Showing 1 - 20 of 106 results
Admiralty Head Lighthouse
The Admiralty Head Lighthouse, built in 1903 by the Army Corps of Engineers, is located in Fort Casey State Park near Coupeville on Whidbey Island. The beacon, high on a bluff, 127 feet above sea level, was an important navigational aid, especially for sailing ships entering Admiralty Inlet from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It replaced the Red Bluff Lighthouse, a wooden Cape Cod style structure built in 1861. Although decommissioned in 1922, the Admiralty Head Lighthouse received national recognition in 1990 when the U.S. Postal Service selected it for a collection of five commemorative lighthouse stamps honoring the U. S. Coast Guard's bicentennial.
File 5710: Full Text >
Alki Point Light Station
Alki Point, today part of West Seattle, stretches into Puget Sound to form the southern boundary of Elliott Bay. It is part of a much larger area originally inhabited by the Duwamish Indians. In September 1851, members of the Denny Party, later founders of Seattle, settled the land. One of the group, Charles Terry (1829-1867), claimed it under the Donation Land Claim Act. In 1857, Terry sold it to Dr. David Maynard (1808-1873), who later sold it to the farmer Hans Martin Hanson (1821-1900). According to legend, it was Hanson who in the 1870s hung the first lantern to mark the hazardous Alki shoals and the southern entrance into Elliott Bay. In 1913, a lighthouse was constructed on Alki Point. The Alki Point Light Station, which remains essentially the same today as when it was built, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
File 4197: Full Text >
Bainbridge Island (Winslow) -- Thumbnail History
Eagle Harbor lies on the eastern side of Bainbridge Island, which is located in central Puget Sound directly west of Seattle. Until 1990 the community situated on the harbor was named Winslow. In 1990 Winslow voted to annex the entire island and the following year it voted to change its name to Bainbridge Island. The town on the harbor began in the 1870s as a handful of white settlers in a community called Madrone. Farming formed the foundation of the town's economy and fueled its growth, with the most notable crop eventually becoming strawberries grown by Japanese American farmers. In 1902 Hall Brothers Shipbuilding moved their operation to Eagle Harbor, and Madrone changed its name to Winslow (after Winslow Hall). The firm became the predominate industry. During the latter half of the twentieth century the easy ferry commute to Seattle spurred residential development, which continues today.
File 8274: 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 >
Bellingham -- Thumbnail History
In 1852, two Californians in search of site for a lumber mill arrived at the mouth of northwest Washington's Whatcom Creek, on the edge of the Puget Sound. The spot was close to the forests and streams they would need to supply and power their lumber business, and it had a good harbor that they could use to ship their products to market in San Francisco. The same natural bounty soon drew other newcomers. They formed four settlements: Whatcom, Sehome, Fairhaven, and Bellingham. In 1904, after a series of consolidations, the four towns became one city: Bellingham, at the time the state's fourth-largest municipality. Yet even as the town boomed, most of its citizens -- miners, cannery workers, railroad builders, and loggers -- counted on the land and water around them for their livelihoods. At the beginning of the twenty-first century Bellingham still relies on the land to survive, but now caters to skiers, hikers, kayakers, and sightseers.
File 7904: Full Text >
Browns Point Light Station
The Browns Point Lighthouse was built in 1933 by the U.S. Lighthouse Service, and marks the hazardous shoal and north entrance to Tacoma's Commencement Bay. It was first marked in 1887 with a post lantern, which was replaced in 1903 with a two-story wooden tower to house a brighter light and a fog signal. The lighthouse and keeper's cottage, located in Pierce County's Browns Point Lighthouse Park near Tacoma, are on the Washington State Heritage Register and the National Register of Historic Places. The beacon and fog-signal at Browns Point continue to be key navigational aids for vessels in south Puget Sound.
File 5648: Full Text >
Building Seattle -- A Slide Show History of Seattle's Capital Improvement Projects
This is a Slide Show photo essay on the history of Seattle's Capital Improvement Projects. Written By Walt Crowley and curated by Paul Dorpat, with Chris Goodman.
Presented by Seattle City Councilmember Martha Choe.
File 7083: Full Text >
Business and Industry in Seattle in 1900
A look at Seattle area businesses in 1900 indicates that the economy was simpler, life less complicated,
labor harder, travel slower, and that opportunities to enhance
one's quality of life were rarer. The modest turn-of-the-century Seattle
skyline was that of a town, but within a decade steel-framed skyscrapers
poked high crowns into the heavens above a true city. Historian James R. Warren surveys local industries and businesses at the beginning of the twentieth century in this special essay, adapted with permission from the Puget Sound Business Journal.
