The rain that was soaked up by the snowpack below the snow level increased the weight of the snow, particularly on steeper slopes. This situation raised avalanche danger.

Coincidentally, March 1st marks the date of the nation’s deadliest avalanche in American history that occurred 115 years ago near Stevens Pass, back in 1910.

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What led to America’s deadliest avalanche

In the days leading up to that fateful and tragic day, a lot of snow fell in the region. On one day alone in late February, 11 feet of snow fell. Then the weather turned warmer with rain, adding more weight to all that fresh snow on the slopes.

Along the Great Northern Rail Line, snowplows could not keep up with all that heavy snowfall. Two trains, both bound to Seattle from Spokane, were trapped just beyond the west portal of Stevens Pass rail tunnel at the depot town of Wellington.

Early in the morning of March 1st, a thunderstorm unleashed a massive avalanche from the side of Windy Mountain, sending a wall of snow, a half a mile long and a quarter mile wide, down the slopes. The avalanche plowed through the depot and swept the two trains 150 feet down the hill into the Tye River valley. Ninety-six people were killed. Twenty-three survived.

Avalanches carry tremendous power

If planning to venture into the mountains for fun in the snow, be fully aware of avalanche conditions before you go. Visit the NW Avalanche Center’s web site at nwac.us for all the latest mountain and avalanche forecast conditions, and heed any avalanche warning information. In addition, be sure to use the buddy system and have all the appropriate avalanche gear when heading out into the backcountry.

April 1st is usually when the mountain snowpack reaches its peak. With less than a month to go, more snow is needed to reach the average snowpack that at this time, ranges from about 70 to 90 percent of normal.

The outlook for the rest of this month offers increased odds on cooler than average temperatures and tips the odds to wetter than average conditions. This outlook provides the opportunity for the mountain snowpack to play catch up to average by April 1st, good news for snow enthusiasts, as well as water supply and wildfire managers.

Ted Buehner is the ����Xվ Newsradio meteorologist. Follow him on�������Ի���.

As early as Friday, Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray and Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, will introduce the “Flight 293 Remembrance Act.” Murray is a senior member and former chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, while Sullivan is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Washington Democratic U.S. Rep. Marilyn Strickland, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, will introduce companion legislation in the House.

Episode 1 of ‘Unsolved Histories’ is called ‘Brothers:’ Flight 293 never arrived at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska

Episode 2 is called ‘The Wreckage:’ Finding a haunting memento after the 1963 plane crash

What the Flight 293 Remembrance Act is expected to accomplish

A press statement from Murray’s office explained one of the bill’s core tenets, recognizing those members of the military classified as “Missing Not In Action” (M-NIA):

Since World War II, hundreds of military personnel have been classified as “Missing Not In Action” (M-NIA) following non-combat plane crashes — and unlike the families of those classified as “Missing in Action” (MIA), who receive regular updates from the Department of Defense (DoD) and invitations to remembrance events, M-NIA families have long been left unsupported and excluded from these resources. The lack of a formal recognition system for M-NIA servicemembers has resulted in these families being denied the public acknowledgment, memorials, and support services they deserve. The bipartisan Flight 293 Remembrance Act seeks to correct these disparities by ensuring that the sacrifices of M-NIA servicemembers are properly recognized, their families receive essential support, and they are included in remembrance efforts.

This is a photo of the DC-7C airliner that took off from McChord Air Force Base on June 3, 1963 with 101 passengers and crew on board, including Greg Barrowman’s brother Bruce. (Photo courtesy of Northwest Airlines)

The news release from Washington’s Democratic senator also highlighted other portions of the Flight 293 bill, including the creation of a database recording non-combat plane crashes.

• The Flight 293 Remembrance Act would mandate that the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) create a publicly accessible database documenting all non-combat military plane crashes, ensuring the preservation of the names, ranks, and service details of those who perished in these incidents.
• This legislation also directs the DoD to enhance resources for families of military personnel who have been classified as “Missing Not in Action,” ensuring they are informed of available support services and connected to peer support networks.
• Furthermore, the bill requires the DoD to submit regular reports to Congress, evaluating the effectiveness of these efforts, gathering family feedback, and making recommendations for improving support.

Legislators speak out about the bill inspired by Flight 293

“For far too long, the U.S. government has treated the families of servicemembers who went missing in non-combat plane crashes differently — denying them the communication, acknowledgement, and public support that other families of missing servicemembers receive,” Murray said in a press statement. “It’s long past time to fix this and at least provide federal recognition for families who lost loved ones in tragic accidents like Flight 293. Our legislation would ensure that the service of our fallen heroes is commemorated and that their families receive the recognition and assistance they deserve—I’ll be working hard to get this commonsense bipartisan solution across the finish line.”

Sullivan said that military members who don’t die in combat deserve to have their sacrifices recognized as well.

“Our brave men and women in uniform encounter risks to their lives when carrying out their day-to-day duties for our country, even when not in combat or in a warzone,” Sullivan said in his statement to the media. “American service members killed in these kinds of non-combat circumstances, like the tragic crash of Flight 293 in 1963, deserve to have their service and sacrifice recognized and honored by a grateful nation.”

All Over the Map: Final hours for the last Sears in Washington

Strickland noted that this legislation will recognize the sacrifices made by the people who were on that plane.

“This bill will help families get the recognition and assistance they need when their loved one is lost in a tragic, non-combat plane crash,” Strickland said in her statement.

The “Flight 293 Remembrance Act” has already been endorsed by the (TAPS), the (NMFA), and the (MOAA).

“(TAPS) is honored to support the Flight 293 Remembrance Act and thanks Senators Murray and Sullivan for introducing this significant legislation, which seeks to recognize families of service members lost or missing from non-combat military plane crashes,” TAPS President and Founder Bonnie Carroll’s statement reads.

What is the ‘Unsolved Histories’ podcast?

, which was released last October, tells the story of Flight 293, a civilian airliner that was chartered by the U.S. military and crashed into the Gulf of Alaska on June 3, 1963. The Northwest Airlines DC-7C took off from McChord Air Force Base in Pierce County and was headed to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska when it ran into trouble. All 101 aboard were killed, and the cause of the crash was never determined.

Perhaps worst of all, no bodies were ever recovered. In the aftermath of the tragedy, surviving loved ones of the 58 active duty servicemembers on board Flight 293 were essentially forgotten because of Defense Department policies, and have been ever since.

Episode 3 is called ‘Best Friends:’ ‘Jody has always stayed with me’ after 1963 crash

Episode 4 is called ‘Scuttlebutt:’ One theory is friendly fire brought down Flight 293

With critical assistance from Tonja Anderson-Dell, the Flight 293 podcast highlighted the systemic disparities between how families of “Missing in Action” service members are treated in comparison to Flight 293 families and other families of those lost under similar non-combat circumstances.

Anderson-Dell, whose grandfather was lost on a similar military flight in Alaska in 1952, has been working to recognize and support these forgotten families for 25 years. She founded a non-profit called to document the dozens of missing aircraft and advocate for the families of those missing.

“I’m really at a loss for words,” Anderson-Dell said when she learned of the forthcoming legislation. “I’m just happy that a senator actually listens. I’m speechless.”

“This is fantastic news,” Greg Barrowman, who lost his 17-year-old brother, U.S. Army Private Bruce Barrowman, on Flight 293, said. Barrowman has led efforts to commemorate Flight 293, including a private fundraising campaign that resulted in a privately-funded monument dedicated at Tahoma National Cemetery on the 60th anniversary of the crash.

is a production of KSL Podcasts, a division of ����Xվ, in association with Rhapsody Voices. The production team includes Feliks Banel, Aaron Mason, Trent Sell, Josh Tilton and Vice President of Podcasting for ����Xվ and KSL Podcasts Sheryl Worsley.

Owner speaks out: Historic Merchant’s Café in Seattle will re-open after renovations

Contributing: Feliks Banel, ����Xվ Newsradio; Frank Sumrall and Steve Coogan, MyNorthwest��

On the third Monday of January — close to King’s Jan. 15 birthday — federal, state and local governments, institutions and various industries recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day. For some, the holiday is just that — time off from work or school. But, King’s family and others carrying on his legacy of equality, justice and non-violent protest want Americans to remember that this holiday is really about helping others.

While it is now a time-honored tradition, the establishment of the holiday had a prolonged, difficult path to acceptance.

