Washington Our Home

Washington State's "Triangle of Fire" was part of a broader coastal defense system designed to protect the Salish Sea from military incursion during the late 1800s and early 1900s. And while its name summons visions of an impenetrable barrier, its use in actual military action was minimal - if not nonexistent - becoming essentially obsolete the moment it was completed. Still, Washing...

In central Washington, between Grand Coulee Dam and Moses Lake is a place called Dry Falls, one of the most visually beautiful and geologically unique places in the world. It gets its name, not from being one of the hotter, drier climates in Washington - though as any visitor in mid-July would argue it certainly is - No…it's called Dry Falls because where once flowed ten times the combined amo...

Mount Rainier is easily one of the most iconic symbols representing Washington state to the world…even though only two fifths of the state is actually considered mountainous. But as its snow-capped peak rises boldly above the western and central parts of Washington—its serene silhouette belies a history shaped by violent geological forces, mystical Native traditions, stalwart pioneering spirit, an...

Over the course of just a few months in 1902, Harry Tracy escaped one of the toughest prisons in the Pacific Northwest, gunned down guards and deputies, outsmarted posses, and vanished into forests and wheat fields as hundreds hunted him. To some, he was a monster. To others, he was a tragic figure — a man born too late, chasing a dying dream of freedom that could only end in blood. But legends of...

Battling violent storms, forest fire smoke, head winds and fatigue, a pair of Spokane, Washington, aviators flew nonstop across America and back in 1929 to establish a new world record. Their Buhl CA-6 sesquiplane, named Spokane Sun-God, was the first airplane to make a non-stop transcontinental round-trip flight. Sponsored by the National Air Derby Association along with Texaco, who supplied the...

I am proud to announce the publication of my new book, Exploring Maritime Washington—a History and Guide. Each of the places covered in its pages has a connection to Washington’s maritime history, whether a popular tourist destination or a hidden gem known only to longtime locals. Exploring Maritime Washington provides visitors with a fun and easy way to enjoy each community while learning about W...

Installed in 1974, just in time for the World's Fair Exposition in Spokane, Washington, this iconic structure has delighted children and adults visiting the Inland Northwest for generations—but it isn't the canted pavilion that once marked the US presence at the fair, or the gondola across Spokane Falls that takes visitors so close they can feel the spray on their faces, or even the German beer ga...

Before there were roads around the Puget Sound region, there were rivers. Before the stagecoaches, there were Salish canoes. And before the planes, the trains, and the automobiles...there was the water, and the ships that traveled upon it. By the 1860s, there were hundreds of steamers crisscrossing the Puget Sound, every day, all day. There were, in fact, so many ships upon the water at any given...

Boasting a population of just under 500, the small community of Wilkeson, Washington, lies in the heart of Pierce County's Carbon River Valley. Once a lively and vibrant mining community, it has withstood the test of time…despite seeing an end to its primary economic driver. But rather than resign itself to a fate of joining the ranks of dozens of other ghost towns throughout the state, Wilkeson h...

There are hundreds of different museums scattered far and wide across Washington state. Many of them are focused on the history of their particular city, county, or region. Others feature arguably some of the most interesting, thought-provoking, and unique art and sculpture in the world. And a few have captured more of a niche area, showcasing things like robots, quilts, and puppets. But the thing...

Built in 1849 to project American power and secure American interest in the Puget Sound Region, Fort Steilacoom played a key role in helping to settle what was then Oregon Territory. It served as the focal point for the Treaty Wars of the 1850s and played witness to the judicial murder of an innocent man - Chief Leschi of the Nisqually Tribe - about which you can learn more in my Medicine Creek Tr...

Feeling a slight bump up in the cockpit, the pilots of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 looked at each other nervously as rain pelted against their windshield at around 200 miles per hour…a relatively slow speed for a Boeing 727. They didn't yet know that that bump meant their ordeal of the past several hours was just about over; that they, along with their flight engineer and flight attendant...

