Cascade of History

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY - the second episode today devoted to the Masonic Home of Washington in Des Moines, WA - Feliks Banel speaks with Todd Scott, preservation architect for King County, for history and context; and with Lloyd Lytle, a member of the citizens' group working to prevent the facility's demolition. The Masonic Home - which is also known as "Landmark on the Sound"...

On this BONUS EPISODE, Feliks Banel's guest is Lewis County Commissioner Scott Brummer with the latest on the sale of Claquato Church, southwest of Chehalis, Washington. The 1858 Claquato Church in Lewis County, Washington declared surplus in July by Lewis County and put up for sealed bid auction. This took the community by surprise, until it was revealed that Lewis County had been in discussions...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with U.S. Representative Marilyn Strickland, Democrat of Washington State's 10th Congressional District, for an update about the threatened closure of Lewis Army Museum at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) near Tacoma, Washington. We also get an update from Erik Flint, retired former director of Lewis Army Museum. On June 30, 2025, Rep...

For this SUMMER ENCORE EPISODE on Seafair Weekend in Seattle, Feliks Banel presents a tribute to late Pacific Northwest DJ and pop culture renaissance man - and longtime hydro race announcer - Pat O’Day on this broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY. With a vintage aircheck and two long excerpts from an oral history recorded by WSU Professor Hugh Rundell in the late 1970s, we hear directly from Pat O’Day...

On this BONUS EPISODE, we present audio of the public comment at the Sumner, WA City Council Meeting of Monday, August 4, 2025. This is the first such meeting held since the Ryan House was demolished. The historic structure was demolished, beginning after dark on July 24, 2025 (just over 10 days ago) by its owner, the City of Sumner. CASCADE OF HISTORY broadcast live from the Ryan House on two occ...

On this bonus episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel digs into the archives for his 2017 conversation with Western Washington University Professor Emeritus (and geologist and author) Don Easterbrook. Easterbrook and his late colleague David Rahm studied Mount Baker - just minutes away via air from Bellingham - during the Whatcom County peak's period of increased volcanic activity in 1975 - fi...

On this BONUS "THUNDERBOAT" EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents vintage audio from KIRO Radio from 2018 with the history of "street hydros" - those miniature plywood hydroplanes that Seattle area kids towed behind their bikes from the 1950s to circa 1980. Included in the story are observations and memories of street hydros from John Keister, Dave Dederer, Bill Wixey, Chip Hanauer...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Randall Adams with an update on the saga of the City of Sumner, Washington - the same city that last week tore down the Ryan House - where city officials had announced a give-away of park benches, many with memorial plaques still attached. Tuesday, July 29, 2025 was bench and plaque give-away day, and Randall Adams was there, br...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY from the ruins of the Ryan House in Sumner, Washington include Nick Biermann of Save Ryan House, Nancy Ryan Dressel (descendant of the builder of the Ryan House), Tina Patton Burnett and other grassroots historic preservationists and lovers of local history who have been working for nearly two years to try to save one of the...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Randall Adams about the City of Sumner, Washington's surprising plan to give away park benches from the town's Heritage Park, many with memorial plaques still attached. The give-away is scheduled for Tuesday, July 29, 2025. A plaque on one of those free-for-the-taking benches says: In Loving Memory Daniel Stewart Crook Sept. 30,...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Superintendent Tracy Fortmann of the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Vancouver, Washington. A new visitor center film called "Where We Converge" premieres at Fort Vancouver next Wednesday, July 30, 2025 and the public is invited. Superintendent Fortmann also gives a preview of the Fort Vancouver Bicentennial Commemorati...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Jerry Cornfield of The Washington State Standard for an update about the threatened closure of Lewis Army Museum at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) near Tacoma. There have been a number of developments in the story in the past few days, including a letter sent by U.S. Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, to Secretary of...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with City of Tacoma Historic Preservation Officer Reuben McKnight about two upcoming workshops and a public hearing focused on changes to Tacoma's Historic Preservation Code. Some of the changes are required by legislation adopted in the Evergreen State earlier this year, and others are specific to Tacoma's preservation program. For...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel spoke with Matt McCauley from the airport in Colorado Springs, Colorado Sunday night as McCauley was headed back home to Seattle. McCauley was at the National Museum of World War II Aviation on Saturday witnessing the first public flight of the now-restored HELLDIVER he pulled off the bottom of Lake Washington in Seattle more than 40 years...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Coupeville Mayor Molly Hughes; Port of Coupeville Executive Director Chris Michalopoulos; Washington Trust for Historic Preservation's Moira Nadal; Meg Olson from Kingfisher Books in Coupeville; the Shifty Sailors, led by Jim Lightner; Lynn Hyde of Historic Whidbey; Kyle Walker of the recently merged Island County Hi...