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How the idea for MLK day began

The idea to establish a national holiday for the civil rights icon arose as the nation was plunged into grief. U.S. Democratic��, one of the longest-serving members of Congress known for his liberal stance on civil rights, proposed legislation to recognize King four days after his assassination outside a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.

Supporters knew it would not be easy. King, who was 39 years old at the time, was a polarizing figure to half the country even before his death, said Lerone Martin, director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. Polls conducted by the Washington Post and the New York Times indicated most Americans did not trust King or thought he was too radical because of his speeches on poverty, housing and against the Vietnam War.

“People say that King is moving too fast after 1965 and basically ‘Hey, you got the Voting Rights bill done. That’s enough,'” Martin said.

The Congressional Black Caucus, founded by Conyers, tried to bring the legislation up for a vote for the next 15 years. Among the Republican rebuttals — public holidays don’t apply to private citizens, King was a communist or King was a womanizer. In the meantime, his widow, Coretta Scott King, kept lobbying for it. Musician Stevie Wonder even released a song, “Happy Birthday,” to rally support.

So, what changed?

By the 1980s, the social and cultural climate in the U.S. had shifted and the public was reflecting on racial progress, Martin said. Most Americans now were also regretting the Vietnam War. Supporters, meanwhile, were still calling for federal holiday status.

In 1983, about 20 years after King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, legislation for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day on the third Monday of January cleared Congress and President Ronald Reagan signed it.

States held back as activists stepped up

Reagan’s signing did not lead other Republicans to follow. It would be 17 more years until all 50 states observed it. Most of the foot-dragging came from the South — except for Arizona. Then in 1987, Gov. Evan Mecham rescinded his predecessor’s executive order enacting a state holiday in Arizona.

“He said ‘Black people don’t need a holiday. Y’all need jobs,'” recalled Dr. Warren H. Stewart Sr., senior pastor at First Institutional Baptist Church in Phoenix. “That started the war.”

Stewart launched a group to lead “people of all colors and all persuasions, faiths and parties” in protest marches. Entertainers including Wonder canceled Arizona events. Companies moved conventions. The tipping point was the loss of hosting the Super Bowl. In 1992, Arizona became the first state where voter initiative reinstated the King holiday.

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Supporters took a victory lap the next MLK Day with a packed arena concert attended by Wonder and other artists. Even Rosa Parks was there. Stewart remembers speaking to the crowd.

“What I said there — and it still applies today — we’ve won the holiday but the holiday is a symbol of liberty and justice for all and we must move from symbol to substance,” he said.

South Carolina was the final holdout until 2000. But, it was without the backing of the civil rights groups because it also allowed for a Confederate Memorial Day.

A ‘day on, not a day off’

Martin Luther King Jr. Day’s reach has only grown in its 42 years.

It’s the only federal holiday where you take a “day on, not a day off.” In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed into law Congressman John Lewis and Sen. Harris Wofford’s legislation making it a National Day of Service.

Just about every major city and suburb has some revelry the weekend before, including parades, street festivals and concerts. The various service projects run the gamut — community clean-up, packing food boxes, donating blood.

AmeriCorps, the federal agency that deploys volunteers to serve communities around the nation, has distributed $1.5 million in grants to 200 nonprofits, faith-based groups and other organizations for projects. CEO Michael Smith estimates there have been hundreds of projects involving hundreds of thousands of people for MLK day in recent years. Engagement seems to be expanding.

“You know, any given day I see another project that has nothing to do with us,” said Smith, who has served in President Joe Biden’s administration. “What’s so important about the King holiday is not only the service that’s going to happen, but how it creates a spark for people to think about how maybe they’re going to serve all year long.”

That’s something King’s daughter, the Rev. Bernice King and CEO of the King Center in Atlanta, desires as well. She��“ They need to do good work and commit daily “to embrace the spirit of nonviolence.”

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Martin also thinks it’s important to learn about the man himself. He finds excitement in seeing people read or hear about the Nobel Peace Prize winner. But, nothing compares to taking in King’s own writings such as his 1963 “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” he added.

“We can arm ourselves with his ideals,” Martin said. “We can continue to have a conversation with him — not just on one day but actually throughout the year.”

Dozens of customers were lined up out the door at ��Friday eager to get one final taste.

An announcement on the devoted to the restaurant in Renton on the states the location “must close it’s doors due to the redevelopment of the property.”

The short statement includes a thank you to those who have visited the restaurant over the years.

“We’d like to extend a heartfelt thanks to our customers and friends who have shared meals and made memories here,” the statement reads.

More news on Puget Sound restaurants: Original Burgermaster in Seattle to close its doors

����Xվ Newsradio Resident Historian Feliks Banel visited the Renton restaurant Friday afternoon and reported counting 85 people outside the restaurant waiting to get food. He spoke to customers on the scene and owner Lori Bender.

Bender told Banel she has owned the Shakey’s for nine years and she plans to retire once it closes.

“I’m kind of hoping that a younger person will step in and open up. They need a bigger place,” Bender said.

When Banel asked about the real estate being redeveloped, Bender acknowledged that was going to happen. But when the owner approached her about next steps, the two worked out an agreement.

“When he came in to talk to me, my lease was almost over, so we worked out a deal and I’m very happy with it,” Bender told Banel.

Bender said the lines had been long and extended out the door since Tuesday. She was shocked by the reaction.

“They’re coming from all over the state for a last Shakey’s visit,” Bender said to Banel.

“It’s a good gathering place,” Bender said. “My favorite part is when people were bringing their kids and they say this is where daddy or mom went when they were little. That’s what warms my heart … the generations turning it over and the families that gather again, especially after (the COVID-19 pandemic).”

Banel appeared on ����Xվ Newsradio’s “The John Curley Show” Friday and he told host John Curley a lot of the people he talked to at the restaurant had been going there for a long time.

“A lot of people told me this is where they’ve come for years,” Banel said. “People say this is their family restaurant in this neighborhood, and Shakey’s was definitely a big thing.”

More on Shakey’s Pizza Parlor

Shakey’s has a long history as it dates back to the 1950s and the veteran who started the business.

“It goes back to 1954,” Banel said. “It was founded by Sherwood ‘Shakey’ Johnson. He got that nickname because during World War II he had malnourishment and developed, literally, tremors. But he embraced the nickname because he was a fun, jovial guy and he loved jazz and he loved pizza.”

John then played a clip of Shakey’s USA Vice President of Marketing Cindy Staats talking more about company’s founder “Shakey” Johnson, from an interview she did with Feliks earlier Friday.

“He embraced the nickname and you know, he was a lover of jazz music, especially the banjo,” Staats told Banel.

All Over the Map: Final hours for the last Sears in Washington

Once the Renton location closes, there will be just one Shakey’s restaurant left in the state of Washington. That one is in the Tri-Cities, in Pasco. A story from reported there were 20 Shakey’s restaurants in the Puget Sound region in 1991, 16 of which were in Seattle.

The chain is nearly gone in the state of Washington, but there are left in Southern California with most of those in the Los Angeles area.

In addition, the brand is alive and well in as there are there as well.

Steve Coogan is the lead editor of MyNorthwest. You can read more of his stories here. Follow Steve on , or email him here.

The company made the announcement in a statement .

“After 73 incredible years, it is with a heavy heart that we announce our impending closure of our University District Burgermaster location at the end of February,” Burgermaster’s statement read. “Built in 1952, this was the very first Burgermaster, and it has been an enduring cornerstone of Seattle’s history, serving countless students, families and visitors over the decades.”

����Xվ Newsradio Resident Historian Feliks Banel first reported the news in his own Facebook earlier this week. He stated he spoke to Burgermaster CEO Alex Jensen, who is the third generation in his family to be involved with the chain. His grandfather, , opened that first restaurant location in 1952.

The reason for the closure is because they don’t own the land where the location sits and it, along with a number of parcels of land that includes the boarded-up Safeway next door to the west, is being bundled up for a new mixed-use development, Banel explained.

Alex Jensen told Banel that 80% of the company’s current employees will get jobs at other Burgermaster locations, which currently are located in Bellevue, Mill Creek, Mount Vernon and along Aurora Avenue in Seattle.

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Burgermaster’s future includes the new Issaquah location

Looking toward the future, Alex Jensen touted the XXX in Issaquah they’re excited about having taken over.

Banel talked to Alex Jensen about that project last year and the CEO said the company is doing a comprehensive remodel of that XXX building, including undoing some more recent changes to the interior. Specifically, they are restoring portions of the former drive-in that had been converted to office space at some point in the past few decades.