Just after one o'clock in the morning, on a frigid, starless night in March 1910, more than a hundred souls aboard Great Northern Railway's Spokane Local No. 25, a passenger train, and Fast Mail Train No. 27 slept tightly bundled in their cars. They'd been stuck near Wellington in King County, Washington, for almost a week...waiting as railroad crews attempted to clear the tracks of sn...

Two weeks after Valentine's Day, 2001, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the south sound region of Washington state near where the Nisqually River empties into Puget Sound. It was nearly 11 a.m. on a Wednesday, and the state legislature was in full swing. The violent tremors lasted nearly a minute, rocking the state capital of Olympia and the nearby cities of Lacey, Tumwater, Nisqually, DuPont...

Born Esther Pariseau in 1823, the third of 12 children, in a farmhouse three miles from Saint-Martin, Laval, Quebec, this Canadian Religious Sister grew up to lead members of her congregation to the Pacific Northwestern United States where they established a network of schools and healthcare facilities to serve the American settlers in that new and remote part of the country. She was the first fem...

Marcus and Narcissa Whitman were Christian missionaries who left their homes in upstate New York and traveled with another missionary couple, Henry and Eliza Spalding, to what was then called Oregon Country in 1836. Their mission? To "Christianize" Indians. In fact, Oregon wasn't even a territory yet. The United States government didn't have any programs in Oregon Country, which...

Slade Gorton was an esteemed intellectual, an accomplished attorney, a shrewd political opponent, an Air Force colonel, a baseball nut…and one of the greatest public servants Washington State has ever known. After 92 years of working on behalf of others, the nonagenarian solon died last month, on August 19th. If you've never heard of Slade Gorton, you'll get a great idea of who the man was...

In Part 1, we learned how to pronounce some of thestate's challenging county names. In Part 2, we reviewed dozens of tricky city names around Washington. And in Part 3, we started tackling some of those indigenous names found so often around Washington. But there were too many to cover in a single episode...so this, my friends, is Say WA Part 3.5! We'll cover the rest of the Tribes found in wester...

In 1854, the Medicine Creek Treaty between regional Native American tribes and Washington's territorial government kicked off a years-long conflict that forever changed the story of the Pacific Northwest. Sixty-eight years later, in 1922, the Sacajawea Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a bronze plaque commemorating the momentous treaty, upon the single remaining Dougla...

We've talked about the state's challenging county names. We've reviewed dozens of tricky city names around Washington. Now, in Part III of our Say WA! pronunciation series, we'll be tackling those tribal names found so often around our great state. There are 574 federally recognized Indian Tribes in the United States, and 29 of them have ancestral lands here within the Washington s...

I've spent a lot of time in Ocean Shores, Washington, over the years...hiking around Damon Point, rock-hopping at the north jetty and exploring the Coastal Interpretive Center (which is absolutely worth seeing, if you ever get the chance). But one of the more memorable moments in my Ocean Shores experience was getting to "discover" a shipwreck as the tempestuous weather began shiftin...

There are 281 official cities and towns in the State of Washington, according to the Washington State Association of Cities, and every one of them has a unique story to tell. Some of them have hundreds of stories…others, perhaps just one major story. All of them have their own character, vibe, ambiance, and backstory, and many of them have weird, interesting or unusual ways they got their names. W...

At the very end of Washington State Route 506 lies a tiny, well-kept community that bills itself as the town with two histories. And both of those histories are pretty darned amazing. Heard of Ryderwood, Washington? Neither had I until I was approached by a representative of their historical society. And the story she told me had me fascinated…I decided I had to visit to learn more. Ryderwood is l...

Today, we're beginning the creation of THE definitive pronunciation guide for Washington State. This will be part one of a three-part series looking at Washington's notoriously difficult county, city and geographic names, so you'd better favorite these episodes if you want to sound like you're from here. For this episode, we'll stick to the tricky county names. Of course, we&#3...

On this episode of the Washington Our Home podcast, we'll be trekking deep into the forests of western Washington looking for a killer and a victim - who many say are one and the same. And he's certainly one of the finest woodsmen Washington State has ever produced. We're hunting a man named John Tornow - otherwise known as the Wild Man of the Wynoochee. In 1911, the misunderstood misa...