Hood Canal: Washington's Natural "Canal"

 

"The Hood Canal waters journey from China, from San Francisco and from Alaska, past Victoria and down the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Leaving Puget Sound with a hard right, as if the water had a mind of its own, it cannels below the snow-capped Olympic Mountains for 45 miles until it eddies into Annas Bay..... when it elbows east it seems to hook into a separate ecosystem, not only of geography but also of mind; it becomes a source for creamers, drifters and vagabonds. It creates a vacationland of warm days and inspiring scenery and its shores attracted four of America's great fortunes: California gold, Alaska gold, Washington timber and Seattle's Microsoft..."

So begins the Images of America book on Hood Canal. This delightful read has fully four pages of the history of Hood Canal. I quote from this book.................

Named after the Right Honorable Lord Samuel Hood, member of the British Board of Admiralty, by Capt. George Vancouver in 1792 who called it the "mouth of the loveliest river." The first building on Hood Canal was a blockhouse at Union (which has an interesting history itself). In 1851, loggers arrived; Pope and Talbot built a mill at Port Gamble. The treaty of Point No Point in 1855 scattered the local tribes. By the 1860s, tug boats were hauling logs up the Canal to Port Gamble. Lake Cushman sprouted a new dream for the area: tourism, which continues to this day. In the late 1930s, the CCC corps constructed many improvements around the Canal.

"The Hood Canal is a jewel of mountain scenery and beautiful water and it has been loved....first by native peoples, then by loggers, then artists and the wealthy and now by all the rest of us."

Fun Facts About Spokane

 

Spokane is barely thirty miles from the Idaho border and nearly 400 miles to the Pacific Ocean. How many Washingtonians have never been west to Seattle or Forks, or east to Spokane? Maybe these bits will entice you to come east to visit.

* The Spokane River flows directly through the heart of the city. Not many places can claim that.

* Spokane boasts the largest urban waterfall in America; Spokane Falls surges thousands of gallons of water annually through basaltic cliffs.

* There are more than 75 lakes within a short, easy drive from Spokane.

* The Centennial Trail connects Spokane to Coeur d'Alene with paved miles inviting walkers, runners and cyclers (no motorized vehicles). 

* Spokane boasts 87 parks within the city limits!

* The Inland Northwest Wine Scene continues to grow; some 20 wineries invite tasting.

* From Spokane, if you drive 20 minutes or 20 miles, you can be in a vastly different geography: Go west, scablands; go east, mountains; go south, wheat; go north, rivers. 

* Did you know Bing Crosby, John Stockton and Craig T. Nelson all claim Spokane heritage? 

* And Spokane is home to the Garbage Goat! (Google it if you don't know.) 

Funnies Time!

 

 Ready for some fun? Whoever "did" this photo must be a really fun parent, right??

* Is there a 4th of July in England?  Yeah, right after the 3rd of July.

* What happens to cows that get too much sun?  They produce evaporated milk.

* What do you call a snowman in summer?  A puddle.

* Why don't seashells take baths? Because they wash up on the beach.

* Who keeps the ocean clean?  Mermaids.

* What do ghosts like to eat in summer?  I-scream!

* Why don't oysters share their pearls? Because they're shellfish. :-) 

* Why did the sun not go to college? Because it already has a million degrees.

* Who's Irish and stays outside all summer?  Patty O'Furniture.

* How do you prevent a summer cold? Catch it in winter.

* Where does seaweed look for a job? In the kelp-wanted section.

* What' s the difference between a piano and a fish? You can tune a piano but you can't tuna fish.

* What did the ocean say to the beach? Nothing. It just waved.

Elwha Tribal Center

Would you guess that there are 29 federally recognized Native American tribes in Washington State? Well, tiz so. Suz Bennett is the tribal historian for the Klallam Tribe in Port Angeles. She explained to me that there are three "parts" to the Klallam Tribe: Port Gamble, Jamestown and Klallam. All have health clinics, housing and casinos and all speak the same language but they are "separate but equal." 

The Elwha Tribal Center in Port Angeles (in the old Carnegie Library) is where to start learning about the Klallam peoples. When I visited there in May 2026, Suz was a deee-lightful tour guide. She showed me a 1000 pages dictionary of Klallam words...... for instance, the word for "sheep" is lemetu, pronounced "leMEtu." She explained that the site of their ancestral village is now a weedy fenced lot at the entrance to Ediz Hook but they have future plans for an interpretive center. She gave me a colored map of Clallam and Jefferson counties with dots showing the 26 sites of S'Klallam Villages of yesterday. 

The Center is open 8:00-4:30, Monday through Friday, and would welcome your visit. 