“When they built those offices, it looks like they were pretty careful to leave all of the infrastructure in place,” Alex Jensen told ����Xվ Newsradio. “I had heard rumors that the original owners kind of wanted to preserve the opportunity for somebody to come back and do this at some point.”

More from Feliks Banel: Remodel project uncovers hidden past of beloved XXX drive-in

Alex Jensen also said the XXX originally was a classic drive-in restaurant where servers took orders from customers while those customers parked under an awning and sat in their vehicles. That covered area where customers are served in their cars, Jensen explained, is called “the ramp.”

The original ramp is still there, Alex Jensen told ����Xվ Newsradio, and it’s in good shape. Burgermaster’s remodeling work will restore the look and function of the original ramp, Jensen added.

Alex Jensen also told Banel the company plans to open another new location. But he declined to say where that is yet.

Contributing: Feliks Banel, ����Xվ Newsradio

Steve Coogan is the lead editor of MyNorthwest. You can read more of his stories here. Follow Steve on , or email him here.

Lombardo passed away back in November 1977 at age 75, which means you probably have to be around 50 years old or older to remember seeing him on TV with his band, The Royal Canadians. They were the stars of the big show every year, playing “Auld Lang Syne” as the ball came down in New York City each December 31. Lombardo made his in 1976.

One person who remembers those long-ago TV New Year’s Eves is David Williams. Williams is the executive director of the in Kent.

“Guy Lombardo was sort of the guy for my parent’s generation,” Williams said earlier this week. “We had two TVs in the house. My brother and sisters and I would have it on Dick Clark listening to rock and roll, and my parents and my grandparents would have it on some other channel listening to Guy Lombardo.”

Lombardo’s niche musical genre was famous for its “sweetness,” with arrangements that were light on the drums, and rich with woodwinds and not-so-brassy brass.

“His music was coined at the time, ‘The Sweetest Sounds This Side of Heaven,’” Williams said, “and it was very mellow and sweet . . . not (like) even the hard rocking, big band stuff like a Glenn Miller, but just a very kind of sweet dance music.”

And so it might come as a surprise that not only was Lombardo a New Year’s Eve icon and a very successful recording artist, but he was also a serious and competitive racing boat and hydroplane driver based out of Detroit.

“He was a big force in the sport in the 1940s,” Williams said. “He won the Gold Cup in 1946. He went to number of national championships throughout the early 1950s” and remained active as an owner into the 1960s, says Williams. Lombardo got hooked on boat racing in Detroit around 1940, Williams says, when that city was a hotbed of boat racing in the eastern United States, and the successful bandleader had the funds necessary to buy a competitive boat.

Since that era is now more than 60 years ago, “unless you’re talking to your grandpa about racing or unless you have a really good memory, you probably wouldn’t know much about that Guy Lombardo was a racer,” Williams said.

This story of the racing bandleader is no secret, of course, and it was well-known back in the day when hydroplane racing was the subject of polite conversation in nearly all socio-economic circles of the Pacific Northwest. Lombardo’s star has faded, of course, since his death, though the London, Ontario native was the subject of a back in the 1990s that featured some old newsreel clips.

“A terrific pace is set by the bandmaster as he roars around,” the 1940s newsreel narrator says. “Past the checkered flag across the finish line, TEMPO VI is the winner.” In a later clip, perhaps from the 1950s, a different narrator jokes, “One of his crew hands him a screwdriver. Guy uses a baton to tune up his band and a screwdriver to tune up his motor, and does very well with either instrument.”

Williams says that Lombardo never actually raced in Seattle; he was more of an East Coast guy. But old newspaper clippings show that Lombardo did at least threaten to race in Seattle.

When local boat Slo-Mo-Shun IV broke the speed record and won the Gold Cup in Detroit in 1950, that meant the race came to Seattle and Lake Washington in 1951. In many ways, socially and culturally, that summer was when postwar Seattle came of age, and it’s hard to overstate the impact of that Gold Cup race on local culture.

Lombardo and his TEMPO VI, in spite of his stated intentions to compete, were no-shows here during that watershed summer. The same thing happened again in 1952, when Seattle boat Slo-Mo-Shun V captured its second of what ultimately were five straight local Gold Cup wins for Seattle boats.

Meanwhile, by the mid 1950s, some say at the urging of record company executives who were worried about their cash cow, Lombardo stepped back from driving. He still owned a boat that ran the circuit and that did race in Seattle, TEMPO VII, but Lombardo didn’t ever actually drive in a boat race here.

In spite of Seattle missing from his career stats, Lombardo would keep waving his baton in front of The Royal Canadians, and would go on to make at least two significant impacts on the sport and on the Northwest.

Around 1960, Lombardo commissioned a special four-seater hydroplane so that he could take people out on the water for high speed “demonstration” rides. David Williams says that four-seater boat was featured in an episode of the old early 1960s TV program ” that was set in Florida.

“While he was filming that, a local car dealer in Florida saw the boat and thought it was amazing and bought it from Guy,” Williams said. “The car dealer was named Bernie Little. Bernie Little went on to become the winningest owner in the history of the sport. He secured the Budweiser sponsorship and he brought Budweiser into motorsports and for over 40 years, totally dominated the sport running the Miss Budweiser. And his very first boat came from Guy Lombardo.”

Lombardo also played a part in getting the great driver Bill Muncey – of Miss Thriftway and Atlas Van Lines fame – into the sport. David Williams says that Muncey was from Detroit and was a teenage saxophone player in Gene Krupa’s band when Krupa got arrested for marijuana possession. The whole band got hauled downtown to the police station and had to get bailed out; Muncey had to phone his dad to come and get him.

David William says that on the ride home, Muncey took the opportunity to attempt to alter his son’s path.

“His dad says, ‘You know, we need to get you involved in something that’s a little bit more stable, that’s not going to be around all these jazz musicians smoking pot,’” Williams said.

According to Williams, the elder Muncey asked, ”’What are you interested in?’ And Bill goes, ‘Well, I kind of think those race boats are cool.’ So his dad contacted Guy Lombardo and said, ’Hey, I’ve got a son who’s a jazz musician who wants to learn about hydroplane racing.’ They ended up buying a boat from Guy Lombardo. That was Bill Muncey’s first boat, and [he] went on to become the winningest driver in the history of the sport,“ Williams said.

Elements of the Guy Lombardo legacy are in the collection of the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum is Kent. David Williams says they have restored 18 hydroplanes to running condition – including Lombardo’s old boat ��– and they stage an exhibition heat with old boats during the Seafair race on Lake Washington. They’ve also run vintage boats as far east as Buffalo, and as far west as Hawaii.

One group inspired by what Williams and his colleagues have done in Kent is based in London, Ontario. Randall Milligan is club director for the , and is aiming to restore Lombardo’s TEMPO VII boat.

“We’re working with the City of London to, hopefully in the next year or so, get that boat up to our facility, get it restored and then back to them,” Milligan said Monday. TEMPO VII was in a for many years, but is now on display at the Jet Aircraft Museum, also in London, Ontario.

Milligan is hoping to generate renewed interest in boat racing history in Canada. He led recent efforts, which culminated last month, to induct Guy Lombardo into the Canadian Boating Federation’s Hall of Fame.

“Guy Lombardo made a great contribution to the sport in North America, not just Canada” Milligan said. “We developed the Hall of Fame to recognize all these people,” from Canada who have made a difference in boat racing, he said. “Guy was always Canadian. His band was called The Royal Canadians. His boats always flew under the Canadian flag.”

Meanwhile, as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve 2019, recordings of Guy Lombardo are likely to be featured in every time zone in North America. And, until recently, a band licensed by Lombardo’s estate was also likely to be playing “Auld Lang Syne” somewhere in the United States or Canada.

But not this 95th anniversary year.

do still perform and they are led by ��. . . he has been leading the band since 1988,” wrote Jeff Bush of Phoenix Talent Agency, who books the band, via email. “To my knowledge, they are not working this upcoming New Year’s Eve.”

Thank goodness there’s still.

This was originally published on December 31, 2019. It has been updated and republished since then.

You can hear Feliks Banel every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News. Read more from Feliks��here��and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast��here. If you have a story idea��or a question about Northwest history, please��email Feliks.

Carter, who served just one term in office, died after a long illness on Dec. 29, 2024. He was 100 years old.

