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Ballard Branch, The Seattle Public Library

Ballard's public library has evolved from a reading room established more than a century ago to an important resource expressing the heritage and diversity of the community today. Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) helped build Ballard's first real library when Ballard was its own town and not yet a Seattle neighborhood. This library served readers for 59 years before being replaced in 1963 by a new building. In 2005 that structure, in turn, was replaced by a state-of-the-art facility financed by the 1998 "Libraries for All" bond issue. The new Ballard Branch, located at 5614 22nd Avenue NW, opened in May 2005.
File 3878: Full Text >

Beaver, SS, First Steamship in Pacific Northwest

The first steamship to operate in the eastern Pacific Ocean was the HMS Beaver, a stout little craft commissioned by the Hudson's Bay Company. She saw continuous service from 1835 until July 26, 1888, when she ran aground at the entrance to Vancouver, B.C., harbor.
File 5260: Full Text >

Colman, James Murray (1832-1906)

Scottish-born James Murray Colman arrived in Seattle in 1872 at the age of 40 to lease and operate Yesler's sawmill. Colman was a prime mover in organizing the Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad after the Northern Pacific decided to make Tacoma its Western terminus. He built Colman's Dock (today Pier 52, the terminal for the Washington State Ferries), which became a thriving hub of maritime commerce during and after the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897.
File 1680: Full Text >

Conklin, Mary Ann (1821-1873) aka Mother Damnable

Mary Ann Conklin ran Seattle's first hotel, the Felker House, at Main Street and 1st Avenue S. Her profane vocabulary and fiery temper earned her the moniker "Mother Damnable" which later transmuted into "Madame Damnable" when she diversified the hotel business by adding a brothel on the upper floor. She died in 1873. Felker House burned to the to ground in the Great Fire of 1889.
File 1934: Full Text >

Edmonds -- Thumbnail History

The city of Edmonds rests along a shoreline and the hillside beyond about 15 miles north of Seattle. Native Americans of the Snohomish people occupied coastal and river areas surrounding the site, and Euro-American explorers encountered their canoes, but they apparently had no permanent village sites in the immediate locale. Its founding father was George Brackett (1842-1927) (arrived 1876) and in its early decades Edmonds thrived as a mill town. During the late twentieth century the city became increasingly urban, while retaining elements of its small town character.
File 8542: Full Text >

Ferry Kalakala

The ferry Kalakala was launched from the Lake Washington Shipyards, in Kirkland, on July 2, 1935. Between 1935 and 1967, the streamlined ferry plied the waters of Puget Sound, carrying commuting workers between Seattle and the naval shipyard in Bremerton. Auctioned off in 1967, the Kalakala spent the next 31 years in Alaska, serving as a fish processor. The vessel returned to Seattle on November 6, 1998. After failed attempts to raise sufficient funds to restore her, she was auctioned off, moved to Neah Bay, removed from Neah Bay, and in September 2004 moved to Tacoma.
File 312: Full Text >

Ferry Whistles on Puget Sound: A Slide Show

For more than a century, ferryboat captains on Puget Sound have used the distinctive docking signal made up of a long blast on the boat's whistle followed by two short ones. In maritime terms, this is called a warp and two woofs. Still in use today, this method of sounding the vessel's arrival to land is not only unique to each boat's whistle, but also to each individual ferryboat captain and the techniques they use to sound the call. This file links to sound recordings of some of the more distinctive boat whistles of the Washington State Ferry fleet. The recordings were made in the 1960s and 1970s by retired Black Ball Line publicist William O. Thorniley.
File 7191: Full Text >

Geary, Leslie Edward "Ted" (1885-1960)

Leslie Edward "Ted" Geary was a naval architect who grew up in Seattle. He designed and raced numerous competitive sailing vessels, and also designed commuter yachts, fishing boats, tug boats, and wooden hulled freighters.
File 7292: Full Text >

Graveyard of the Pacific: Shipwrecks on the Washington Coast

The stretch of coast between Tillamook Bay in Oregon and Vancouver Island, encompassing the mouth of the Columbia River and the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, has claimed since 1800 more than 2,000 vessels and perhaps as many as 1,000 lives. At the Columbia, the combination of river flow and offshore currents created an ever-shifting sand bar at the mouth, which in itself represented a hazardous crossing. But fogs and violent weather systems from the North Pacific or sometimes just bad luck caused ships to founder or burn or to be crushed against the shore. Beginning with the California Gold Rush, when sailing ships and steamers transported lumber to California, mariners called the area the Graveyard of the Pacific. Light houses, light ships, buoys, and audible and electronic beacons helped mariners find the entrance to the Columbia while improvements to navigation in the form of jetties and a dredged channel eliminated major disasters after the 1920s. Still, the sea continues to claim lives every year.
File 7936: Full Text >

Grays Harbor Lighthouse

The 107-foot Grays Harbor Lighthouse, dedicated in 1898, is the tallest lighthouse in Washington. It marks the entrance to Grays Harbor, the best of Washington's few outer-coast (on the Pacific Ocean) harbors.
File 5714: Full Text >