The Center has artifacts and exhibits which taught me more about these native peoples. Thank you, Suz, and may the Elwha Tribal Center thrive!

Mesa and Parker: Little WA Towns

 

Originally called Bluff Wells, then Judson and now Mesa, this little town in Franklin County was a stop on the Ainsworth (now Pasco) to Spokane branch of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The station house was established in 1883. Mesa is situated in Esquatzel Coulee which means it sits in a depression relative to the surrounding terrain. Apparently, Mesa does not have its own cemetery; the nearest one is City View Cemetery in Pasco.

Parker is a census-designated place in Yakima County, located on the Yakama Indian Reservation between Union Gap and Wapato. The first plat for the town was filed in 1909; it was originally settled by William Parker in 1864 and was named for him by the Northern Pacific Railway in 1890. The only cemetery I found for Parker was the Parker Dam Cemetery (on FindAGrave).

This cemetery is located on a hill behind a Yakama Nation fruit orchard; the cemetery contains a stone monument inscribed with the names of some of the Yakama Nation's notable Chiefs. There was once a thriving Yakama Indian community at Parker Dam which is the basis for the community that uses the Wapato Longhouse. 

Is there really a Parker Dam? YES! According to Google:

• Parker Reservoir Dam: This is a small 24-foot-high earth-fill dam located in Yakima County. It is in Dakota Draw, about 11 miles west of Yakima, Washington. 
  
• Parker Dam (Yakima River): A historical, low-head diversion dam located on the Yakama Indian Reservation along US Route 97 between Union Gap and Wapato. It was historically tied to a thriving Yakama Nation community. 

Roots, Records and Relatives

 Do hope you are planning to attend our EWGS Fall workshop on Saturday, October 3rd. 

I crafted this blurb months ago and so encourage you to click to our website, www.EWGSI.org, for the latest details. 

Consider this a teaser if you've not yet planned to come and have registered. (You do want lunch, do you not?)

More Lewis & Clark Plants

 Lewis & Clark documented many other plants besides Lewisia and Clarkia. 

In their journals, they noted Balsam Root, Prickly Pear Cactus, Glacier Lilies, Silky Lupine, Snowberry bushes and Bear Grass. How many have YOU seen????

Plants Named For Lewis & Clark

 

President Thomas Jefferson sent captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on a journey of exploration. Congress approved the expense of the venture because it was hoped that a water route across the continent would be discovered. On a personal note, Jefferson was eager to learn what there was to be discovered in the 530 million acres America had purchased from Spain in 1803 for a mere $15 million dollars.

There was no water route across the continent, as the Corps of Discovery found out. But Lewis and Clark collected and sent back to Jefferson 239 pressed plants and some 176 were new to science at that time. 

In what is now North Dakota, they "discovered" the plant was named after Meriwether Lewis, the lewisia.  (Pix on left.) This plant was also known as Bitterroot because the Indigenous Peoples had been making bread flour from the dried roots for centuries. Lewis found the taste bitter; hence the name. 

Clarkia (on the right) was named in honor of William Clark. Lewis found this plant near Kamiah, Idaho, in 1806 on their return trip. 

For the record, Lewis and Clark really didn't discover that many new plants. The specimens they collected were likely sub-sets (for lack of a better name here) of known species. 

Lewisias come in a variety of colors (as shown above) and may be purchased in most area garden centers in spring. They are a hardy perennial. 

Old Jokes For Old Folks

 

This is a deee-lightful, hits-the-nail-on-the-head joke book. For instance:

* "The future will soon be a thing of the past." George Carlin

* "You know you're old when you see the movie Jurassic Park and it brings back fond childhood memories."

* "The older I get, the better I used to be!"  Lee Trevino

* "Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late." Benjamin Franklin

* "Old age is 15 years older than I am."  Oliver Wendell Holmes

* "True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."  Kurt Vonnegut

* "A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age."  Robert Frost

* "You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake." Bob Hope

* Some people will never be too old to learn new ways of being stupid.  Unkown

* "Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed." Charles Schulz

* "You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred."  Woody Allen

* "If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old."  James A Garfield

Baumann's Excelsior Meat Roaster

 
Charles Bauman's Meat Shop was a thriving business in Belleville, Illinois. The business placed this ad in The Semi-Weekly Advocate, the local paper, on Friday, Sept 26, 1879:

BAUMANN'S EXCELSIOR MEAT ROASTER

"This apparatus is an air-tight chest or box, which must be put in the parking part of the Cooking stove. By this mode of Roasting or Baking, meats will cook as tender as mutton. Poultry of all kinds cooked in this way is the most palatable and delicious ever produced by any other mode of cooking and as regards economy this chest cannot be excelled. The cost of this apparatus will be more than saved in three or four months from the fact that butter, (by the way, a large item in the course of a few years) as the essence from the meat forms a most delicious gravy, by a distilling process. The chest if made of the best quality of sheet iron, on a self-sealing principle. Any housewife who gives it a fair trial will not do without it. The cost of the Apparatus is very small, from the fact that it is very durable. If well cared for it will last from ten to fifteen years.            320 East Main Street, Belleville, Ill. 