While the 39th Commander-in-Chief first entered hospice in 2023, it seemed like a good reason to look back to when Carter visited Washington and Oregon a few days after the 1980 eruption and a great excuse to listen to vintage audio clips from the somewhat unusual presidential visit to the Pacific Northwest.

Air Force One landed at the Air National Guard Base at Portland International Airport on the evening of Wednesday, May 21, 1980. The entourage traveled by motorcade to a briefing at the Gifford Pinchot National Forest headquarters in Vancouver, Washington, and then to the Marriott Hotel in Portland, Oregon, for the night.

The next morning, Carter, Washington Gov. Dixy Lee Ray, and other officials (and the news media) took off from the air base in a fleet of seven helicopters. For the next hour or so, they viewed mud and debris from the eruption clogging the Columbia River (near the mouth of the Cowlitz, which was also clogged) and blocking freight traffic in the busy corridor; flooding near Longview; homes in the Toutle Valley and other areas damaged by mudflows coming down the Toutle River; and the unimaginable devastation in the immediate vicinity of the volcano.

After the tour, the helicopters landed at Kelso Airport and then went by motorcade a few miles to Cascade Middle School in Longview (home since 1961, as everyone knows, to the mighty Cavaliers.)

School in the Longview/Kelso area had been canceled all week because of the eruption, but the gymnasium at Cascade had been converted into a Red Cross shelter for people who lost their homes or whose homes were now threatened. Carter met many of the 40 or so people staying at the shelter, listened to their stories, and offered words of support.

Longtime Sen. Warren Magnuson of Washington was also on the tour with Carter that day, and at one point, newspaper accounts say, he and Governor Ray tussled verbally over state versus federal funding required to aid in disaster recovery – Ray wanted federal dollars, Magnuson said the feds were broke.

This was 1980, after all, and the country was deep in an economic downturn, mired in the ongoing Iran hostage crisis, and on the brink of the United States’ boycott of the Summer Olympics in Moscow (in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan).

As it turned out, three of the highest-ranking elected officials who toured the volcano that day – Carter, Gov. Ray, and Sen. Magnuson – would lose their reelection bids later that year as the “Reagan landslide” radically changed Evergreen State politics (though Ray would lose earlier in the primary to Jim McDermott.)

But, those elections were still months away when, at the , Carter made one of his most memorable comments about the devastation he’d witnessed from the helicopter.

“I’ve never seen or heard of anything like this before,” Carter told the gathered members of the media. “Somebody said it looked like a moonscape. The moon looks like a golf course compared to what’s out there.

“It is a horrible-looking sight.” Carter said.

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Leaving Kelso, the entourage then headed back to Portland and the Marriott Hotel for a news conference. The president’s remarks made it very clear that what he had seen with his own eyes had made a deep impression.

“The absolute and total devastation of a region . . . encompasses about 150 (square) miles,” Carter said. “It’s the worst thing I have ever seen. It is literally indescribable, and it’s devastating.

“There is no way to prepare oneself for the sight that we beheld this morning,” the president continued. “I don’t know that … in recorded history in our nation, there has ever been a more formidable explosion.”

And even just four days after the deadly disaster which took the lives of 57 people, Carter was already looking ahead somewhat presciently, if sheepishly, to what would eventually become the reality of Mount St. Helens��once the eruptive activity subsided.

“When safe places are fixed for tourists and others and scientists to come in and observe it,” the president said, “I would say there would be, if you’ll excuse the expression, a tourist attraction that would equal the Grand Canyon or something.”

“It’s an unbelievable sight,” he said.

Air Force One departed from Portland and headed back east. The jet touched down briefly in��Spokane so the president could see the ash damage in Eastern Washington and meet with officials there before getting back on the plane and returning to Washington, D.C.

Editors’ note: This piece originally was published on May 18, 2023. It has been updated and republished since then.��

Feliks Banel has served as ����Xվ Newsradio’s Resident Historian since 2015, and was originally hired by the radio station in 1991. Read more from Feliks here; subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here; and subscribe to Feliks’ Unsolved Histories podcast . Feliks frequently posts about Northwest history on his Facebook page; for previews and updates. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks.

Merchant’s Cafe is simply closing for renovations, where they will be upgrading bathrooms, piping and electrical. They hope to reopen by March 1.

ORIGINAL STORY

Merchant’s Café in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood is reportedly closing on New Year’s Eve, according to information the history group ��posted late Friday .

The building, at 109 Yesler Way, dates to around 1890 – after the Great Seattle Fire – and is believed to be the longest continuously operated restaurant and watering hole in the city. What remains unclear is whether the building itself is threatened, or if another operator might take over the space and resume similar operations.

Merchant’s Café is saturated with Seattle history. It was in that same spot, in an earlier structure which stood on the site, where the one and only photograph of Chief Seattle was created by Edward Sammis in 1865.

Stories of what has taken place inside the current three-story building over the past 130 years are a big part of its charm, and play a significant role in how current operator Darcy Hanson promotes the restaurant and bar, as well as the rooms for rent upstairs. Those upstairs rooms reportedly housed sex workers for decades in the late-19th and early-20th centuries.

“A lot of stuff in here is original,” Hanson told ����Xվ Newsradio on a tour of the second floor in January. Hanson pointed out dull brass hardware attached to the side of the door frame which still opens and closes the transom window above the door.

“It’s original, a lot of this, in all these apartments,” Hanson said.

While the structure is not designated as an official City of Seattle landmark, it is located within the , which offers some regulatory protection should the building’s owner seek to make significant changes, up to and including demolition.

Merchant Café’s historic significance is . However, as recent decisions by the City of Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board about Memorial Stadium and by the City of Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections about the old Mama’s Mexican Kitchen have shown, historic significance in Seattle often results in only a readily dispatched minor regulatory nuisance for a building’s owner, and what amounts to a performative delay in demolition proceedings.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Feliks Banel has served as ����Xվ Newsradio’s Resident Historian since 2015, and was originally hired by the radio station in 1991. Read more from Feliks here; subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here; and subscribe to Feliks’ Unsolved Histories podcast . Feliks frequently posts about Northwest history on his Facebook page; for previews and updates. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks.

The Sears at Southcenter Mall in Tukwila opened in 1994 in what had been home, perhaps ironically, to the old Frederick & Nelson space. That still-beloved local department store went through its own death throes in the middle of the George H.W. Bush administration; the once-grand downtown location in Seattle is now the Nordstrom flagship.

As of this moment on Friday morning, the Southcenter Sears is one of just nine Sears locations open for business in the United States. When 6:00 p.m. rolls around on Sunday, that number will officially drop to eight. This is also the last Sears still standing in Washington, after the Valley Mall location in Yakima closed earlier this year.

Though they weren’t all giant mall anchor stores like the one at Southcenter – some were much smaller rural storefronts – it’s staggering to consider that as recently as 2012, Sears claimed 4,000 locations in the United States.

But, here we are, living through history in real-time as all those changes everyone keeps talking about – wrought by shifting consumer habits and the growing dominance of online commerce – are brought home to the retail landscape, and especially to the many employees who will lose their jobs after this weekend. Sears would not respond to ����Xվ Newsradio’s inquiries, but a good guess is that somewhere between 20 and 30 positions will be eliminated with the Southcenter store closure

One of those employees with 30 years of retail experience – and lifetime of also being a Sears customer – told ����Xվ Newsradio that the Southcenter closure is more than just a store shutting down.

“For me, Sears is the end of an icon . .�� it’s just an era,” the employee said (we are not using the employee’s name because they were not authorized to speak with media). “You went to Sears when you were little, you were bored to death, but then there’s the popcorn stand,” the employee continued. “And, you know, you bought everything (there) – you could trust the American-made Craftsman and Kenmore product.”

The Sears at Southcenter is selling off its fixtures and the store, the last Sears in Washington, will close on Sunday, December 15. (Feliks Banel/����Xվ Newsradio)

Craftsman was a Sears-owned brand of tools, while the Kenmore name was applied to things like stoves and vacuum cleaners.

����Xվ Newsradio also spoke to customers who were poking around the hollowed-out main floor of the Southcenter location, where store fixtures were the main things left and thus the most popular items being sold on Thursday.

More Feliks Banel: Seattleites looked to Patrick MacDonald for musical cues for decades

A mother and her 50-something daughter said they had shopped at Sears for decades. The mother said that in her day, she shopped at Sears because it was affordable. Her daughter said that, for her, it was more about loyalty to the brand.

