Carnation
Carnation lies at the confluence of the Snoqualmie and Tolt rivers on a line about 15 miles due east of Seattle's Queen Anne Hill.
Once a community based on an economy generated from logging and dairy farming, Carnation is fast becoming just another East King County suburb.
Its population had jumped from 1,243 in 1990 to 1,920 in 2000.
Along state Route 203 in east King County's Lower Snoqualmie Valley, Carnation is flanked by Duvall to the north and Fall City to the south. It's a place where dairy farms once proliferated and a simple can of condensed milk could bring residents to their feet in salute.
Incorporated as Tolt in 1912, the community suffered an immediate identity crisis, enduring a name change two years later to Grand Rapids, and, just months later, a change back to Tolt.
But again it didn't stick.
In 1917 the city's "Welcome" signs were changed again, this time to Carnation, a name brought to the fore mostly because Tolt is where the Carnation Milk Co. located an experimental dairy farm that would become world famous.
In 1928, however, back again it went to Tolt -- except at the post office and the train station, where "Carnation" remained.
Like so much cream in an old milk bottle, however, "Carnation" at last rose to the top in 1951 and has stayed there.
There is one more twist.
The Carnation Milk Co. is now owned by Nestle, and the old Carnation experimental farm is no more. The dairy is still there, and it's still in the 28000 block of Northeast Carnation Farm Road. But today it's called the Nestle Regional Training Center.