File 1669: Full Text >
Colman Clock (Seattle)
The Colman Clock of the Seattle Ferry Terminal at Colman Dock has truly taken a licking, but keeps on ticking. Over the past hundred years, since 1908 when it arrived, the clock has been dunked into Puget Sound, tossed in a warehouse, and moved around here and there. Today (2005) it is back at Colman Dock (Seattle Pier 52), and once again marks the minutes and hours of the day.
File 7559: 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 >
Deep-draft Ports of Washington
Of Washington's 75 public port districts, only 11 -- the ports of Seattle, Grays Harbor, Vancouver, Everett, Tacoma, Bellingham, Kalama, Longview, Olympia, Port Angeles, and Anacortes -- have deep-draft facilities capable of accommodating large ocean-going freight and passenger vessels. All 11 were created in a 15-year period following the 1911 passage of the Port District Act. International trade through these ports, initially dominated by forest products exports, has evolved to encompass a diverse range of goods and materials, with imports far outstripping exports in dollar value. Containerization, which came into widespread use in the early 1960s, revolutionized port operations and brought fundamental change to labor/management relations. Today (2010) Washington's marine terminals move approximately 7 percent of all U.S. exports and 6 percent of all imports and provide tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Through a century of change and progress, Washington's deep-draft ports have remained the primary portals through which Washington connects to the world economy.
File 9529: Full Text >
Denny, Orion O. (1853-1916)
Orion Denny, the first white boy born in Seattle, made careers both on the water and on the land. The son of Seattle pioneers Arthur Denny (1822-1899) and Mary (Boren) Denny (1822-1912), Orion worked as chief engineer aboard the historic steamer Eliza Anderson and later became president of the Denny Clay Company. An avid yachtsman and outdoorsman, he is memorialized by his country estate north of Kirkland, which now bears his name -- O. O. Denny Park.
File 4026: Full Text >
Dofflemyer Point Lighthouse
The Dofflemyer Point Lighthouse, the southernmost light in Puget Sound, marks an important turning point for ships entering Budd Inlet. Located seven miles north of Olympia in Boston Harbor, it was Puget Sound’s only unmanned lighthouse. Built in 1934, the 30-foot pyramidal, concrete tower replaced a pole lantern placed on the shoal in 1887 to guide vessels to and from Olympia. The Dofflemyer Point Lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and Washington State’s Heritage Register.
File 5669: Full Text >
Everett Bayside: A Cybertour
This cybertour of Everett's Bayside waterfront was written by Margaret Riddle and curated by Paula Becker. The map is by Marie McCaffrey, and the cybertour is sponsored by the Henry M. Jackson Foundation.
File 8467: 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 >
Filipino Americans in Seattle
With an estimated population of 30,000 (in the late 1990s), the Filipino American community forms the largest group of Asian Americans in the Seattle area. Beginning with the first known Filipino resident in 1883, waves of Filipino immigration have contributed to the area's arts, business, and political leadership.
File 409: Full Text >
Filipino Cannery Workers
As early as the 1920s, Filipinos from Seattle were contracted to work in Alaskan canneries. Later efforts at reform of contracting practices led to assassinations of Filipino union organizers in the 1930s and 1980s.
File 411: 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 >
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Showing 1 - 20 of 273 results
Juan Perez and his crew on Spanish ship Santiago sight and name "Mount Olympus" on August 11, 1774.
On August 11, 1774, Spanish explorers on the ship Santiago, commanded by Juan Perez, sail past the future state of Washington, sight the (later-named) "Mount Olympus," and name it Cerro Nevada de Santa Rosalia. Juan Perez's Spanish expedition represents the first European discovery and exploration of Nueva Galicia (the Pacific Northwest).
File 5682: Full Text >
English fur trader John Meares names Cape Disappointment on July 6, 1788.
On July 6, 1788, English fur trader John Meares (1756?-1809) names the northern side of the entrance to the Columbia River, Cape Disappointment. The name reflects Meares' chagrin at not finding the Columbia River.
File 5621: Full Text >
Captains Robert Gray and George Vancouver meet off the Washington coast on April 28 or 29, 1792.