“I think I came to Sears more so because of the name ‘Sears,’” the daughter said, “buying household appliances, things like a washer and dryer.”

“And because we had the Sears catalog, too, growing up,” the mother added. “The Sears book was always there every Christmas.”

Every American of a certain age remembers the Sears book or catalog. In retrospect, the Sears Christmas Wish Book with its head-spinning variety and hundreds of pages seems now to be the closest that any print material ever came to simulating online shopping before that option existed.

MyNorthwest History: Seattle Parks expects to restore historic Camp Long lodge, but questions remain

On a video tour of the doomed Sears created by ����Xվ Newsradio posted to Facebook, several commenters pointed out that Sears seemed to have all the ingredients – especially the catalog, “bricks and mortar” locations and brand loyalty among its millions of customers – to have become Amazon before Amazon became Amazon.

Not everyone is so sure about that. For instance, some of Sears’ products just were not cool enough to ever be viral hits – such as Free Spirit bicycles and, especially, Toughskins Jeans.

Sears’ entry into the denim wars must have been treated with some kind of powerful industrial chemical. They didn’t fade and simply never wore out, which was the opposite of what most kids wanted in a pair of jeans. And the fabric never softened up and thus never developed that comfortable, lived-in feel. One can only imagine that Sears never held a focus group with kids about what they wanted, and instead aimed these destructible pants squarely at the hearts and wallets of thrifty parents.

The Sears at Valley Mall in Yakima, Wash. closed earlier this year. (Courtesy of Ken Zick)

The Sears employee we talked to earlier reported a similar experience. As a teenager, they tried to tell their mom that Toughskins just weren’t very comfortable.

“’They’re crunchy, look mom, you can’t even bend your knees,’” the employee reported telling her mother many decades ago. “And so I loved-hated Sears, but I would never put my kid through the torture of Toughskins jeans.”

“For the value,” the employee admitted, “it was a great pair of jeans back then.”

It’s hard to predict how much longer the shrinking retail giant that once supplied Toughskins to every corner of the United States can hang on. Sears, it seems, has proven to be far less durable than their unpopular jeans.

You can hear Feliks every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien, read more from him here, and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast��here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks here.

����Xվ Newsradio reached out to the Seattle Department of Parks & Recreation (SPR) Wednesday for an update on clean-up work taking place in the wake of the fire and, more specifically, about efforts to repair the damaged structures. Along with the main lodge, a number of smaller cabins were also damaged by vandals as part of the same incident.

SPR officials declined an interview request, and provided a written statement instead.

“We are optimistic that we will be able to restore and retain the lodge building. However, the full extent of the damage is still unknown. Because the stairs were destroyed, for example, we haven’t been able to access and assess the second floor. As we gain more access to the building and begin the stabilization work, we will learn more about the damage and restoration needs.

Our team will assess the damage and develop options with cost estimates for restoration or other alternatives. We plan to have a preliminary scope and estimate by the end of Quarter 1, 2025. Given the time associated with design, permitting and public works, construction would likely take place in 2027 or 2028.

The stabilization work is focused on maintaining the lodge structure and preventing any further damage until a long-term project can be scoped, designed, and completed. The scope of the stabilization work will include selective demolition of the damaged parts of roof, assessment and shoring of walls that need support, carting-out of debris, and ventilating the building to dry it out.

The stabilization work will also provide an opportunity for our team to better understand the extent of the damage caused by the fire.

We aim to begin stabilization work as soon as possible. It will likely begin before the end of 2024 and go well into the first half of 2025.

To date we have:

• Hired a contractor to board up windows and tarp over open holes in the roof of the lodge and damaged cabins;
• Documented the damage to structures, met with insurance representatives and initiated an insurance claim;
• Replaced the windows to one of the damaged cabins;
• Began working with an architect to outline a scope of stabilization work to the lodge; and
• Initiated an Emergency Public Works process to hire a contractor to perform stabilization work.

The park is currently open for use, and there are port-a-potties on site. We are working on a plan to see if we can still offer environmental education programs without the use of the building. Start date on programs is still TBD.”

����Xվ Newsradio reached out to the Seattle Police Department for the latest on the arson investigation but we have not yet heard back. In the meantime, ����Xվ Newsradio will continue to reach out to Seattle Parks & Recreation for updates and will share what we learn as work at Camp Long progresses.

You can hear Feliks Banel every Wednesday and Friday morning on “Seattle’s Morning News” with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien. Read more from Feliks here and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks. You can also follow Feliks .

“MacDonald was a groundbreaker in his field as one of the very early daily news rock music writers in the United States,” covering MacDonald’s life and career. “He was someone who kept his ear to the ground and was eager to herald rising local artists.”

In the glory days of live music from the 1970s to the 2000s, as rock and roll became rock, and punk and new wave crested and morphed into “alternative,” MacDonald was one of the few trusted authorities on what was good and what was bad, sonically-speaking and performance wise.

For decades, countless aficionados of live concerts held at bars, theatres and arenas looked to MacDonald’s review in the next day’s paper before they knew for sure that what they had seen and heard was worth, or not worth, the price of admission.

Before the web and social media — and before everyone became a critic with a platform –Patrick MacDonald was a trusted observer of the local and national scene whose columns gave even those who rarely ventured out some idea of what was happening in smoky barrooms and acoustically challenging venues like the Kingdome and what was then the Seattle Center Coliseum.

Patrick MacDonald was 79 years old.

Jimi Hendrix, shown performing at Sicks Stadium in 1970, was one of the local artists who Patrick MacDonald wrote about during his long career with The Seattle Times. (Photo courtesy of MOHAI via Feliks Banel.)

You can hear Feliks Banel every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien. Read more from Feliks here and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks. You can also follow Feliks .

One of the kids whose letter was read on the old 1950 recording I had found – with help from John Jenkins of – was 7-year-old Jim Hudson, who asked for presents for himself, as well as for his brother, who was serving in the Korean War.

“And here’s a nice letter from, let’s see, this is from Chehalis or Centralia. It’s from Jim Hudson,” says Santa on the scratchy old recording. “He wants a sailboat, a Red Ryder BB gun, a basketball, and he says, ‘Bring my big brother Eugene something, too. I think he might be home for Christmas. He is in Korea. And please bring something for my two big sisters, Edna and Temple, and maybe some perfume or hair lotion.’”

As I wrote in 2018: “The Korean War had just begun that summer of 1950, and big brother Eugene Hudson was, apparently, already in the thick of it. How I’d love to know how Eugene fared in that tour of duty.”

Spoiler alert: Eugene made it back and lived to the ripe old age of 90 before passing away in 2021; Jim’s younger brother Tim – “Timmy” on the old recording – also died in recent years.

Jim Hudson of Tumwater didn’t hear ����Xվ Radio’s original broadcast in December 2018, but he heard the rebroadcast. Back in 2021, I spoke with the then 78-year-old Jim Hudson, who had no idea the old recording existed or that the “Magic Radio Santa” was a fixture in Centralia for decades.

A lot has changed for Jim Hudson and his family since 1950 – and even in the past few years – but I’m grateful to him for sharing photos and memories – and plenty of laughs – about his siblings and the “Magic Radio Santa” experience of more than 70 years ago.

Special thanks to Steve Richert for his assistance with the original story and to Chris McCord for helping connect ����Xվ Radio with Jim Hudson.

Editors’ note: This piece originally was published in December 2023. It has been updated and republished since then.

You can hear Feliks Banel every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien. Read more from Feliks here and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks. You can also follow Feliks .

����Xվ Radio resident historian Feliks Banel joined “Seattle’s Morning News” host Dave Ross for a conversation about Pearl Harbor history, and a listen back to clips from the BBC and from ����Xվ Radio from 83 years ago.

More Pearl Harbor and World War II history from Feliks Banel’s MyNorthwest archives:

• Remembering Enumclaw’s Doolittle Raider Edward Saylor
• After Pearl Harbor, volunteers scanned Washington’s skies
• Uncovering SPD’s Hidden Wartime Role after Pearl Harbor
• Listening back on the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor
• One Seattle family’s incredible World War II homefront hospitality
• ‘Momentous occasion’ on Vashon Island during World War II
• D-Day is personal for many observing the 75th anniversary
• All Over The Map: V-J Day 75th Anniversary

Editors’ note: This piece originally was published in December 2021. It has been updated and republished since then.

