Junius Rochester, whose family has shaped the city for many generations, is an award-winning Northwest historian and author of numerous books about Seattle and other places.
It was 1929. Seeing that it was impossible to return to Boeing Field, Robert Wark scanned the territory below. The smoothest, nearest flat area was the roof the Bon Marche, Seattle’s premier downtown department store (later Macy’s).
In an earlier day, the trip to the trailhead was itself an adventure. Voyageurs, missionaries, mountain men, and intrepid explorers hacked and bushwacked their way through dense forests to “reach the other side.”
Murrow’s memories of summer lumber-jacking in the woods around Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula became a life-long, idealistic standard by which he judged himself and others.
Port Townsend hoped that the Northern Pacific Railroad Company would choose it as their western terminus, snaking up the west side of Puget Sound to be closer to the Pacific Ocean. When Tacoma won the railroad prize, residents of Port Townsend turned to the prospect of grain shipments from the Columbia River as the key to Key City.
At the first official meeting of the Outing Club in July, 1906, several signatories would have long and important roles in the growth of the University of Washington. They included F.M. Padelford, Judge J.T. Ronald, Henry Landes, and William Savery. Later, Pulitzer Prize winner and influential literary critic
In 1805-1806, Lewis and Clark, Thomas Jefferson’s intrepid travelers, first charted the Gorge’s path and wonders. Later, trappers, voyageurs, and missionaries followed and mapped and described new details of this unique highway.