There’s More To Redmond Than Microsoft: 5 Cool Local Facts

Redmond, WA. is most well known for one thing: Microsoft. Headquartered in Redmond since 1986, Redmond has become a metonym for Microsoft. Put simply, you can’t have one without the other.

But Microsoft isn’t the only thing Redmond has going for it. Did you know:

1. Redmond is also known as "the bicycle capital of the Northwest.” It even features an annual bike race on city streets and is home to the state's only area designed specifically for biking.

2. When the first settlers arrived, the rivers and streams had so many salmon that the first settlement in the area was initially named Salmonberg.

3. Microsoft isn’t the only company with headquarters in the area. Other companies with headquarters in Redmond include Nintendo of America, Concur Technologies, Visible.net, Wild Tangent, Solstice and Data I/O.

Image courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org

4. Redmond has a total of 23 developed public park that combined amount to just about thousand acres of beautiful green open space and forest trails.

5. Notable people who were born or who have lived in Redmond include James Doohan (famous for playing Scotty in the television series Star Trek), Jeff Cirillo (former third baseman for several Major League Baseball teams), and Shannon O'Donnell (former NBC 11/Bay Area now KOMO 4 weather anchor who later became well known weather anchor for NBC's Early Today).

Did we miss any awesome Redmond fun facts? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Wikipedia