By GIL BAILEY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Recent "settlers" of Mountlake Terrace -- those who fought in World War II and Korea -- are honored in Veterans Memorial Park. The park is adjacent to the city's civic center and library, creating a campus-like setting with flowering trees.

On the edge of the city sits Lake Ballinger, originally named Lake McAleer. It was renamed when Judge R.A. Ballinger -- one-time Seattle mayor, president of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition and U.S. secretary of the Interior -- bought the island in the center of the lake.

He renamed it for his father, an officer in the Civil War.

Mountlake Terrace first was timber country, and then ranches.

"There were chicken and mink ranches when I moved to Mountlake Terrace in 1954," says Art Larson, chairman of the historical committee. "There were some paved roads but no sidewalks, and I worked on the original incorporation committee, and we incorporated in 1954."

The memories stand in stark contrast to the Mountlake Terrace of today, with its 10 parks, five public schools, three private schools, three theaters and 16 churches.

"When I moved here 32 years ago, one of my neighbors had an Army truck she used to use to get around in because it was so muddy," says Jo Larson, another longtime resident. "Where we live, there used to be a chicken farm."