On April 28 (or 29), 1792, two of the first non-Indian navigators to explore significant parts of what is now Washington meet on the high seas off Cape Flattery, just south of the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Captain George Vancouver (1758-1798) goes on to explore and name much of Puget Sound as well as Vancouver Island. Captain Robert Gray (1755-1806), an American in search of furs, soon finds the Columbia River, which Vancouver, like all prior European navigators, has missed, thus giving the young United States its primary claim to the lands of the Pacific Northwest.
File 5049: Full Text >
Captain George Vancouver names Port Townsend on May 8, 1792.
On May 8, 1792, British Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver (1757-1798) names an extensive bay at the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula for the Marquis of Townshend, a British general. The "h" is later dropped and the bay is now called Port Townsend. The city of Port Townsend, now the county seat of Jefferson County, is founded in the 1850s at the mouth of the bay and adopts its name.
File 5291: Full Text >
Joseph Whidbey circumnavigates Whidbey Island in June 1792.
In June 1792, Joseph Whidbey, a British naval officer on Captain George Vancouver's voyage of discovery to the waters of the future Washington state, circumnavigates a large island located at the intersection of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound, which Vancouver promptly names for him. Whidbey Island, which currently together with nearby Camano Island comprises Washington's Island County, is the second largest island in the lower 48 states.
File 5060: Full Text >
The ship Tonquin out of New York City sights the mouth of the Columbia River on March 22, 1811.
On March 22, 1811, the ship Tonquin out of New York City sights the mouth of the Columbia River. The Tonquin is owned by fur baron John Jacob Astor (1763-1848) of New York and carries charter members of the Pacific Fur Company, who intend to establish the first American trading post on the Columbia. The ship struggles for two days to cross the perilous bar, losing eight sailors before anchoring in Baker's Bay.
File 8673: Full Text >
Ship Beaver reaches the Columbia River on May 9, 1812.
On May 9, 1812, the ship Beaver, commissioned by John Jacob Astor, reaches the Columbia River, bringing supplies and reinforcements for the Pacific Fur Company, whose charter members had established a fur post called Astoria near the mouth of the Columbia the previous year. Watching the approach of the ship from shore, several Astorians climb Cape Disappointment and set trees on fire to serve as an impromptu lighthouse. Among five newly hired clerks on the Beaver are Ross Cox and Alfred Seton, who will record first-hand accounts of activities in the Columbia district.
File 9442: Full Text >
First Japanese known to reach Washington state arrive in January 1834.
Sometime in January 1834, three young Japanese sailors run aground on the Olympic Peninsula in a disabled ship. They are inadvertent travelers, blown off course by a storm, then carried by ocean currents to the coast of a land they had not known existed. They are found and briefly held as slaves by Makah Indians; ransomed by the Hudson's Bay Company; brought to Fort Vancouver for a few months, and then sent on their way. The first Japanese known to have set foot in what is now Washington state, they travel the rest of the way around the world but are never able to return to their homeland.
File 9068: Full Text >
Steamship Beaver departs Fort Vancouver on her first Northwest journey on June 18, 1836.
On June 18, 1836, the Hudson's Bay Company ship Beaver, the first steamship to travel on Puget Sound, departs Fort Vancouver for her first journey in the Pacific Northwest. The vessel carries two 35-horsepower wood-fueled steam engines, and consumes 40 cords of wood per day to travel an average of 30 miles.
File 1946: Full Text >
USS Peacock wrecks at the mouth of the Columbia River, giving her name to Peacock Spit, on July 18, 1841.
On July 18, 1841, the 18-gun U.S. Navy sloop USS Peacock wrecks at foot of the promontory marking the north side of the Columbia River's entrance. The partially submerged sandspit there becomes Peacock Spit. The Peacock is part of the Wilkes Expedition to explore the Pacific Ocean.
File 5624: Full Text >
United States Exploring Expedition Surveys the Columbia River during August and September 1841.
During August and September 1841, the United States Exploring Expedition, commanded by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes (1798-1877), carries out a hydrographic survey of the Columbia River from its mouth to the Cascades. The expedition's appearance at Fort Vancouver alarms the British Hudson's Bay Company officials.
File 5625: Full Text >
California Gold Rush spurs economic development of the Northwest in 1849.
In 1849, the California Gold Rush results in a flood of immigrants to the West Coast whose demand for lumber triggers economic development in the Pacific Northwest. Lumber from the Columbia River and from Puget Sound is more plentiful and more easily transported by sea to San Francisco than from the Sierra Nevada. As California grows, so will the timber industry and the economy of the Northwest.
File 5257: Full Text >
Shoalwater Bay oysters begin feeding San Francisco in 1851.