Lighthouses on Cape Disappointment

Despite the Columbia River's breadth where it spills into the Pacific Ocean, early European and American explorers often missed it. Later mariners struggling to find the mouth sometimes wrecked in the treacherous waters. Lighthouses on Cape Disappointment have assisted seafarers in navigating those waters.
File 5622: Full Text >

Lightships on Washington’s Outer Coast

From 1898 to 1971, lightships were important elements in the system of navigation aids along Washington’s coast. On May 22, 1898, Light Vessel No. 67 became the first on Washington’s coast. She arrived at Umatilla Reef, 11 miles south of Cape Flattery. In 1909, Light Vessel No. 93 became Washington’s second lightship by taking station on Swiftsure Bank, 14 miles northwest of Cape Flattery. Thus, Washington had two of the Pacific Coast’s five lightships. Today lightships survive only as museum exhibits.
File 7189: Full Text >

McCurdy, H. W. (1899-1989)

Horace Winslow ("H. W.") McCurdy was a shipbuilder, bridge builder, civic leader, native Washingtonian, and most enduringly a supporter of maritime research and maritime collecting in the Pacific Northwest. The structures built by his firm, Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging, include the Lake Washington Floating Bridge (1940) and the Hood Canal Bridge (1961). He completely underwrote the expense of producing The H. W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest and its subsequent volume The H. W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, 1966-1976. He was a prime mover in the establishment and early development of Seattle's Museum of History and Industry. The Seattle-King County Association of Realtors named H. W. McCurdy First Citizen of 1964.
File 7181: Full Text >

Point Wilson Lighthouse

The Point Wilson Lighthouse was built in 1913 by the Lighthouse Service. At a height of 51 feet, the beacon is the tallest on Puget Sound, marking the entrance to Admiralty Inlet. The lighthouse replaced an earlier wooden light tower built in 1879 on the roof of the station keeper’s house. The Point Wilson Lighthouse, located in Fort Worden State Park near Port Townsend, is on the National Register of Historic Places and the Washington State Heritage Register. It is one of the most important navigational aids in Washington, a link connecting Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
File 5680: Full Text >

Port of Seattle Central Waterfront Cybertour

A guided, photographic Cybertour of Seattle's downtown waterfront. Curated by Paul Dorpat, written by Walt Crowley, Designed by Chris Goodman.
File 7056: Full Text >

Port of Tacoma -- A Slideshow

The Port of Tacoma is a publicly owned and managed port district established by Pierce County voters in 1918. Today it is a leading container port, serving as a "Pacific Gateway" for trade between Asia and the central and eastern United States as well as the Northwest. Most of the maritime commerce between Alaska and the lower 48 states also passes through Tacoma. A suite of factors that the Port calls the "Tacoma Advantage" have contributed to its success. The advantages begin with the port's location on the the Tacoma tideflats along the deep waters of Commencement Bay. The Port's acreage has allowed it to create efficient intermodal transportation connections between ship and road or rail, often right on the dock. Cooperation between Port management and union longshore workers has provided an additional advantage, helping bring many of the world's largest container lines to Tacoma. This slideshow was written and curated by Kit Oldham and sponsored by the Port of Tacoma.
File 8743: Full Text >

Port of Tacoma -- Thumbnail History, Part 2

The Port of Tacoma is a publicly owned and managed port district established by Pierce County voters in 1918. Today it is a leading container port, serving as a "Pacific Gateway" for trade between Asia and the central and eastern United States as well as the Northwest. Most of the maritime commerce between Alaska and the lower 48 states also passes through Tacoma. Part 2 of this three-part Thumbnail History of the Port covers its development from the aftermath of World War II through its emergence as a growing container port in the 1970s.
File 8662: Full Text >

Puget Sound's Mosquito Fleet

Puget Sound's historic "Mosquito Fleet" consisted of thousands of steamships that steamed from port to port around the sound from the 1850s to the 1930s. They were so numerous that people said they resembled a "swarm of mosquitoes." From the days of the earliest tribal canoes to the early 1930s, Puget Sound and the Inside Passage (the channel between the British Columbia/Alaska coasts and the islands) constituted the major transportation corridor of the Northwest. The heyday of the Mosquito Fleet ended in the 1930s when competition with rail and road transportation put the fleet out of business.
File 869: Full Text >

Renton, Captain William (1818-1891)

Captain William Renton was a lumber and shipping merchant, at first based in San Francisco, who established a sawmill on Puget Sound in 1852. In 1863, he relocated to Blakely Harbor, Bainbridge Island, and started what became the very successful Port Blakely Mill Company. An important investor in the coal trade, Renton had the honor of having the coal town Renton, Washington, named after him.
File 1053: Full Text >

Seafair -- Beginnings

Seafair, the gala annual Seattle-King County water festival, began in August 1950 and continues to this day. The festival erupts all over King County and has included hydroplane speed competitions, lifeboat races, steamboat races, tug boat tugs-of-war, waterskiing competitions, swimming meets, musical performances, high diving, underwater dancing, parades, parties, and joyous nightly boogying all over town. Additional events have been a Mardi Gras in the Central Area, an elaborate dragon parade in the International District, the historic Aqua Follies at Green Lake (which ran every summer from 1950 to the late 1960s), Scottish Highland Games, a ritual boat burning, and coronations of water kings and water queens, among numerous other elaborate entertainments.
File 1470: Full Text >

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