This image is the best I could find for a Baumann's Excelsior Meat Roaster. 

Likely not correct but surely close? 

Washington Cities From The Air

 I'll leave it to you to name the city shown! Good luck!

 

Kennewick, Bellingham, Grays Harbor, Seattle, Spokane, Port Angeles

Cemetery Trees Tell Tales

Couple of years ago, a like-minded friend and I spent a delightful day driving in southern Spokane County to the places where her family had lived. 

I snapped this pix in that cemetery (name I've forgotten). I was wandering around while she was taking pix of her family's tombstones. I was immediately struck by the eyes in the tree. Do you see them?

We cemetery-wanderers have often times felt a special kind of feeling when we visit any cemetery and especially when we visit a family cemetery. It's the sort of feeling nearly impossible to describe but it is real enough, as many would attest.

Is that big tree a "hiding place" for spirits? A resting place? A visiting place? Do the spirits of our dead ever come back to the places of their burials? And we have to ask: why would they? But if they do, they surely have their reasons. 

This photo I took in Fairmount Cemetery in Spokane. Some family member (I surmise) had come to visit and had left this little red ceramic cardinal bird atop their family's tombstone. Why would they have come to visit........ and to leave that little red bird.......... unless they felt "something," some connection with their dearly departed. 

Ah, the tales that cemetery trees could tell if they only could. 

Without A Plan All Is Lost

 

This is a true story. If you can't handle a very sad truth, quit reading right now.

I was walking one day with my Tika (dachshund) a few years ago on my gravel-county road. I came upon some stuff that a yahoo had dumped along the roadside. THAT was bad enough, but this picture, all busted apart, was in that pile of dumped junk. It didn't look recent enough to me to be a jilted girlfriend but somebody's mother or grandmother. And there it was dumped into the weeds along a gravel road.

Picture on the right was taken in a big thrift shop near Sequim. One corner of a big room was filled with stacked picture frames......... and not just frames but PICTURES. Family pictures. Why in the world? How in the world?

Okay, dear readers. A line from an old Kingston Trio song rings in my mind: "This could happen to you!" 

If you do not have a plan for all your family genealogy and photos and memorabilia, the likelihood is 90% that it will go to the dump or Goodwill. (Where do you suppose all those shoeboxes of old photos found in thrift shops comes from??????) 

Your family has their own busy lives and collecting genealogy and family history was YOUR hobby. You must not assume that they'll be as fanatical about it as you've been. 

Please, please know that I "preach" the truth here today. Please start crafting a plan for when you "cross over that Rainbow Bridge." It takes a plan to leave a legacy and not a mess.

Porky Rides Log Pile

 I do apologize that I didn't think to note the date but this wonderful story was found in The Spokesman Review. It's hard to read, so here goes:

BRISTLY VISITOR RIDES LOG PILE

Johnny Porkypine Goes To Police Station but is Later Released

Gunting (sic) irritably and threatening everyone who approached, Spokane's strangest tourist arrived in the city this morning on a load of logs from the north woods.

Motorcycle Officer Victor Hudson and employees of the Milwaukee railroad discovered the visitor, an immense porcupine, hiding beneath a load of logs on the railroad tracks near Sprague and Greene. The porcupine was rounded up and coaxed into a sack. He was taken to the police station.

"I didn't lose him," declared Captain R. W. Hinton. "Call up the park board."

After some discuss, the animal was taken to the Manito zoo, where he was refused admission on the grounds that he would pine away and die. Unable to find a home for the porcupine, he was carted to the timbered flats of Hangman Creek and released."

Gotta wonder how they coaxed him into the sack and whose job it fell to????

A Mystery Picture Invites A Story

 

I spotted this photo in a collecting at the Cheney Historical Society Museum. There was no identification on or with the photo. I've kept it on my desk top to let my imagination run wild creating a story............

* Is this a 1930s or 1940s photo?

* Is this a grandmother with a favorite grandchild? 

* Notice the ribbon on the hat.... a gift from grandma? 

* It's obviously outdoors...were they gardening?

* Half of a big shaggy dog sit with them, of course. 

* The dog's feet are clean..... there is water nearby???