You can hear Feliks every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News, read more from him here, and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast��here. If you have a story idea, please email Feliks here.

On the final broadcast of the season before Christmas, Santa and the elves give the headlines, traffic, weather, sports and a few holiday songs, too.

Starring Dave Ross as Santa, and a whole studio full of elves, including Ursula Reutin, Gee Scott, John Curley, Aaron Granillo, Aaron Mason, Nate Connors, Nick Creasia, Tom Brock, Tim Haeck, Bill Yeend and Feliks Banel.

The sound effects were managed by Curtis Takahashi and John Engerman was in charge of the music.

You can hear Feliks Banel every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien. Read more from Feliks here and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks. You can also follow Feliks .

Though that corner of Queen Anne – as well as that part of the horizon – will remain dark for December 2024, the holiday-lighting news coming from Seattle’s oldest TV station isn’t all bad.

KING 5 President and General Manager Christy Moreno confirmed for ����Xվ Newsradio Thursday morning that the lights will not be illuminated this year. Moreno says the long strings of colored bulbs are inadvertently AWOL because of a months-long painting and maintenance project for the tower that wrapped up later than expected.

“We actually just finished a massive painting and refurbishing project on the tower,” Moreno explained. “So, obviously, not very exciting, but we ended up having to pass on the lights this year.”

That’s the bad news. The good news?

“Never fear,” Moreno continued, “the lights will return next year.”

With the outcry on social media (and from at least one radio historian), does Moreno regret not letting the public know in advance that the lights would not be glowing atop Queen Anne Hill this year?

“We talked about it internally,” Moreno said. “But it wasn’t something that I put out to the public, and I have just been answering the messages as they come in.”

And, Moreno adds, getting those worried calls and emails had what might be called a silver lining.

“It’s been nice to connect with people,” Moreno said. Calls and emails came “mostly from Queen Anne residents, but we haven’t had a lot outside of that area. It’s a really cool tradition, and we do love it very much, so I absolutely get it why people are talking about it.”

“I was happy to answer them and let them know what was going on and that they were coming back next year, and not to worry,” Moreno said, and also pointed out that the tower is not likely to need similar maintenance and painting for as long as few decades from now.

“I’m happy that people care about it like we do, and that it’s an important part of their holiday tradition,” Moreno continued. “I think that’s reassuring in this day and age to know that people hold the same traditions that we do special.”

Editors’ note: This story was first published on Wednesday, Dec. 4. It has been updated and republished multiple times since then.

You can hear Feliks Banel every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien. Read more from Feliks here and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks. You can also follow Feliks .

����Xվ-7 T-V reports crews have started work to remove the gazebo at the city’s Clark Park to make room for a new dog park.

The city announced in January the 103-year-old gazebo would be taken apart and placed in storage.

City officials were concerned the site has been a problem site frequented by drug users and a location where other crimes have left park users concerned for their safety.

The site is a few blocks east of Everett High School and has been on the city’s list of “High Drug Crime Zones” since 2017.

����Xվ Newsradio Resident Historian Feliks Banel has reported extensively on the debate over whether the historic gazebo could be left intact.

In his most recent, published on June 6th, he detailed how a group of preservation activists associated with the non-profit group Historic Everett had argued against its removal.

Banel’s reporting has also outlined how city officials declined to respond to compromise proposals and appeared to sidestep accepted practices for reviewing changes to city landmarks.

According to the Everett Herald, police have made several drug arrests there and a stabbing occurred in the park in 2022.

Clark Park is the city’s oldest park.

It has served as a gathering space for concerts, Easter egg hunts, protests and sporting events for over 130 years.

The park’s name has changed since it was first purchased by the city in 1894.

It was first called “City Park.”

But in 1927, the city renamed it “Clark Park,” to honor John J. Clark, one of Everett’s pioneer residents.

City officials have been considering the idea of a new off-leash dog park there since 2019.

����Xվ-7 reports most of the park was fenced off last week for construction.

The city’s Parks and Facilities Department says much of the park, including the playground, will be closed during construction.

The tennis courts will remain open.

The department expects the project to be finished by next summer.

That’s what at a gathering in Switzerland in January 2000. The remarks came in Davos, just a few months after things had gone so badly in the Emerald City during an event called the 1999 WTO Third Ministerial.

A quarter-century after it happened, a new exhibit at the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) in Seattle is a reminder of what the WTO was about, and how it made its infamous mark on local and world history. ��opened Friday, and will be on display in the museum at Lake Union Park through the end of April 2025.

Anyone who lived in the Northwest 25 years ago will never forget the event that was held in Seattle over five days in late November and early December 1999 by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in partnership with a local event organizing committee.

More Feliks Banel: Historic Fort Vancouver marks bicentennial in 2025

Earlier that year, world leaders and trade officials from dozens of countries picked Seattle as the place to hold their third conference or “ministerial.” When Seattle was selected, it was a feather in the city’s cap; Seattle and the State of Washington have always been highly dependent on foreign trade, going back as far as the 19^th century. Hopes were high for a big economic boost from all the visitors, and for lots of free publicity around the world showing off the beautiful city by Puget Sound.

Of course, it all went terribly wrong. Months before the event was scheduled to kick off, activists from around the United States began organizing to not only protest by exercising their right to free speech, but with the specific goal of shutting the whole thing down. While there were many non-violent events, including demonstrations and marches, the WTO in Seattle is remembered most for the blocked streets, the tear gas, the failure of the WTO members to reach any agreements, as well as the damage to downtown businesses – and to civic pride.

Along with Tony Blair’s international swipe, the WTO left a bad taste in Seattle’s collective mouth, and was a black eye to then-Mayor Paul Schell. Schell was ultimately beaten by Greg Nickels in the mayoral election of 2001, in part because of how he and Seattle Police Department Chief Norm Stamper were perceived to have handled to turmoil. Trivia buffs will remember that a fictionalized version of the late Paul Schell was depicted in the 2007 Hollywood film “Battle in Seattle” by the late Ray Liotta, whose character was called Mayor Jim Tobin.

All Over The Map: Early 20th century artifact plucked from Lake Washington

The new exhibit at MOHAI is curated by , a history professor at the UW who studies labor movements and radicalism, both of which have been present in the Northwest nearly as long as the region’s dependence on foreign trade. Mikala Woodward, MOHAI’s curator of community engagement, led the museum’s project team.

During a preview earlier this week, Woodward explained that the second word in the exhibit title – “Teamsters Turtles and Beyond” – reflects one of the most iconic artifacts of the WTO in Seattle: colorful cardboard turtle costumes worn by marchers to call attention to the environmental detriments of unregulated world trade.

Further, Woodward says, the word “Teamsters” partially reflects the unlikely coalition of groups who opposed the WTO. One of the most interesting things in the MOHAI exhibit is a chart on the wall resembling a Venn diagram which shows how the assortment of groups participating in opposition to the WTO was incredibly diverse, ranging from mainstream labor groups such as the Teamsters, to radical environmentalists who typically wouldn’t have anything in common with a huge labor union.

Aside from the colorful turtle costumes and dolphin silhouette protest signs, one of the most compelling sights in the MOHAI exhibit appears, at first, to be a graphic prepared specially for the museum display. However, as Mikala Woodward explained, it’s actually a genuine artifact collected by the University of Washington.

The group organizing demonstrations and protests against the WTO event in Seattle, Woodward says, was called Direct Action Network (DAN). In November 1999, DAN established what they called their “Convergence Center” – essentially, a command post – on Capitol Hill in an old building at the corner of Denny Way and Olive.

Woodward told ����Xվ Newsradio that someone from DAN took a Kroll map of downtown Seattle and enlarged it, and then had it printed out on giant paper, creating a map roughly six-feet high 12-feet across. At the MOHAI exhibit, the vintage map is displayed behind Plexiglas, so visitors can walk right up to it and see the original markings, and see how MOHAI has annotated it with additional context and history.

“It is so cool, and it’s really fun to just look and see what was here in 1999,” Woodward told ����Xվ Newsradio, as she pointed out long-gone landmarks including the Kingdome.

“But also it shows the route of the marches,” Woodward continued. “I think there’s notes on here, like here, ‘We’re gonna start at 7:00 a.m.’ . . . ‘Here’s where the labor rally is happening, this is the route it’s gonna come down.’”

