Topic: People's Histories
The actor and director Clint Eastwood (b. 1930) taught lifeguard training classes at Beaver Lake (King County) one summer in 1953. This account, written by Phil Dougherty, reprints his article "Clint ...
Through the middle of the twentieth century, when hundreds of coal miners worked the coal mines of eastern King and Pierce counties, the annual Coal Miners' Picnic was a highlight of the summer for mi...
East Pierce County's Carbon River coal district was once dotted with a dozen small mining communities. Wilkeson, Carbonado, South Prairie, and Burnett survived, but Fairfax, Manley-Moore, Melmont, Mon...
Stimson Bullitt (1919-2009) gave this remembrance of his sister Priscilla "Patsy" (Bullitt) Collins (1920-2003) at her Memorial Service at Seattle's Town Hall on July 8, 2003.
In early 1952, W. Gale Matthews -- a resident of Grant County since 1890 and, at the time of this account, President of the Grant County Title Abstract Company -- provided his memories of the beginnin...
In 1928, Thomas Graham (1868-1946) wrote a series of articles in the Colville Examiner titled "50 Years Ago," recounting his experiences and observations as a teenager in the Colville Valley. His fami...
This essay by Christopher Wiley on the development of the combine harvester won the 2010 Washington State History Day award presented by HistoryLink.org for Outstanding Essay on Washington State Histo...
Junius Rochester gave this talk on Southerners resident in the Pacific Northwest during the Civil War on March 1, 2008, at the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild Annual Conference, Museum of History a...
This is a biography and reminiscence of the Tacoma African American pioneer John N. Conna written by his grandson, Douglas Q. Barnett (1931-2019).
Dorothea (Pfister) Nordstrand (1916-2011) wrote this reminiscence about childhood play in Seattle in 1921. The Pfister family homesteaded near Tiger, in Pend Oreille County, before moving to Seattle i...
The author of this People's History, Benjamin H. Kizer, was a Spokane lawyer acquainted with local pioneer Michael M. Cowley. Cowley worked as a sutler (an Army storekeeper) and prospector, settled at...
Cal Anderson Park, a beautifully renovated and expanded park on Seattle's Capitol Hill, re-opened on September 24, 2005. Originally one of Seattle's Olmsted-designed parks (named "Lincoln Park,"), it ...
Immigrants from Croatia were part of the population of the Skagit County port city of Anacortes from its first boom years, and played an important role in the rise of the city's fishing industry. This...
This is a reminiscence of Walt Crowley (1947-2007), founding president and executive director of HistoryLink.org, the online encyclopedia of Washington state history. Walt also worked as a journalist,...
This People's History contains the text of the memorial service for Walt Crowley (1947-2007), beloved leader and cofounder of www.historylink.org, the online encyclopedia of Washington state history (...
Beverly Parkerson Read, who was born at her family home in Cumberland, a mining town in southeast King County, describes her fond childhood memories of walking up the railroad tracks to the neighborin...
Daniel J. Evans (1925-2024) served three terms as governor of Washington, as a United States senator, and as president of The Evergreen State College. He and his wife Nancy Evans (1933-2024) were acti...
This reminiscence of social life among young people in Seattle's Green Lake neighborhood during the early 1930s was written by Dorothea Nordstrand (1916-2011). "Dancing at the Northeast Improvement Cl...
In this People's History, Dorothea (Pfister) Nordstrand (1916-2011) tells the story of how Catherine Maynard (1816-1906) brought the first lowly dandelions to Seattle for use in the medical practice o...
John R. Fahey, the author of this essay, was born and educated in Spokane. He graduated from Gonzaga University and went to graduate school in journalism and political science at Northwestern. During ...
A portion of the area known as Ravensdale in southeast King County was once called Danville. Located on the south side of the Summit-Landsburg Road, Danville lies in the Cedar River valley just below ...
Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961), acclaimed as the creator of modern American detective fiction, spent a winter in Tacoma not long before he began writing the stories that would make him famous. This acco...
Dave Holden was born on May 21, 1937, in Seattle. Son of local jazz legend Oscar Holden, Dave got his first paid gig as a jazz musician in the late 1950s. From that time on, Dave's keyboard and vocal ...
David Rodgers (1864-1923) was a master shipfitter who lived in the Puget Sound region from around 1900 until his death in 1923. He made significant contributions to the nation's war efforts during Wor...