* Grandma's dress looks clean and pressed...no easy job with the tools of the day. 

* Was it a flour-sack dress? 

* She wears glasses.... so better to read bedtime stories to the tot.

* Her hands look like working hands, as they surely would have been. 

* They sit in a "wild place" not a manicured lawn like today. 

* I see one sandaled foot for the child.... not running barefoot today. 

My thought to share with you today is this: Don't just glance at a photo of an ancestor. Study it and let the details spring forth into your imagination. 

Lake Washington Facts

 

Lake Washington is a 22-mile-long freshwater lake bordering Seattle and Bellevue. It is the second-largest natural lake in our state. It is renowned for a massive mid-century ecological cleanup that reversed severe pollution. 

The surface area of the lake is 34 square miles; average depth of 108 feet with maximum depth of 214 feet. The shoreline stretches for 58 miles bordered by Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland and Mercer Island. The lake is fed primarily by the Cedar River and Sammamish River.

The lake is a deep glacial trough carved thousands of years ago. It was officially named in 1854 by Thomas Mercer, honoring George Washington. Historically it was called It-kow-chug by the local Duwamish people. 

In 1916 the construction of the Montlake Cut for the Lake Washington ship canal lowered the lake's water level by nearly nine feet and changed its outflow to Puget Sound. Because of the lake's deep water and muddy bottom, building traditional piers is impossible. Instead, engineering feats like the I-90 bridge and Evergreen Point Bridge float on pontoons and rank among the longest floating bridges in the world. 

Several high-profile tech billionaires, musicians and sports figures have homes on Lake Washington. These include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos,  legendary cartoonist Gary Larson, veteran actor Tom Skerritt and Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft and owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. 

Note: Many of us drive regularly to Seattle and points west but have we ever thought to ask WHY floating bridges and not "regular" bridges? And I find it fascinating that a freshwater lake can be so close to ocean water and stay "fresh." 

Note: Thanks to Google AI for help with this bit. 

Lake Coeur d'Alene Facts

 

Lake Coeur d’Alene Facts:

• ·     Name was given by French fur trappers impressed by the sharp trading skills of the CdA tribe; their own name for the lake means “those who are found here,” or “the discovered people.”
• 
  
• ·      Is a natural but dam-controlled by the Post Falls dam on the Spokane River
• 
  
• ·      Is fed by 2 rivers: the CdA and St.Joe with Spokane River as outflow
• 
  
• ·      David Thompson is the first recorded European explorer to see the lake in 1807
• 
  
• ·      Covers an area of 50 square miles; is 25 miles long and 1-3 miles wide with 109 miles of shoreline.

• ·      Has a surface elevation of 2128’ above sea level
• 
  
• ·      Has average depth of 120’; deepest “hole” is 220’ (south of Driftwood Point)
• 
  
• ·      Several celebrities have homes on Lake CdA: Kim Kardashian, George Clooney, Matt Mc Conaugey for some.
• 
  
• ·      Most expensive home/property is the 18 acre, $27.5million place on Windy Bay
• 
  
• ·      Typical summer temperatures: The lake's average summer surface temperature (June through August) is 67.5°F. 
• 
  
• ·      Swimming temperature: Many people find water temperatures between 70°F and 78°F comfortable for swimming; peak temp is 76o in mid-August.

L    Lake Coeur d'Alene has several "sister lakes" in the Northern Idaho panhandle. These include Hayden Lake, Pend Oreille and others. All are clear, deep and mostly cold. 

N

 

The Treaty Tree

 

Bet you've driven north or south on Bruce Road which turns into Argonne Road at the south end towards the Spokane Valley, and never realized you're passing a very historic tree.

The Treaty Tree is a historic Ponderosa Pine located on a grassy knoll on Peone Prairie, near Doak and Argonne Roads. It gets its name from Chief Baptiste Peone, who placed a white flag of truce on it to honor peace agreements between the Spokane Tribe and the U.S. government. 

During the Indian Wars of the 1850s, Upper Spokane Chief Baptiste Peone kept his band mostly peaceful. He placed a flag of truce in this tree to signify his camp's neutrality. 

The tree is easily identified by its distinctive trunk that leans heavily to the south. In the early 1900s, specific clauses were added to local land deeds to ensure that the tree would never be harmed by humans. 

The tree sits on private property; do be respectful if you visit, but it can be viewed from Doak Road.

To learn more about this historic tree, click to www.SpokaneHistorical, story by Allie Honican titled Treaty Tree. 

* The photos are mine. 

