Cascade of History

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Harry Mok, assistant editor, columnist and editorial board member for the Opinion section of The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. Mr. Mok published a piece earlier this week criticizing the imminent closure of the San Francisco (San Bruno) branch of the National Archives. The closure was quietly announced on June 26, 2026 on the...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Grant Din of Oakland, California. Mr. Din is a member of a grassroots group called SAVE OUR NATIONAL ARCHIVES (SONA) which is mobilizing to fight the planned closure of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) facility in San Bruno, California. The closure was quietly announced on June 26, 2026 on the NARA website;...

Feliks Banel's guests on this special LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY from the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Seattle's Pioneer Square include folksinger Al Hirsch; Charles Beall, Superintendent of Seattle Area National Park Sites; Seattle City Councilmember Rob Saka (District 1); Dan Evans, Jr.; filmmaker and documentarian B.J. Bullert and her husband Ken Workman, Chie...

Feliks Banel's guests on this ENCORE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY are longtime local journalist Essex Porter reflecting on his television career at KIRO 7 News (recorded not long after he retired in late 2021), and meteorologist Scott Sistek, in a conversation recorded just after the devastating June 2021 Pacific Northwest "heatdome." Both interviews are from the archives of COLUMBIA CONVERSATI...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel sheds light on actions of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) which were revealed last week via a leaked internal memo, including plans for the complete closure of the National Archives facilities in Chicago, Illinois and San Francisco (San Bruno), California. The memo also indicates that changes are coming to the Seattl...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Richard Hiscocks, historian in the UK behind the website MORE THAN NELSON. Since he was a young boy, Mr. Hiscocks has been researching biographies of officers in the British Navy - several of whom who happen to be namesake for places and geographic features in coastal Washington, Puget Sound and British Columbia. The website's des...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Lloyd Lytle, a leader of the grassroots group fighting to save the historic Masonic Home of Washington in Des Moines, Washington. Lytle learned on Monday, June 22, 2026 that King County Superior Court in Seattle had ruled against Lytle’s group. They had been seeking to have a demolition permit for the Masonic Home revoked and sent...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel has a long, candid and far-ranging conversation with Charles Payton about the 1970s Bicentennial Era origins (and politics and backroom shenanigans) of heritage, history museums and historic preservation in Seattle and King County and the field's successes and challenges over the past half century. Payton has been a fixture in the Seattle a...

Feliks Banel presents on this ENCORE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY a tribute to the late “Brakeman Bill” McLain, longtime local kids’ TV show host who passed away on April 9, 2024 at age 96. Brakeman Bill was a fixture on Channel 11 KTNT/KSTW Tacoma-Seattle from 1955 to 1975. This episode features highlights from a long phone interview with Bill McLain and his wife Jean recorded July 6, 2021. Li...

Feliks Banel’s guests on this ENCORE EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY are a panel of expert local historians, researchers and authors who have been collaborating on a search for evidence of Peter Kirk's long-ago steel mill on Rose Hill, east of downtown Kirkland near the Costco. Matt McCauley, Kent Sullivan, Saundra Middleton (who is a descendant of Peter Kirk) and Michael Donnelly have been studying...

Feliks Banel's guests on this special LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY from the Stimson-Green Mansion 125th Birthday Block Party on First Hill in Seattle, Washington include Chris Moore and Abby Amato of the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation; members of the musical groups Spanaway Bay and The Whateverly Brothers; Darren Guyaz of DRYFT Music; and Petra Jouflas of Frye Art Museum...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks Erik Bauer, archivist and historian for the regional Episcopal Diocese of Olympia in Seattle, Washington who was selected by the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) to be a "fellow" in the 2026 History Leadership Institute. Bauer works as an archivist and public historian in the Pacific Northwest, and is taking p...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Patrick J. Sullivan, board secretary of the Puget Sound Coast Artillery Museum at Fort Warden near Port Townsend, Washington. In this conversation, Mr. Sullivan shares the news about the Coast Artillery Museum's imminent closure; after 50 years, the organization's board has voted to sunset its museum facility at Fort Worden, which...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks Linda Ziedrich, author of “First Fruits: The Lewellings and the Birth of the Pacific Coast Fruit Industry.” The book is published by Oregon State University Press in Corvallis, Oregon. Ziedrich spent several years researching the peripatetic Lewelling family and their mid-19th century migration from North Carolina, to Indiana, to Iow...

