which was used until 1960.

James and Amanda Vandermark, Dutch pioneers who came west by covered wagon, homesteaded on Lake Tapps until it was flooded during the construction of the White River Dam. Their house, built in 1893, was moved before the flood to its present site on 214th Ave East. Members of the Vandermark family still live on the site.

In the late 1800's, the area halfway between Bonney Lake and Buckley was known as Finland, named for the many Finnish settlers who either established dairy farms there, worked in the Wilkeson coal mines, or logged the virgin timbers along the White River. Another 100 families of Swiss extraction lived on the Plateau and in the valley. And as in many parts of the new territory west of the Mississippi, many bootleg stills flourished and moonshine was plentiful at the dance halls in South Prairie, Wilkeson, and Orting.

The Angeline family settled here in 1909. Both Irene and Lawrence attended the early Victor Falls School near Rhodes Lake, where eight grades were taught in one room. Published accounts of Kelly Lake School teacher Dorothy Ryan, written when she was 16, tell of her keeping a hatchet on her school desk for protection against Indians, cougars, and other wildlife.

Bonney Lake was established as a town in 1946, on a 1,000 acre parcel purchased by Kenneth and Bertha Simmons from a "Rodeo Man" named George Logan. Until 1946, there was no electricity or water available. The Simmons family was the driving force for development and incorporation, with Kenneth Simmons serving three terms as Bonney Lake's first mayor. Simmons, along with Chet and Clarence Roberts, Bert Filkins, Robert Wheeler, and many others, built the concrete block building on Locust Street that served as the community club, as well as the city and fire department headquarters.

Incorporation was finally accomplished in 1949, when the city population reached 327. By 1950, the new town had streets, a water system, electric and telephone lines, refuse disposal, a blood bank, and a community club-sponsored booth at the Puyallup Fair. By 1957, there were 12 businesses in Bonney Lake, with several new shopping developments underway. Today, Bonney Lake is a thriving community with a population of over 12,950 and approximately 800 licensed businesses.