Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River

 

May I share a book review with you all today? I just finished reading this book, Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River, by William Dietrich, 1995 (my book says that; Amazon description has later dates).  Since all Washingtonians are in some fashion connected to this mighty river, I do recommend the book to you, all 400 pages.

Chapters in the book span the early history of mankind's contact with the river, and how it was "in the beginning," to how mankind tamed and changed the river to his liking. With easy to read prose, Dietrich explains how using the river changed settlers and settling over the decades. He describes the plight of the salmon, the poisoned ground of Hanford and how, thanks to dams, electricity from the river changed lives. The first chapters explain the geology of the entire area and how the river was ultimately formed. 

Readers are introduced to "Suzy the Chinook" as she makes her migratory journey to the sea and back. Several pages detail why most do not make it. Why? Suzy's body begins to change to adapt to salt water as she begins her down stream journey which used to take 20 to 30 days to reach the ocean and now, because of all the "lakes" behind the dams, the journey takes 2 to 3  months. See the problem?

Why did the government pick the Columbia River community of Hanford to build the nuclear reactors? The area was along the Columbia and plenty of cold water was needed.  I quote:  "B Reactor was deliberately built in what was considered the middle of nowhere in 1943: the sagebrush desert there was a remote location ensuring  that if anything went wrong , a minimum number of people would be killed. Engineers looked for an empty 'hazardous manufacturing area' of at least 12 by 16 miles for plutonium production. The 'gawd-awful' waste in the rain shadow of the Cascade Mountains fit that bill."  One Army lieutenant was quoted to say, upon surveying the area, "It is a desolation where even the most hopeful can find nothing in its future prospects to cheer." 

Author Dietrich begins his book with this quote from Baba Dioum, Senegalese conservationist (born in 1937):  "In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught."

If you want to "be taught" more about our magnificent and wonderful Columbia River, I do recommend this book as a great read. It is available on Amazon. 

Museums To Visit

 

We be well into summer and have you any travel plans? Why not visit a museum...... especially a weird museum. Guarantee you (and your kiddos) will enjoy such a visit. Except for the one in Iceland. 

*Mutter Museum in Philadelphia features anatomical specimens, including Einstein's brain and a cast of Chang and Eng, the famous Siamese Twins joined at the abdomen.

** International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, NM, focuses on the 1947 Roswell UFO incident and alien lore. 

** SPAM museum in Austin, MN is dedicated entirely to the history and culture of the canned meat product. Great gift shop.

** National Mustard Museum in Middleton, WI, displays over 5000 types of mustard from around the world.

** Pizza Brain Museum in Philadelphia showcases the world's pizza culture and pizzeria.

** Devil's Rope Museum in McLean, TV, explores the history of barbed wire. 

** Museum of Salt & Pepper Shakers in Gatlinburg, TN, features thousands of sets of these.

** Lunchbox Museum in Columbus, GA, is the world's largest collected of lunchboxes featuring over 5000 vintage metal and plastic lunchboxes.

** Hammer Museum in Haines, AL, is dedicated to hammers; founded in 2002 it contains over 1400 hammers and related tools ranging from ancient times, through colonial days to the industrial age.

** Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles is a surreal institution blending fact and fiction.

** Probably not for children, the Penis Museum in Reykjavik, Iceland features "more than 200 penises and penile parts representing almost all Icelandic land and sea mammals."  (Yes, hubby and I visited this museum  in 2019 and it wasn't so bad.) 

Time for Funnies!

 

1910 swimming costumes

WikiTree & Geni: Have You Looked?

 

I heard a respected genealogy expert (Arlene Eakle) once say that you could and should check 50 sources to fully document any one family group. Bet we've not been doing that, right?

Two places we might look are places were family trees are posted and genealogists collaborate. WikiTree has been around since 2009, currently (as of March 2026) has 1,326,162 community members with 44,622,928 ancestors on trees. Geni offers 208,319,099 profiles connected in its trees. 

Both websites are free so why not check them out?

Wikitree Strong Points: strong focus on accuracy and sourcing; collaborative environment, free access and helpful community.  Potential Weaknesses:  relies on user input; potential for inaccuracies and unsourced claims, not a record repository and can be clunky and unintuitive.

