Horseback Riders Trespassed in Park’s Early Years

In 1953, horseback riding lessons began at Lake Sammamish State Park in the former pasture land. It doesn’t appear that horseback riding caught on, perhaps because horses weren’t legal in state parks.

Retired Park Manager Richard Benson recalls those days.

“For the first five years or so that I worked in the park, or until the Pickering barn stopped stabling horses, we had problems with trespass by riders. Many times I had to re-install signs that riders knocked down or fix fences that they cut.

“More than once, I saw riders on horses galloping up and down the Sunset Beach swim area. If they saw me, I had to quickly get into a truck and drive down 56th Street so I could catch them when they came our from behind the animal hospital.”