Hiram Martin Chittenden was the Seattle district engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers (April 1906 – September 1908) for whom the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks

Hiram M. Chittenden Locks

The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks are a complex of locks that sit at the west end of Salmon Bay, part of Seattle's Lake Washington Ship Canal. They are known locally as the Ballard Locks after the neighborhood to their north...

 in Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

, were named.

Early Life

Chittenden was born on October 25, 1858 in Yorkshire, New York. He graduated from the United States Military Academy

United States Military Academy

The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...

 at West Point

West Point, New York

West Point is a federal military reservation established by President of the United States Thomas Jefferson in 1802. It is a census-designated place located in Town of Highlands in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 7,138 at the 2000 census...

 in June 1884 and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. He reached the rank of Brigadier General

Brigadier General

Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...

 in 1910. He died on October 9, 1917 in Seattle, Washington.

Projects

With the Army Corps of Engineers, Chittenden was in charge of many notable projects throughout the United States:

• Yellowstone National Park
  Yellowstone National Park
  Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...
  
   (1891-1892, 1899-1906): roadwork, improvements, basalt arch at north entrance, single span bridge (Chittenden Bridge, formerly the Melan arch bridge) across the Yellowstone River
  Yellowstone River
  The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the western United States. Considered the principal tributary of the upper Missouri, the river and its tributaries drain a wide area stretching from the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of the Yellowstone National...
  
  .
• Yosemite National Park
  Yosemite National Park
  Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...
  
  : commissioned by the Secretary of the Interior
  United States Secretary of the Interior
  The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior.The US Department of the Interior should not be confused with the concept of Ministries of the Interior as used in other countries...
  
   to determine boundary changes
• Lake Washington
  Lake Washington
  Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It is bordered by the cities of Seattle on the west, Bellevue and Kirkland on the east, Renton on the south and...
  
  Canal Project, Seattle, Washington (1906)

Literary Works

Chittenden was also an author, penning historical volumes, tour guides, and poetry:

• The Yellowstone National Park, Cincinnati: Stewart & Kidd Company, 1895.
• The American Fur Trade of the Far West, New York: F. P. Harper, 1903. (Three volumes)
• History of Steamboats on the Missouri River, 1903. (Two volumes)
• Life and Letters of Father de Smet’  with A. T. Richardson, 1905. (Four volumes)
• War or Peace, 1910.
• Verse, Seattle: Holly Press, 1916. (poetry)

External links

• Finding aid to article subject from the Special Collections, Washington State Historical Society