A walk through “Teamsters Turtles and Beyond” brings the WTO memories flooding back, of course, but it also stirs up deeper thoughts about how much the world has changed since November 1999.

Back then, the web was a thing, but there were no smartphones or social media, and legacy media – newspapers and TV and radio – were mostly driving the stories (along with a growing number of blogs). The feared Y2K and potential collapse of civilization was a month away. President Bill Clinton (who visited Seattle for the WTO and ended up stuck in his hotel for security reasons) was late in his second term. The internet-fueled economy was on fire everywhere and booming especially in Seattle. Cellphones were still just for talking. The bizarre presidential election of Gore v. Bush in November 2000 was less than a year away, and 9/11 was just over the horizon.

If you personally remember the WTO in Seattle or any of those old realities, “Teamster Turtles and Beyond” brings it all back and gives you much to think about. If it’s all new to you, there’s no better way to understand what happened and why, and to imagine the role Seattle played then – and still plays now in a much different world – beyond serving as a stage for peaceful demonstrations and violent clashes.

Who knows? A visit to MOHAI’s new exhibit might even change Tony Blair’s assessment.

You can hear Feliks Banel every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien. Read more from Feliks here and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks. You can also follow Feliks .

If there’s one takeaway from all the stories about the past that we try to tell on ����Xվ Newsradio and MyNorthwest, it’s that history is complicated, and is often full of subtleties and nuance.

With Thanksgiving here, it’s worth thinking about the over-simplified way that Americans once observed the holiday and celebrated its history with well-meaning pageants featuring brave pilgrims and stoic Indians feasting in gratitude in New England. Looking back even just a few decades to what many remember from their childhood, subtlety and nuance aren’t exactly the words that come to mind.

Much closer to home, Fort Vancouver was an incredible crossroads of commerce, religion, morality, and politics, as well as a clash between Indigenous cultures and European and American colonial aims. It’s a place where so many threads of Pacific Northwest history cross and tangle and get all twisted up; it’s about regional history, to be sure, but with international ramifications as far as where the international boundary would be set, and how far Great Britain and the United States would go to achieve their territorial goals.

More Feliks Banel: History of big windstorms in the Northwest

When the centennial for Fort Vancouver was celebrated in 1925, it was truly “celebrated” – not “observed” or “commemorated” the way we might say today. A hundred years ago, it was a festive occasion about what was considered an American triumph, with a commemorative coin and even a pageant called “The Coming of the White Man.”

It’s not 1925 anymore when it comes to Fort Vancouver, and it’s not the old days of pilgrim and Indian pageants when it comes to Thanksgiving. The way that many museums, college professors, and even cable TV channels depict history is much more sophisticated. The “black and white,” or “good guys versus bad guys” approach is mostly gone, including for the upcoming Fort Vancouver bicentennial.

Meagan Huff is curator for the National Park Service at Fort Vancouver. ��She agrees that standards for history are just higher nowadays.

“People are less tolerant of only getting that side or any one side of a story,” Huff told ����Xվ Newsradio. “And I think that’s kind of fabulous. I think we shouldn’t be satisfied with just a simplified version of the story. We should always want to dig a little deeper and learn a little more.”

All Over The Map: Early 20th century artifact plucked from Lake Washington

Huff says Fort Vancouver National Historic Site has been operated by the National Park Service since 1947. It’s east of I-5 just north of the Columbia River. The centerpiece is a re-construction of the 1820s wooden fort, which was built about 50 years ago.

March 19, 2025 will mark the actual bicentennial of the official dedication of Fort Vancouver 200 years ago.

In 1825, what’s now Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia was jointly occupied by the British and the Americans under a treaty signed in 1818. The big wooden fort was a foothold not just for the British-chartered fur company, but also for staking claim to possession of the territory. This was during a time when the British thought they would ultimately get sole control of the land north of the Columbia River – which is why the Hudson’s Bay Company moved operations from what’s now Astoria (on the south side of the river) to what they named Fort Vancouver (in honor of the British explorer) on the north side.

Meagan Huff says that many of the events in 2025 will be centered around the re-constructed fort structure – including lecture programs and new exhibits – but she clarified that the original fort in 1825 was actually built in a slightly different location.

“The original Fort Vancouver, the first Fort Vancouver, was actually built starting around this time of year in 1824 ,up on a bluff to the northeast of where you see the reconstruction today,” Huff explained. “They originally built it up on that bluff because they thought the view was very majestic and this would be a good position or area for a fort.”

That turned out to be a mistake, Huff says, because “it was very difficult for them to bring in goods and supplies from the river.” Thus, a new fort was built in 1829 on a camas prairie nearer to the Columbia where the reconstructed fort now stands.

When the boundary was settled by treaty at the 49^th parallel in 1846, Hudson’s Bay moved most of their operations to Victoria on Vancouver Island. However, Meagan Huff says the British stayed on at Fort Vancouver for more than a decade after 1846. Eventually, the U.S. Army moved in, and then the old fort burned down under mysterious circumstances in the 1860s.

Huff says that much of what’s known about Fort Vancouver comes from archaeological research done there on-site going back to 1947. The initial focus of excavations was on the big wooden fort because it was the easy-to-understand, giant artifact. That research helped do the reconstruction in the 1960s.

But, says National Park Service curator Meagan Huff, the archaeology evolved to look beyond the structure to take in the bigger picture of the entire community.

“The focus was on the Fort Vancouver village, which was an employee village located to the west of the fort, where most everyone lived in the 1830s and 40s,” Huff said. “This is where the working class lived, where women and families lived, so being able to locate where village houses were, being able to see the kinds of things that people threw away, the kinds of things that people used, was extremely helpful.”

Information gleaned from those archaeological studies has been informing exhibits and programming at Fort Vancouver for decades, and will do the same for the 2025 bicentennial.

However, even though the way the history is told has evolved to encompass the larger and broader story of everyone in and around Fort Vancouver, it’s still important to understand the role of at least one of the larger-than-life characters there.

is the individual most associated with site selection for Fort Vancouver, and for overseeing Hudson’s Bay operations there for decades.

McLoughlin was French-Canadian. He was tall with long white hair, and some Indigenous people called him the “Great White Eagle.” McLoughlin was in charge of Fort Vancouver for the Hudson’s Bay Company, and in that role he met all the important Americans who shaped or who tried to shape Oregon Country history from the 1820s to the 1840s. Part of his likely unspoken job description was to be a physical presence to help the British assert claim to land north of the Columbia River. But he was also generous to Americans, too – for which he was sometimes criticized by other Hudson’s Bay officials.

It’s not that simple, of course, says Meagan Huff. For example, John McLoughlin’s treatment of Indigenous people was complex. He married a Native woman, and encouraged the Hudson’s Bay employees who worked for him to do the same.

However, says Huff, “there were times in his time at Fort Vancouver where he was ordering attacks on Clatsop villages because he believed that they had done harm to a company ship.”

“So there were times where, you know, looking back, we’re like, ‘my goodness, that seems unjust and bad,’” Huff continued. “But there were also ways in which he really saw indigenous leaders in the area as people to be esteemed and respected.”

McLoughlin ultimately left Hudson’s Bay Company and settled in Oregon City, in what had become Oregon Territory, officially part of the United States. He’s been known for more than a century as the “Father of Oregon.”

Meagan Huff says observances will kick off officially in March 2025, and that more details will be coming in January. But she says there’s no need to wait for the bicentennial to officially begin to pay a visit.

“We certainly welcome the public to come to Fort Vancouver in the bicentennial year,” Huff said, “but at any time beyond this as well, because the story will continue, and our understanding of it will continue to change and be shaped. And we’re always looking for new perspectives.”

“That’s kind of how I see my job,” Huff continued. “Doing my research and then asking, ‘But what about that? But what about that?’ And trying to find more and more stories and bring those forward.”

You can hear Feliks Banel every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien. Read more from Feliks here and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks. You can also follow Feliks .

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Franklin Landing is a tiny street-end park on the west side of Mercer Island, essentially opposite Seward Park over on the Seattle side of Lake Washington. A dock at this location was a key piece of the “Mosquito Fleet” transportation infrastructure from the late 19th century to 1940, when the first Lake Washington Floating Bridge (which crossed Mercer Island) opened to vehicle traffic.

����Xվ Newsradio was joined early Friday by . He’s known to many as “Mr. Lake Washington History;” McCauley is an author, historian, underwater explorer and a good friend of Seattle’s Morning News.

