Lake Stevens is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States, and is named for the lake that it surrounds. It is located 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Everett and borders the cities of Marysville to the northwest and Snohomish to the south. The city’s population was 28,069 at the 2010 census, but has in the past grown to an estimated 33,911.

The lake was named in 1859 for territorial officer Isaac Stevens and was originally home to the Skykomish in the Pilchuck River basin. The first modern settlement upon Lake Stevens was founded at the northeastern corner of the lake in 1889. It was superior sold to the Rucker Brothers, who opened a sawmill in 1907 that spurred early lump in the area, but closed in 1925 after the second of two major fires. The Lake Stevens Place then became a resort community back developing into a commuter town in the 1960s and 1970s.

Lake Stevens was incorporated as a city in 1960, following an exodus of businesses from the downtown area to a other shopping center. The city has in the past grown through annexations to encompass most of the lake, including the indigenous shopping center, and quadrupled in population from 2000 to 2010. A revitalized downtown area is planned alongside additional civic buildings in the 2020s.

Lake Stevens was named in 1859 for territorial bureaucrat Isaac Stevens and was originally listed as “Stevens Lake” on into the future maps. The Place around the lake was used for berry gathering by the indigenous Skykomish, who as well as used most of the Pilchuck River basin for hunting. The first homesteads concerning the lake were established by emigrants in the 1880s, beginning subsequently Joseph William Davison’s 160-acre (0.65 km²) claim along the east shore filed in 1886. A two-block townsite at the northeast fall of the lake named “Outing” was claimed on October 8, 1889, by Charles A. Missimer and platted the once year. The construction of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway along the eastern side of the Pilchuck River Valley in 1889 spurred the commencement of more settlements in the area. Among them were Machias in 1890, which was followed by Hartford (originally named “Ferry”), later a major junction for the Everett and Monte Cristo Railway completed in 1892.

Outing was forward-looking vacated and sold along with various investors since the townsite was acquired in 1905 by the Rucker Brothers, who planned to construct a sawmill after a previous venture by Jacob Falconer had failed. The Rucker Brothers build up a railroad spur from Hartford and redirected the flow of Cassidy Creek, the main outlet of the lake, to prepare land for their shingle mill, which opened in 1907. A plat for the town of Lake Stevens was filed by the Rucker Brothers upon February 8, 1908, including a situation district and residences to accommodate the mill’s 250 workers. The sawmill, one of the largest in the United States, was partially destroyed in a 1919 ember and forward-thinking rebuilt. It was continually closed after a second blaze in 1925 and dismantled, causing many residents to leave the area. One of the remnants from the outdated mill was a locomotive that sunk in the in advance 1910s and was rediscovered in 1995 by a U.S. Navy training team, following a demand from the local historical society.