This is YET ANOTHER BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY devoted to the Claquato Church in Lewis County, Washington. As mentioned in the short episode posted earlier today, it now appears that Lewis County intended all along for the private, non-profit Claquato Cemetery to bid on and then purchase the Claquato Church through the auction process now underway. On this episode, we speak with Brett Mit...

It's time for one more BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY devoted to the Claquato Church in Lewis County, Washington. On this episode, Feliks Banel speaks once again with Lewis County Commissioner Lindsey Pollock about the process to find a buyer, via sealed bid auction, for Claquato Church - a process which Lewis County now all but admits is tilted toward the private, non-profit Claquato Cemeter...

On this BONUS EPISODE of "AS THE CLAQUATO CHURCH TURNS," the rapid-fire developments in Lewis County, WA just keep-a-comin'!! It turns out that Lewis County was secretly working with the private, non-profit Claquato Cemetery to transfer the Claquato Church to their ownership (the cemetery is just down the road from the church) by way of a public auction. Why, exactly, Lewis County Board of Commiss...

This is a special BONUS ON THE ROAD BREAKING NEWS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY with Feliks Banel. The Claquato Church in Lewis County, Washington was built in 1858 and is one of the oldest structures in the Evergreen State. Lewis County Commissioners approved a plan on July 15, 2025 to auction it off to the highest bidder. CASCADE OF HISTORY is working on a story, but wanted to provide this updat...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel digs deeper into the controversy brewing in Lewis County, WA where a decision by the Board of County Commissioners - with little or no public input to sell a historic building with a two-week bidding process - has caught many residents off guard, and upset some who care about history and historic preservation. The Claquato Church in Lewis C...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents two interviews with Matt McCauley, a local explorer and diver who will this weekend see a plane he pulled from the bottom of Lake Washington 41 years ago take to the skies of Colorado. In the first conversation from April 2024, co-host Lee Corbin and Feliks Banel speak with Matt McCauley about his adventures retrieving sunken aircr...

Feliks Banel's guests on this live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Dr. Megan Nishikawa, fellow of the Friends of the Lewis Army Museum, with an update on the threatened closure of the museum; Phil Massie, Northwest "history hunter" who deeply researches abandoned places and then searches with his metal detector, on some recent finds; and Matt McCauley, who this coming Saturday in Colorado...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Tim Lillethorup, a filmmaker in Omaha, Nebraska whose father Galen Lillethorup was one of the geniuses behind the classic "Great Big Rollin' Railroad" 1970s TV commercial for the Union Pacific Railroad. The late elder Lillethorup also helped create the country artist C.W. McCall - a character with origins in a TV commercial for...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents an archival interview with legendary deejay, programmer and concert promoter Pat O'Day from March 2020. Mr. O'Day passed away in August 2020. In this interview, O'Day is asked about what it was like to be a popular deejay on Seattle radio station KJR during the era in the 1960s when teenagers "cruised Colby" - Colby Avenue in Evere...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Lee Reynolds, public affairs officer for the U.S. Army's Center of Military History, the part of the Army that funds and manages Lewis Army Museum at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) near Tacoma. In this interview from Tuesday, July 8, 2025, Mr. Reynolds confirms that Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll will "any day now" adopt...