In 1851, oysters from Shoalwater (later Willapa) Bay start feeding San Francisco. The oyster business will flourish in the bay until the 1880s and will be an important cause of settlement in the area.
File 7850: Full Text >
Settlers begin loading logs on the ship Leonesa in King County's first export on December 9, 1851.
On December 9, 1851, all seven adult male settlers at New York (renamed Alki) begin cutting down trees and loading lumber on the ship Leonesa, bound for San Francisco. This represents the future King County's first export and first significant logging. The seven men are Arthur Denny (1822-1899), David Denny (1832-1903), Lee Terry (1818-1862), Carson Boren (1824?-1912), William Bell (1817-1887), John Low (1820-1888), and Charles Terry (1829-1867).
File 742: Full Text >
William Cadmer allegedly commits mutiny and assault on the Lizzie Javis in Port Townsend on December 11, 1856.
On December 11, 1856, William Cadmer allegedly commits mutiny and assault on the Lizzie Jarvis, a cargo ship, in Port Townsend. The vessel was christened in New Granada (northern Latin America) and docked in Port Townsend on November 14, 1856. After a month in harbor, Captain Thomas J. Knife requests Justice L. B. Wilson of Jefferson County to arrest Cadmer on charges of mutiny and assault with a deadly weapon. According to Knife, Cadmer struck a fellow crewmember over the head with a handspike with intent to kill. The accused is tried on charges of mutiny and assault with a deadly weapon.
File 8212: Full Text >
Cape Flattery Light on Tatoosh Island begins operating on December 28, 1857.
On December 28, 1857, the Cape Flattery Lighthouse on Tatoosh Island begins operation. Built between 1856 and 1857 on a 20-acre bean-shaped rock at the northwestern-most point of the continental United States, Cape Flattery Lighthouse is the first of an evolving series of navigation aids on the island that will assist mariners in entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
File 5703: Full Text >
S.S. Traveler, first American steamship on Puget Sound, sinks on March 2, 1858.
Just before midnight on March 2, 1858, the S.S. Traveler, the first American steamship on Puget Sound, sinks near Port Gamble. Five people die.
File 5499: Full Text >
Vessel Ann Parry (often miscalled Ann Perry) arrives in Bellingham Bay with bricks for the T. G. Richards Building on July 16, 1858.
On July 16, 1858, the bark Ann Parry arrives in Bellingham Bay from San Francisco after 24 days at sea. She is carrying 200 hopeful miners as well as bricks for the T.G. Richards building to be erected entirely of bricks. Made in San Francisco, these bricks will still be present at the building's 150 year anniversary in 2008. (Note: The registered vessel name Ann Parry was usually misspelled Ann Perry after her arrival in San Francisco in 1849.)
File 8197: Full Text >
Willapa Light Station opens on October 1, 1858.
On October 1, 1858, Shoalwater Bay (later Willapa Bay) Lighthouse exhibits its beacon for the first time. For the next 100 years, problems with visibility and coastal erosion on the bay, which lies just north of the mouth of the Columbia River, hamper lighthouse operations. At the end of December 1940, the lighthouse begins to fall into the sea. The Coast Guard replaces it with a series of beacons atop metal towers, which they rebuild farther and farther inland as the ocean continues to swallow the land.
File 7067: Full Text >
U.S. government seizes schooner Black Diamond in Port Townsend on November 30, 1859.
On November 30, 1859, amidst the bustling trade of the "Golden Age of Sail," a Schooner called the Black Diamond is apprehended while docking at Port Townsend on return from Vancouver Island. After failing to register with the customs official and then refusing to provide license or paperwork, the ship is confiscated by the U.S. government. Eventually the case of the United States v. Schooner Black Diamond is brought to court, after which the Black Diamond is sold and her owners heavily fined.
File 8190: Full Text >
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Showing 1 - 17 of 17 results
A Story of Pioneering by Nicholas V. Sheffer (1825-1910), Part 4: Settlement
In 1909, Nicholas Sheffer (1825-1910) was Whatcom County’s oldest pioneer. He prepared his reminiscences for The Lynden Tribune, which ran them in three parts in August of that year as “A Story of Pioneering: Being a Personal Narrative of Early Days in Northwest Washington, told to the Tribune by N. V. Sheffer, of 1854.” HistoryLink.org was made aware of this account by Whatcom County family historian Susan Nahas, who connected Sheffer’s information with the HistoryLink.org story of Julia Benson Intermela (1855-1907), the half-Duwamish daughter of Seattle pioneer Henry Yesler (1810-1892). In Part 4, Sheffer works his trade as carpenter all over the Puget Sound region and Washington Territory.