Feliks Banel's guests on this very special ENCORE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY are singer/songwriter Jon Pontrello and retired Seattle Times journalist (and maritime lyricist) Jack Broom. Jon performs several of his original songs of the sea on this episode, including a tribute to Peter Bevis, the late Seattle artist who brought home the old streamline ferry KALAKALA from Ketchikan in 1998. Jon...

Feliks Banel's guests on this special LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY from Heritage Day in Black Diamond, Washington include Bill Kombol of the WHEN COAL WAS KING history column for the Voice of the Valley, President George Washington, Zach Pratt of Black Diamond Historical Museum, Katie Garcher of Black Diamond Mine Regional Preserve, and Sherrie Evans of the Black Diamond Historical...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Dr. Kate Burrows of the grassroots preservation organization in North Seattle called "Save Crown Hill Cemetery." Dr. Burrows founded the group with neighbors in December 2025. In this conversation, Dr. Burrows shares the good news - that her group's research and other work has apparently eliminated the threatened subdividing and d...

Feliks Banel's guests on this very special LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY - sharing stories and memories of Paul Dorpat - include Clay Eals and Jean Sherrard of Seattle Now & Then; Alan J. Stein of HistoryLink; and historian Heather Pihl. Beloved Seattle historian Paul Dorpat passed away earlier this week (on May 27, 2026) at the age of 87. This impromptu gathering of some of those closest t...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Frederic James Grant V, descendant of Fred Grant, the Seattle author, editor, historian, politician and man-about-town who disappeared in 1894 when the IVANHOE left Seattle for California and was lost at sea. In this conversation, Frederic James Grant V shares the story of his ambitious ancestor Frederic James Grant I, and surpris...

Re-posting this CLAMMY AND FISHY BONUS EPISODE in memory of beloved Seattle historian Paul Dorpat, October 28, 1938 to May 27, 2026. Anyone who works in history, public history or anything related to local history in the Pacific Northwest stands on the shoulders of the kind-hearted, brilliant and very funny Paul Dorpat. He was truly one of the good guys. REST IN PEACE. ORIGINAL EPISODE DESCRIPTION...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Ray Poletti, a Seattle man who's financing an effort - and leading a skilled team - to build a full-scale replica of the "Bubbleator." The Bubbleator was a spherical plexiglas elevator first created for the 1962 World's Fair for the World of Tomorrow exhibit in what's now Climate Pledge Arena, and which was later moved across the...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BREAKING NEWS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Lloyd Lytle, a leader of the grassroots group working to prevent demolition of the historic Masonic Home of Washington in Des Moines, Washington. Lytle joined us by phone immediately after a hearing at King County Superior Court in Seattle was adjourned, and provides an update on the day’s proceedings. Lytle’s group is see...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Lloyd Lytle, a leader of the grassroots group working to prevent demolition of the historic Masonic Home of Washington in Des Moines, Washington. Later this week, the group will appear in King County Superior Court, seeking to have a demolition permit for the Masonic Home revoked and sent back to the City of Des Moines for further...

Feliks Banel's guests on this BONUS ENCORE EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Bill Yeend and Andy Ludlum, who were both working for KIRO Newsradio in Seattle in 1980 when Mount St. Helens erupted; Bill was host of the morning news and Andy was managing editor, and they share their memories and recollections in this live conversation marking the 45th anniversary of the May 18, 1980 eruption. The...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Heather Bosch, longtime radio broadcaster for KIRO Radio and for CBS Radio News - who joined us moments after delivering her final "CBS hourly" national newscast (CBS Radio News will go silent this coming Friday, May 22, 2026); and Jennifer Ott of HistoryLink and author David B. Williams on their new book from UW Press "Sea...