Earlier this week, McCauley told ����Xվ Newsradio that a lot of history is hidden beneath the water just off this little-known spot, including ancient clay ledges and 1,200-year-old intact trees from an ancient forest.

All of that, of course, sounds pretty cool. However, what we invited McCauley to Franklin Landing to tell us about is a more recent artifact from the early 20th century which he and a friend plucked from the lake bottom on a recent dive.

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Feliks Banel: “So Matt, for the radio listeners, give us a picture, kind of a physical description, paint a word picture of what this artifact is that’s in your hand right now.”

Matt McCauley: “Yes, this is an old-style glass milk bottle. It is clear. It is embossed with the name “Kristoferson’s” on the upper half. And the neck of the bottle is bulbous. It has a collection area for cream. So the milk would be in the bottom main reservoir of the bottle, and then in the very top, the cream would collect. And this was a pretty common design in the first half of the 20th century.”

Banel: “So that’s called a cream top bottle. It’s a gorgeous piece of glass workmanship from the early part of the 20th century. So why would it be here off Franklin Landing on Mercer Island, of all places?”

McCauley: “Well, this was a steamer landing called Franklin Landing. It connected a foot-passenger steamer between Mercer Island and Leschi. And going back to the 1890s, there had been a dairy on Mercer Island called Kristoferson’s Dairy that later expanded so by the 1920s and 30s, people would bring their coffee, plates and breakfast down to wait at the steamer landing for the boat to come by. And what probably happened is, after they drained their milk bottle, somebody just tossed it into the lake.”

Banel: “And so it’s been out there for probably 80, 90 years. You’ve dived on this place since the late 70s. Why is Lake Washington sometimes stingy with its treasures, yet, all of a sudden, gives it up on a random day in November 2024?”

McCauley: “The visibility down there is kind of limited, so it’s really easy to swim past stuff and not having seen it. There also a lot of the areas where the bottom is softer, the bottles will sort of hide down below the sediment. So you kind of have to develop a knack of seeing odd little bumps and bulges and knowing to reach down into it with your hand and feel around. And then sometimes you’ll find something down there and, ‘Aha, there’s a bottle that’s been sitting there for 100 years or more.'”

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Banel: “That’s really cool. So the basic premise is here, the thesis is, local history is everywhere. It’s underfoot, it’s underwater, it’s out here on Mercer Island. Thanks Matt McCauley for joining us live at Franklin Landing on Mercer Island.”

Matt McCauley said Kristoferson’s Dairy began on Mercer Island, and then expanded into Seattle with construction of a bottling plant on Rainier Avenue in the 1920s. The company, which dated to the 1890s, was ultimately acquired by the larger Foremost Dairy sometime in the 1950s.

You can hear Feliks Banel every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien. Read more from Feliks here and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks. You can also follow Feliks .

Friday, November 22, 1963, was chilly and damp in Seattle, where the temperature had dipped to 39 degrees that morning. As elsewhere in the rest of the country, housewives (as they were unabashedly called then) were making preparations for Thanksgiving, now less than a week away. The Huskies and the Cougars were set to compete in their annual cross-state face-off, first dubbed “The Apple Cup” that year, at Husky Stadium the next day.

As the clock ticked toward 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time and JFK’s Lincoln came into sight of a sixth-floor window in the Texas School Book Depository, a young Bryan Johnson got ready to deliver the news on KOMO Radio, local deejay Mike Phillips held forth on music powerhouse KJR-AM, while dimming star Arthur Godfrey – who had first come to national attention describing FDR’s funeral procession 18 years earlier on radio – strummed his aging ukulele via CBS over on ����Xվ-AM.

On television, it was “Movietime” on KOMO (actual movie now forgotten), the final moments of the game show “Concentration” on KING, a rerun of the old sitcom “The McCoys” on ����Xվ, and over on KCTS, eerily, something called “Julius Caesar, Part IV,” about another leader assassinated long before anyone had heard of Jack Kennedy.

JFK was no stranger to Seattle. He’d visited as a candidate in September 1960, giving a rousing speech at the old Civic Auditorium (since remodeled into the World’s Fair Opera House and now McCaw Hall) as Governor Albert Rosellini and Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson looked on. In spite of the state’s Democratic governor and senators, Republican candidate Richard Nixon carried Washington state that year by a few percentage points.

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As president, Kennedy took part in the UW Centennial in November 1961, and was due to return to Seattle for the closing ceremonies of the World’s Fair in October 1962. He had made it as far west as Chicago on that trip, before heading back to the White House to nurse what his aides called a “bad cold” – which turned out to be more like a bad Cold War. The sneezes were a cover, so that JFK could prepare to address the nation regarding Soviet missiles in Cuba. JFK may have sneezed, but it was Khrushchev who ultimately blinked.

Less than two months before his final trip to Dallas, Kennedy returned to the Northwest for the last time. He spoke at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation east of the mountains, and gave what The Seattle Times described as a “plea for the preservation of public recreation areas in a speech before 20,000 persons, many of them wildly enthusiastic students” at Tacoma’s Cheney Stadium.

News of the shooting in Dallas spread rapidly throughout the Pacific Northwest, as first radio reports and then marathon TV coverage brought up-to-the-minute information to homes, businesses, and offices.

At City Hall, Acting Mayor Floyd C. Miller (Mayor Gordon Clinton was en route from a trade mission to Japan) ordered flags lowered to half-staff at 11:37 a.m., as soon as the president’s death was confirmed. Similar actions were taken at local schools, post offices, and other government buildings. A few blocks up the hill from City Hall at St. James Cathedral, the bells were rung for the president – the only Catholic to hold the office – as mourners gathered for an impromptu memorial.

In Olympia, Governor Rosellini immediately proclaimed a period of mourning, while State Patrol Chief Roy Betlach put his entire force on alert and assigned guards to protect the governor and his wife. “We don’t know what to expect,” Betlach told The Seattle Times.

As the afternoon wore on, more and more programs and events were canceled. The University of Washington closed two hours early at 3 p.m., while UW President Charles Odegaard postponed the Apple Cup until the following Saturday and all Homecoming activities were suspended. The Ingraham-Franklin High School football game at Memorial Stadium was postponed. KCTS canceled all programming and went dark for the evening. The annual Chief Seattle Council’s Cub Scout “Clamorama” — set to begin Friday night at Seattle Center — was postponed to midweek.

Kennedy was a decorated World War II Navy vet, and that branch of the service, well represented on Puget Sound, made elaborate tributes. On Saturday, as Kennedy lay in state in the White House, single-gun salutes were fired every half hour at Pier 91 downtown, Sand Point Naval Air Station (now Magnuson Park) on Lake Washington, and at the Bremerton Navy Yard. The Army cannon near Fort Lawton’s flagpole also was fired every 30 minutes for the deceased commander-in-chief. A Seattle Youth Symphony concert went ahead as planned on Saturday night at the same Opera House where Kennedy had spoken three years earlier, with Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” dedicated to the slain president.

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Like the rest of the nation, Seattleites watched Sunday’s proceedings in Washington, D.C., and Dallas – the procession of Kennedy’s casket to Congress, Oswald’s mortal wounding by Jack Ruby – on television, leaving deserted the streets and few establishments that remained open that weekend. Those who ventured out did so mostly to attend the masses and memorials held at St. James Cathedral, Seattle University, Bikur Cholim Synagogue, University Presbyterian, St. Mark’s Cathedral, Plymouth Congregational Church and Greek Orthodox Church, among others.

On Monday, declared a National Day of Mourning by President Johnson, schools and government offices and most businesses closed for the day, as Kennedy’s procession and funeral were shown on television. One exception was Boeing, where 60,000 workers paused only during the burial at Arlington National Cemetery, but then returned to their work, deemed vital to America’s defense. A memorial service was held downtown in the Veteran’s Memorial Plaza of the old Public Safety Building, and six F-102 fighters in a cross formation flew over a ceremony at Paine Field.

As Tuesday, Nov. 26, dawned, Seattle and the nation began the long slow process of getting back to normal. The following Saturday, the Huskies did their small part — since not only history and politics, but sports is local, too — by beating the Cougars 16-0 in Montlake to take the 1963 Apple Cup.

A slightly different version of this article originally appeared on Crosscut.com, a daily news site dedicated to Northwest political, business and cultural issues.

You can hear Feliks every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien, read more from him here, and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea, please email Feliks here.