This Week Then
12/19/2024
The Past as Presents
This week HistoryLink takes a look back at new content we added in 2024, and we've been very busy. Towns and cities that now have thumbnail histories include Bridgeport, Concrete, Othello, Rock Island, and there is an updated history of Renton. We also have new features about the Cowlitz Trail, Tacoma's Point Defiance Park, Spokane's Natatorium Park, Seattle's Duwamish Cemetery, Tacoma's Union Station, the Smith Island Lighthouse, Snohomish High School, and Mount St. Helens after the eruption.
Hungry for more? Than feast your eyes on some of our new essays related to food and drink, including Oyster Farming in Washington (Part 2), Garry Oaks and Acorns, Pike Place Market's famous fishmongers, Canlis Restaurant, Dick's Drive-In, and Spokane's Broadview Dairy. Then raise a glass to new biographies of notable people in the wine industry, including Paul and Judy Champoux, Gary Figgins, Doug Gore, Mike Hogue, Ron Irvine, Mike Januik, and Kent Waliser.
Other new features cover a wide variety of topics, including: Chinook Jargon, the Stickney Indian Boarding School; Bringing Postal Service to the San Juans; Women Workers in Everett Industries (1900-1950); H. C. Weaver Productions Company in Tacoma; Annals of Photography: The Boeing Company (1920-1933); Seattle to Seattle: The First Aerial Circumnavigation of the Globe; the Hoovervilles of Seattle; Redlining, Racial Covenants, and Housing Discrimination in Tacoma; World War II Internment of Japanese Americans in Washington; Top Secret Hanford: How Roosevelt Hid the Truth About the Bomb; the Mayors of Spokane; Salmon Recovery in Washington; the Grassroots Campaign to Save Baseball in Seattle; and Seattle's Turbulent Taxicab Industry.
That's quite a bit to keep you busy this week, but be sure to stop by next week when we highlight more of the new biographies we've added. See you then, and enjoy the holidays!
Holiday Happenings
On December 25, 1845, Esther Clark Short and her family became the first permanent American settlers near Fort Vancouver. Exactly 19 years later, in 1864, Job Carr arrived at the future site of Tacoma. Seattle's pioneers enjoyed a very humble Christmas in 1851, and delegates from the Suquamish Tribe celebrated a very special Christmas at Tulalip on December 25, 1876.
And who doesn't like receiving presents from Santa this time of year? On December 26, 1886, Tacomans saw their streets illuminated by electricity for the very first time. On Christmas Eve, 1888, residents of West Seattle enjoyed a ride on their new ferryboat. On Christmas Day, 1907, folks in Yakima welcomed their brand new electric trolleys. And on Christmas Eve, 1955, it was festive indeed when Seattle inventor and psychedelic pioneer Al Hubbard turned novelist Aldous Huxley on to LSD.