Geni Strong Points:  collaborative world family tree; curator program, DNA features, GEDCOM support. Limitations: reliance on user-generated content; lack of internal record database and does offer subscription for premium features.

Recommendations: always verify information; focus on well-sourced profiles, consult original sources whenever possible, don't rely on any one tree for all your information; use these collaborative websites as starting points not definitive sources; always cite your sources. 

Money Laundering

No, not the illegal process of making large amounts of money generated by criminal activity. I'm talking about with-soap-and-water WASHING money. No, not in a wringer washing machine.

Spotting this tidbit in the March 19, 1910 issue of the Colville Examiner, I just had to share it with you:  "Representative Wiley of New Jersey has a bill before Congress providing that all paper money which reaches the treasury be burned and new clean currency furnished in lieu of it. In support of this measure he had a current $1 bill microscopically examined and the report on its condition laid before the house committee on banking and currency. The bill in question had on it 92,000 germs of different diseases and paper money generally has been found to carry germs of smallpox, scarlet fever, typhoid, tuberculosis and diphtheria.

"Desiring to aid in this crusade against diseased paper money, the Examiner hereby announces that anyone having dirty paper money in their possession may bring it to this office and receive in exchange a clean paper every week in the year. An editor takes so many chances in this world that a few million germs more will not make any great difference. It's the absence of these money germs that makes trouble for us."

This is a hoot!  I think the newspaper is saying "Baloney!" to the idea of "dirty money" and just telling folks to come in and subscribe to the paper......... bring your money to this office and exchange it for a clean paper every week????  Too funny. 

What is really too funny is that Spokane's historic Davenport Hotel, during this same time period, offered the service to its guests of washing their coins and pressing their currency as part of a high-end service idea. Supposedly this added to the prestige of the hotel. 

McNeil Island & Prison

First off, McNeil Island was, indeed, a tiny seven-square-miles island in Puget Sound west of Tacoma. Its name comes from William Henry McNeil, a captain of some Hudson Bay Company steamers. Oregon Trail pioneer and advocate, Ezra Meeker had a homestead on McNeil Island where the prison yard would be but sold it in 1862. (Isn't it interesting how history overlaps?)

In 1867, Congress authorized a territorial jail in the Washington Territory; in 1875 this became a federal penitentiary. The original cellhouse was built in 1873; by the end of 1875 the total prison population was nine. There are several websites available to you giving a chronological history of the place and are most interesting reads. At one time, the island provided for itself by raising vegetables, fruit, pork, beef and milk. By 1947, the incarcerated population was 320 individuals. Additional prison cells were added as the inmate population increased as did the housing facilities for the prison staff. McNeil ultimately had a capacity of 853 prisoners; the prison was closed in 2011and the land was deeded to the Washington State Department of Fish & Wildlife for continued use as a wildlife refuge. 

One of the more famous inmates was Robert Franklin Stroud whose story was portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the movie Birdman of Alcatraz. (He was at McNeil but the movie was Alcatraz??)

Perhaps one of your family members was a "guest" at McNeil Island? Want to find out? 

The McNeil Island Penitentiary records, spanning 1875-2010, are primarily held by the National Archives at Seattle and the Washington State Archives, Digital Archives. They include inmate case files, mugshots and registers of prisoners received. Key digital records are accessible through Ancestry.com and the Washington State Archives, Digital Archives (www.digitalarchives.wa.gov). 

Indian Princes Buried in Utah?

 Some time ago, a friend told me that as a youngster, she enjoyed roaming a nearby cemetery where she lived in Beaver, Utah. She clearly remembers seeing this tombstone and asking folks who this was? Here's what Google taught us:

"The "Indian princess" story associated with Beaver, Utah, is a family legend about an East Indian woman who converted to the LDS faith and moved to Beaver. The narrative is a specific family tale and there is no historical record of an "Indian princess" of this kind in Native American history or in the founding of Beaver, Utah. The concept of an "Indian princess" is often a romanticized and inaccurate portrayal of Native American nobility which didn't exist in the European sense."

Just for fun, I did some sleuthing on FindAGrave. Entering "King" in the first name box yielded 15,958 hits.  Entering "unknown" showed 307,472 hits.  What really was sad was the entries for "baby" as the first name:  786,412. This one really was awfully sad.