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.
The Northern Pacific intended its Tacoma hotel to be one of the world's grand chateaux. After a fire, it was converted to Stadium High School with its grand athletic field.
About the famous "Waiting for the Interurban" in Fremont, Rich suggested that his somber, patiently-waiting passengers represent a kind of protest "of what automobiles have done to our urban scene."
Yesterday's Port Ludlow was an important Chemakum Native village and burial site. Later it became one of the Pacific Northwest's largest sawmills. Today it has evolved into a luxury resort.
After leaving the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers in October 1805, near today's Pasco, Washington, the intrepid explorers marveled at "the number of dead salmon on the shores and floating in the river."
There is an abandoned U.S. Army fort, one of two in our state (the other is Fort Walla Walla) that were constructed to "protect" white settlers in the 1850s and 1860s. Its name is Fort Simcoe.
In the 1940s and 50s a significant number of Middle Eastern immigrants found their way to the Pacific Northwest, including many students with professional skills. Muslim influence thereafter grew within local colleges and universities.
"New York" was the first settler name of "Smaquamox" for the Denny, Low, Boren, Terry, and Bell families. John Low and Lee Terry, native New Yorkers, believed that ambitious name would augur a bright future for their little encampment.
Upon Father Prefontaine's death he left a bequest of $5,000 to the city for the construction of a public fountain. Today that blue-tiled pool rests at the junction of Yesler and Third, not far from the site of the young priest's $6 a month clapboard room and chapel.