File 7978: Full Text >
A Trip to Point Roberts, Summer 1909
This essay presents a description of a trip to Point Roberts (Whatcom County) on a summer day near the end of the first decade of the twentieth century. Point Roberts is a five-square-mile peninsula that is part of the United States, but that is not connected by land to the mainland of the United States. It extends from British Columbia, Canada, into the Pacific Ocean. Written by an unknown author, the article is reprinted from "Northwest Corner of the U.S.," The Blaine Journal, Homeseeker's Edition, April 1909, p. 8.
File 9124: Full Text >
Bellingham's Croatian Community and Commercial Fishing: A Reminiscence by Steve Kink
In this memoir Steve Kink describes growing up in Bellingham's Slav fishing community. Steve's grandparents, Paul Kink (originally Kinkusich) and Maria (Evich) Kink, emigrated to Bellingham from Croatia. His father Mitchell Kink (originally Kinkusich) was born here and he, his brother, and his cousins comprised the second generation. The "Uncle Dick" mentioned here is Dick J. Kink, who was a state legislator from Whatcom County for 12 years during the 1950s and 1960s. All took part in the commercial fishing industry of Bellingham.
File 8384: Full Text >
Dorothea Nordstrand Remembers Daddy's Way With Words
Part 1 of this reminiscence was originally published in North Seattle Press. In it Greenlake resident Dorothea Nordstrand (b. 1916) recalls the exciting occasion when her father first took her salmon fishing in the Puget Sound waters off Ballard in 1930. Part 2 of "Daddy's Way with Words" concerns the childhood diseases of dolls and others. Nordstrand's "kind, affectionate, and funny" father was Joseph A. Pfister (1883-1947). In 2009 Dorothea Nordstrand was awarded AKCHO's (Association of King County Historical Organizations) Willard Jue Memorial Award for a Volunteer, for contributing these vivid reminiscences to various venues in our community, including HistoryLink.org's People's History library.
File 3338: Full Text >
Log Cowboy: A Story of Lake Union and Lake Washington by Dorothea Nordstrand
This story about Vern Nordstrand (1918-2009) and his job locating and returning stray logs to their log booms on Seattle's Lake Union and Lake Washington was contributed by Vern's widow, Dorothea Nordstrand (b. 1916). This took place in the mid-1930s.
File 9448: Full Text >
Morey Skaret: The Story of the Bootlegger
Morest L. (Morey) Skaret (b. 1913), a 1932 graduate of West Seattle High School who retired in 1981 after careers with both the Seattle Police Department and the Coast Guard, had several other interesting jobs earlier in his work life. One of his early employers was Waterman Tug and Barge, which operated towboats on Puget Sound. His duties included procuring "alkee" (bootleg alcohol) from a bootlegger on Blake Island, not all of which found its way to his boss. In this account, published in the Winter/Spring 2001 edition of the Fauntleroy Community Association's quarterly newsletter, Neighbors, Skaret describes his experiences with the bootlegger.
File 3368: Full Text >
Nordic Heritage Museum Vanishing Generation Interview with Arnold Reinholdtsen
Lynn Moen interviewed and Morris Moen videotaped Arnold Reinholdtsen (b. 1928) on July 17, 2000 for the Nordic Heritage Museum Vanishing Generation Oral History Project. Arnold, of Norwegian heritage, is an impressive story-teller who describes his life in the fishing industry and recounts many humorous vignettes of Norwegian Ballard. His father-in-law came to Seattle with three other Norwegians in a Model T carrying a claw-foot bathtub on the roof. The brakes went out and, with no money for repairs, three of them would get out and let the car down hills slowly with a rope.
File 5759: Full Text >
Nordic Heritage Museum Vanishing Generation Interview with Gudmundur Jacobsen
Naomie Bulloch speaks with Gudmundur Jacobsen (b. 1935) in this Nordic Heritage Museum Vanishing Generation Oral History Project interview that took place on May 2, 2000 in the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard. Leaving Iceland at age 10, Gudmundur details his 43-day journey on a freighter crossing the Atlantic through rough weather. He reflects upon his own "Americanization," and speaks about the emotional difficulties of immigrants and the relatives they leave behind.
