ISSAQUAH, Wash. — If you’ve driven westbound on I-90 headed towards Seattle, there’s a high likelihood you’ve glanced away from the road and noticed the large blue and white 12 banner, propped amongst the hillside near Issaquah.
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No, it wasn’t placed there by the football gods, nor did the Seahawks organization pay a bunch of money to put it out there as advertising… It’s the backyard of Michael Treuting’s home.
Treuting moved to Issaquah in 1995 from New Orleans. He came to Washington looking for the outdoors and a different climate after spending a few years in Colorado while studying to become a veterinarian.
He says he adopted the Seattle Seahawks almost right away, buying season tickets within just a few years. The Saints have always remained near and dear to this heart,
Through the years, Treuting would host game day parties at this home, backdropped by a beautiful view of the Snoqualmie Valley, and the humming traffic of I-90 below.
Treuting says he was in attendance for the “Beast Quake” playoff game, where the Hawks upended his hometown Saints, despite flying out friends and family for the matchup.
He says he has “been to 99% of” Seahawks playoff games since he moved here.
Treuting admits that the first time he got the idea of putting something on his property that could be seen from the freeway — was actually a light up sign of the “fleur-de-lis”, a french symbol, which appears on the New Orleans Saints’ helmets.
However, when they checked down from the road, it was just a speck of light that could barely be made out.
Eventually, Treuting says they were in the midst of the 2013-14 NFL season, when he and a close friend Miguel Galvan, started to envision a new idea for his backyard.
“We were doing our normal parties, and we [said] we got to see if we can get a flag up,” Treuting said, “So without knowing what it would look like, what we could do, we just bought a big blue tarp and painted a 12 on it, [with] white paint, [and] threw it up as high as we could in the trees up here,” he explained.
The early version quickly lost its luster. The paint had chipped off within just a few weeks due to the typical Washington elements. Rain and wind.
However, Treuting and Galvan would replenish the banner and hang it up once again. Adding glue to the paint to keep it on, doubling, or even tripling up the blue tarps to make it more sturdy.
Over time, they would troubleshoot.
The duo would add more ropes and create wooden plates to secure the corners of the tarps better.
Eventually, the Seahawks made contact with Treuting and Galvan several years ago, asking how they could help in any way, out of appreciation for their display.
The team then helped connect the two men to the team’s supplier and creator of their large-scale 12 flags.
However, those purchases became much more costly, but Treuting says they received a generous amount of support from locals to help maintain the fun spectacle.
“We did a couple of GoFundMe’s in the Valley, and the people of the Valley, I think we were only on GoFundMe for a week,” said Trueting.
As a result, the two have been able to afford a sturdier and more breathable material, so that the wind passes through more easily.
They have created a pulley system to help raise and lower the banner, and they have strung up extra ropes to limit how much the banner can waver during the windiest of days in the Valley.
“It’s just this huge beacon in the sky, and you know you’re coming around the bend, and you’re in 12s country at this point,” Treuting said on what it means to be able to still be flying the banner, going on 12 years later. “It’s kind of fun, especially if you think about opposing fans or teams coming from that direction. I love it, now they’re getting into the Dark Side,” he added.
But beyond his own satisfaction comes the joy that the banner brings to those in the area.
“It was an older couple, and she would bring her husband who was dying,” Treuting said about one story he was told, “He just wanted to go into Issaquah for ice cream everyday, so he could see the flag, and so he could smile, and that hit home.” he added.
Treuting says the flag comes down when the season ends or the weather stops cooperating. In this case, it’s been a warm and dry winter, and a dominant season from the Seahawks.
“If we win the Superbowl, it will stay up as long as the winds are good,” he said with a smile.
It would mark the longest time the ’12’ banner has stayed up, since the Hawks took home their first ever Super Bowl, in February of 2014.
“They want it, they’re hungry, you can see it, so it’s been pretty special,” Treuting said.
