8257 HistoryLink.org articles now available.
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.
What came after the famous 1974 Boldt Decision
upholding treaty fishing rights?
Join us at HistoryLunch on September 17 to hear the story of
how Washingtonians overcame differences and found common ground
to resolve this and other complex conservation
challenges in the Pacific Northwest.
Their success is an inspiring story of how we can tackle complicated
issues we are facing in our own times.
8/29/2024
Labor Organizing
To mark Labor Day, we take a look back at Washington's early history of union organizing and economic reform, which predates statehood and begins with the Knights of Labor. Unfortunately, early worker anger at times targeted Chinese immigrants, African Americans, and other ethnic groups as vehemently as it did exploitative managers and owners.
Washington was a fertile recruiting ground for the Industrial Workers of the World, particularly after 1908 when the General of the Overalls Brigade arrived in Spokane at a time when near-destitute migrant laborers were being hired, fired, and replaced on virtually a daily basis, which prevented any union organizing among the workers. The Wobblies were democratic, vocal, rowdy, and tended to burst into song. Spokane soon banned street meetings and the famed Spokane free-speech fight was on.
In Seattle, women workers spent years seeking recognition, which they achieved when the American Federation of Labor held its 33rd annual convention in 1913. In 1914 labor activist Mother Jones came to town to roast capitalists and rouse proletarians with a fiery speech. But the strongest voice possibly belonged to Anna Louise Strong, whose 1919 editorial in the Seattle Union Record -- at the time, America's only daily newspaper published by organized labor -- helped launch the nation's first general strike.
The history of the labor movement in Washington is long and diverse. This Labor Day, we invite you to check out some of the 294 essays currently posted on unions and workers' issues.
Neighbors Urbanizing
Four King County cities share a birthday on August 31 this week. On that day in 1995 Shoreline incorporated. Homesteaded in the 1890s, the community grew slowly over the years until the completion of Interstate 5. Increased growth led its residents to seek autonomy, and it is now one of the largest cities in Washington with no central business district.
In South King County, Covington incorporated on August 31, 1997. It too began in the 1890s, as a small stop on the railroad from Kanasket to Auburn. Lumber and farming boosted the town's early economy, but after nearby communities like Kent and Auburn swelled due to post-war suburbanization, Covington residents looked to incorporation as a way to control their town's growth.
On August 31, 1998, Kenmore incorporated on the northern tip of Lake Washington. Named by shingle-mill owner John McMaster in 1901 after his earlier home in Kenmore, Ontario (which was in turn named for the town of Kenmore, Scotland), this community also sought incorporation as a way to control suburban growth. The same can be said for Sammamish, which incorporated 25 years ago this week on August 31, 1999, after an unsuccessful attempt to annex to Issaquah.
On August 30, 1909, the Viking, a replica longboat constructed by Norwegian-American shipbuilder Sivert Sagstad, landed at Seattle's Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in celebration of Norway Day. The boat sailed to California in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, and later ended up in Balboa Park, where it was destroyed by fire in 1936.
On September 1, 1914, the Davenport Hotel opened in Spokane, providing the city with a grand hotel worthy of royalty. This week also marks the September 3, 1931, opening of Spokane’s Fox Theater, which is now known as the Martin Woldson Theater, home of the Spokane Symphony.
On August 31, 1936, Spokane's last electric trolley car rolled through the city streets bedecked in funeral crepe. At the end of its last run it was lit afire. This week also marks the last Lake Washington run of the ferry Leschi on August 31, 1950. The boat was later towed to Alaska for use as a salmon cannery, and its hulk can still be seen collapsed in the muck near Valdez.
On August 31, 1948, Alice Annibal of Seattle won a small island in the San Juans in an essay contest sponsored by the Exton Realty Company on Orcas Island. She traded it to another woman for $200 and a 12-year-old automobile. The island changed hands several times through the years before being purchased in 1975 by The Nature Conservancy.
On the afternoon of September 1, 1957, approximately 6,000 rock 'n' roll fans -- most of them teenage girls -- attended an Elvis Presley concert at Tacoma's Lincoln Bowl. That evening he played to more than 16,200 fans at Seattle's Sicks' Stadium, and many of those in attendance were all shook up. Four years later, Elvis returned in early September to begin filming It Happened at The World's Fair. He spent 10 days in the city and even though the school year had just begun, screaming teenage girls were somehow able to follow him everywhere.
On August 30, 1968, hordes of hippies descended on Sultan near the Skykomish River for the Sky River Rock Festival, one of America's first multi-day, outdoor rock concerts. And on September 3, 1971, the Satsop River Fair and Tin Cup Races began a four-day run as the first "legal" outdoor rock festival in Washington after passage of a state law regulating such events. It turned into a chaotic mess of epic proportions -- owing to such things as awful weather, bad drugs, gross mismanagement, violence, and more.
On August 30, 1914, the tugboat Lorne and the barge America (formerly a sailing bark) foundered on the rocks on the west side of San Juan Island and sank.
"Without labor nothing prospers."
--Sophocles