File 5766: Full Text >
Nordic Heritage Museum Vanishing Generation Interview with Holger Leander Berg
Holger Leander Berg, of Finnish heritage, grew up in Ballard and tells tales of his rambunctious childhood: harassing streetcar drivers with his Scout Troop, "creative" fishing around the Puget Sound, watching the silk trains fly by from the tracks at Shilshole Bay, and panning gold with a Scandinavian he met at Index on a camping trip. This is a Nordic Heritage Museum Vanishing Generation Oral History Interview by Phyllis L. Beaulieu that took place in Seattle on July 20, 2000.
File 5773: Full Text >
Nordic Heritage Museum Vanishing Generation Interview with Johann Johnson
Ted Beck interviewed Johann Johnson (b. 1915) on June 22, 2000 for the Nordic Heritage Museum Vanishing Generation Oral History Project. Johann, of Icelandic heritage, describes the various jobs he's held in the Ballard maritime industry and the changes he's seen in Ballard since the 1920s -- how the sawmills once darkened the day with their sawdust and smoke, and how the neighborhood boys would build underground hovels and tree camps in the many vacant lots that no longer exist.
File 5763: Full Text >
Seafair: the Founding: Jim Douglas's Account
In this excerpt from his unpublished autobiography, Jim Douglas (1909-2005) recalls the many steps involved in coordinating Seafair. Jim Douglas was one of a group of local citizens called together by Seattle's mayor to conceive a centennial celebration.
File 2567: Full Text >
Sons of a Norwegian Lighthouse Keeper
This is the story of the brothers Harald Blekum (1865-1950) and Einar Blekum (b. 1866) and their assimilation to life in Seattle, 1891 to 1950. It is based on research, documents, and images submitted by Harald Blekum's great-granddaughter, Pamela Leary-Wilson.
File 2269: Full Text >
Turning Point 1: An Accidental Metropolis
This the first in a series of special essays commissioned by The Seattle Times to examine crucial "turning points" in the history of Seattle and King County. "An Accidental Metropolis" considers the gambles, contingencies, and blind luck that led to the Euro-American discovery and early settlement of what is today Seattle and King County. It was first published on October 1, 2000; this version incorporates minor corrections and clarifications. It is by Walt Crowley and the HistoryLink Staff, based on input by Greg Lange, Priscilla Long, Alan Stein, David Wilma, Greg Watson, and John Findlay.
File 9275: Full Text >
Turning Point 9: The Sound and the Ferry: The Birth of Washington State Ferries
The ninth essay in HistoryLink's Turning Points series for The Seattle Times traces the history of ferry transporation on Puget Sound beginning with Native American canoe transportation, continuing through the Mosquito Fleet, Captain Alexander Peabody's Black Ball line, and the inception (on June 1, 1951) and development of Washington State Ferries. This article was written by Alan J. Stein and the staff of Historylink.org and published in the Times on June 1, 2001.
File 9309: Full Text >
Turning Point 14: Progressivism's High Tide: Creation of the Port of Seattle in 1911
The 14th essay in our Turning Points series for The Seattle Times, written by Walt Crowley, details the creation of the Port of Seattle on September 5, 1911. The election of the first three Port Commissioners was a major victory for local progressives and public ownership advocates over railroad and maritime interests, and it established what is arguably the largest public economic agency in Washington state. The article was published on August 31, 2001.
File 9304: Full Text >
West Seattle Memories Part 5: West Seattle Ferry
This file contains recollections of the West Seattle Ferry by West Seattle residents Carroll Mage and George Shephard. They recall the days before the West Seattle Bridge existed -- when the quickest way to get to downtown Seattle was by ferry. They are taken from oral history interviews conducted in 1999 by the Southwest Seattle Historical Society. Carroll Mage was interviewed by Lois Watkins and George Shephard was interviewed by JonLee Joseph.
File 3497: Full Text >
Westport -- The Grays Harbor County Town (around 1912) by Bernice Garner Marsters
This People's History consists of a letter written in June 1958, describing life in Westport during the years following 1912. Westport is located in Grays Harbor County on a peninsula on the Pacific coast at the southern entrance to Grays Harbor. The letter was written by Bernice Garner Marsters (1896-1969), who was born in Aberdeen and grew up in Westport. Bernice's mother, Matilda Stone Garner (1869-1912), died in 1912 and Bernice had to drop out of school (in Aberdeen) to return to Westport to take care of the younger children. This letter was submitted to the People's History library by Alex Magdaleno. His mother, Lamora Garner Magdaleno, found the letter in her aunt Bernice's papers after she died. She retyped it, leaving the spelling as it was.
File 9175: Full Text >
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