Des Moines, WA

Des Moines occupies a long, narrow strip of Puget Sound shoreline midway between Seattle and Tacoma. The city extends about 6.3 miles north to south and only 2.1 miles across at its widest, so the water, Marine View Drive, and Pacific Highway form three recurring reference points. Its public marina sits directly beside the Downtown Marina District. Permanent and guest moorage, a boat launch, boatyard, fishing pier, and waterfront promenade share the shoreline with restaurants, shops, Beach Park, and public gathering space. Residential properties occupy much of the remaining shore. This close fit between a working recreational marina and downtown gives the city a waterfront center that is physically different from its inland commercial corridor near Pacific Highway.

The name came from investors and settlers connected to Des Moines, Iowa. In 1887, F. A. Blasher persuaded associates there to finance a town on Puget Sound; the Des Moines Improvement Company platted lots in 1889. Lumber mills first supplied much of the work, and boats linked the settlement to Seattle, Tacoma, and Vashon Island before dependable roads. Farming became important before World War II, followed by suburban development after the war. Des Moines incorporated on June 17, 1959. When the city marina opened in 1970, it placed boating, fishing, and public waterfront access at the foot of downtown. Adjacent Des Moines Beach Park preserves buildings from the former Covenant Beach Bible Camp, while the wooded Des Moines Creek Trail follows the ravine inland from the shore.

Highline College creates another center of daily activity on an 80-acre campus near Pacific Highway. Founded in 1961 as King County’s first community college, it served 14,681 credit and noncredit students during the 2024–2025 academic year through transfer study, professional and technical programs, applied bachelor’s degrees, basic education, and community learning. Four miles south of the main campus, Highline’s Marine Science and Technology Center sits at Redondo. Its public aquarium uses 15 tanks and about 3,000 gallons of flow-through seawater to display over 250 native Puget Sound species. Saturday Discovery Days open the teaching aquarium to the public. Highline thus operates in both of Des Moines’s principal landscapes: the Pacific Highway upland and the shoreline.

Public waterfront access continues south at Saltwater State Park, where a creek ravine reaches tide pools, beach, and an artificial underwater reef used by divers. A state notice posted June 22, 2026, kept the park open but closed its campground while officials reevaluated camping. At the marina, the Des Moines Waterfront Farmers Market began its twenty-first season on June 6, 2026. Its published schedule runs Saturdays through September 26 with local produce, artisan foods, handmade goods, live music, and food-access programs; construction moved the stalls to the west half of the north marina lot, with a shuttle from the south lot. That temporary arrangement is a particularly clear picture of present-day Des Moines: market tents and music operating inside the same waterfront space as moored boats, marine services, and the fishing pier.