Out Friday!
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Diablo Dam incline railway climbing Sourdough Mountain, 1930. Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives, 2306.
Children waving to ferry, 1950. Courtesy Museum of History and Industry.
Loggers in the Northwest woods. Courtesy Washington State Digital Archives.
Out Friday!
3/6/2025
Protests at the Fort
On March 8, 1970, Native Americans and other protesters, including Leonard Peltier and Jane Fonda, clashed with military police in an attempt to reclaim part of Fort Lawton for local tribes. Surplus land from the fort – which was established in 1900 – was in the process of being transferred to the city of Seattle. Local tribes sought the property based on treaty rights that promised reversion of surplus military lands to their original owners.
The protests, which were led by Bob Satiacum and Bernie Whitebear, began when protesters invaded the base from all sides. They were dragged away and some arrests were made, and after more continued to climb the fences, a barbed wire barrier was placed around the post perimeter. The group set up a camp near the front gate, and skirmishes continued there for the next three months.
The United Indian People's Council (later United Indians of All Tribes), the city of Seattle, and U.S. congressional representatives went through a long negotiation process and compromised with an agreement that created both Daybreak Star – an Indian cultural center that opened in 1977 – and Discovery Park, now the city's largest recreational tract. In 2004 Lawney Reyes dedicated his Daybreak Star sculpture, Blue Jay, in honor of his brother Bernie Whitebear, who headed the cultural center from 1977 until his death in 2000.
Sailing into Port
On March 7, 1989, the Lady Washington took to the water for the first time at her home port of Aberdeen. Launched during the centennial celebration of Washington's statehood, the ship is a full-scale replica of the original Lady Washington, once captained by Robert Gray, eponym of Grays Harbor.
The modern Lady Washington carries approximately six miles of rigging, and her figurehead was carved by Bob McCausland, a former cartoonist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In 2007 the Lady Washington was named the official ship of the state of Washington, and often travels the Pacific Coast with her sailing partner, the Hawaiian Chieftain. Film buffs may also recognize the vessel from her appearances in such films as Star Trek: Generations and Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.
And we'd be remiss this week if we didn't note the anniversary of another beloved Pacific Northwest vessel – the Virginia V. This last surviving member of Puget Sound's mosquito fleet was launched on March 9, 1922, and has been owned or operated by a variety of people over the years, including hit-maker Joe Boles. The sturdy steamer has hosted countless wedding receptions, high school proms, scouting trips, and other excursions, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992.
On February 23, 1873, Seattle Mayor Corliss Stone abandoned his mayoral post, and The Weekly Intelligencer reported false rumors that he hightailed out of town with $15,000 in pilfered funds and another man's wife in his arms. Stone eventually returned to Seattle, re-established himself as a successful businessman and developer, and when he died in 1906, six Seattle mayors were his pallbearers.
On March 11, 1910, Washingtonians got their first look at an airplane when Charles Hamilton demonstrated his Curtiss biplane on the muddy expanse of Meadows Race Track in Georgetown. The next day, Hamilton dunked the machine into a pond, which didn't stop the aviator from wowing crowds in Spokane a few weeks later.
On March 8, 1921, Washington Governor Louis F. Hart signed the Alien Land Bill, which barred non-white immigrants from buying, owning, or leasing land in the state and mandated confiscation without compensation of any lands purchased before or after passage of the act. That same day, Hart also signed into law a eugenics-based act titled "Prevention of Procreation," which created categories of inmates of institutions maintained by the state who could be subjected to forced sterilization.
On March 10, 1957, Celilo Falls disappeared into memory, just hours after floodgates closed on newly completed The Dalles Lock and Dam on the Columbia River. The rising waters submerged the spectacular cascade where Northwest Indians had fished for thousands of years. Also lost were two ancient Indian villages, one on each side of the river.
On March 7, 1982, the Washington House of Representatives voted to cover up murals in the House chamber that had only recently been commissioned by the state. Some legislators felt that Michael Spafford's "The Twelve Labors of Hercules" was too abstract, while others considered it obscene. For the next 20 years, Spafford's murals, along with murals by Alden Mason in the Senate chamber, underwent a lengthy political and judicial odyssey that resulted in their eventual removal and relocation to Centralia College.
On March 9, 1995, Washington Secretary of State Ralph Munro joined with Governor Mike Lowry to launch a "Free Lolita!" campaign, urging the release of Lolita – a captive orca taken from Penn Cove off Whidbey Island and later sold to Miami Seaquarium – back into the wild. Despite continued protests by activists and several lawsuits, Lolita remained at the Seaquarium until her death in 2023.
On March 6, 1918, UW graduate Helen Naismith and 32 other women army telephone operators embarked for World War I service in France.
"We entered our land. We are the natural inhabitants. We cannot enter our land illegally."
–Bernie Whitebear