Nancy's Poem

Nancy Curry has Irish roots and has been to Ireland searching them out. She is an EWGS member. In her other-than-genealogy time, she is the retired manager of the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge (south of Cheney). When she shared her poem with me, it really touched my heartstrings as I hope it does touch yours.

We family historians are a creative bunch, are we not????

 

Dead End Genealogy Tree

Was out walking one day and spotted this tree. I sat down and pondered upon all the possibilities it signified to me. 

I have...... you have..... we all have "dead trees" on our genealogy tree. Some of us have many! Here are some thoughts that came to me as I mentally embraced that tree:

* How/why did it die? If we're thinking "the male surname is gone," that's one thing, but look at the base of the tree........... it goes on but differently!

* Is it really dead? Or just blighted and taking a natural time out? With strong roots, will it come back? 

* How do we deal with these "dead trees" in our family history? I think we should document them as fully best we can but never give up hope for new resources are always coming up.

* Perhaps a thinking adjustment is called for. That dead tree is, to my mind, still very lovely. It lived and hopefully fulfilled its reason for being before hard times hit. Now its an inspiration for others.

* Think of that tree as a patriarch or matriarch of a large clan! Look at all the descendants gathered round her base. She did good and is still an inspiration to the upcoming generation. 

* Even if she is dead, she is still upright. This signifies that she had sunk deep roots into life which did sustain her for decades. 

* Spark: Indigenous peoples used the bark from such white trees as paper. Nothing is ever worthless, even a so-called dead tree. 

 

Wind Power: Yesterday and Today

Being an unashamed history buff, I nearly teared up when I came upon the picture on the left. How vitally important the old windmills were to our ancestors! Now likely only a few isolated farms rely on windmills. Our electricity comes with a button. :-) 

If you take the back road from Ellensburg down to Vantage, you will come to the Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility and Renewable Energy Center. This is a fascinating place and you'll come away with a greater understanding and appreciation of the benefits to us from these ginormous wind turbines dotting our state. 

For instance: did you know that each single blade averages 200 feet long and requires a 

L-0-N-G trailer for transport? Most towers have elevators for maintenance to the top and each tower costs about $1,000,000 (so I was told). The "box" at the top may look small but it's the size of a school bus! Towers are 221 feet high and weigh 104 tons. 

This facility has 149 turbines spanning across 10,000 acres. The facility can generate up to 273 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve an average of 60,000 homes annually. 

Wild Horse benefits the surrounding community by creating jobs and providing leasing income for landowners. The facility also produces significant local tax revenue.

The Visitors' Center provides visitors with an up-close look at turbines as well as 360o views of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, Mount Hood and the Columbia River Basin. Tours are offered and their educational displays are super.

NOTE: Do check before you go. As I was researching for this post, the facility was temporarily closed. 

Palouse: The Rolling Hills

"Our wonderful Palouse region is the most serene and pastoral of the seven wonders of Washington State. It is a region in southeastern Washington characterized by gentle rolling hills covered with wheat fields. The hills were formed over tens of thousands of years from wind blown dust and silt, called loess (and pronouned luss) from dry regions to the southwest. Seen from the summit of 3612-foot high Steptoe Butte they look like giant sand dunes because they were formed in much the same way. The Palouse hills are not only a landscape unique in the world but they are beautiful to behold and worthy to be on the list of Seven Wonders of Washington State."

This was an excerpt from Howard Fisk's book, The Seven Wonders of Washington State: Your guide to exploring the natural wonders of the Evergreen State, published in 2015 and available via Amazon. 

Green in the spring, golden brown at harvest time and snowy white in winter.... Washington's Palouse is a beautiful and very unique region.

Oregon Grape .... Jelly?

 But it is NOT a grape and its origin is NOT Oregon. So how come???

Also known as Holly-Leaved Barberry and Mahonia, this plant has been used by Indigenous peoples of North America for centuries as a food source and a medicine. Lewis and Clark collected specimens of this plant on the expedition of 1804-1806. 

Since these berries are ubiquitous to our area, here's the recipe for "Mahonia Berry Jam: a stunning wild preserve made from the tart, vibrant berries of the Mahonia shrub, also known as Oregon Grape. Those these berries are mouth-puckeringly sharp when raw, they transform beautifully into a glossy, jewel-toned jelly with a tangy zing. "

To make 4 small jars of Mahonia Berry Jelly:  Gather about 3 1/2 pounds of ripe Mahonia berries, stalks removed and rinsed. Put in large pot with 2 1/2 cups water and bring to a boil, simmer for 20-25 minutes, mashing berries with a spoon or potato masher to release the juices. Pour the mixture through a jelly bag or muslin-lined sieve into a clean bowl. Let it drip overnight. For the clearest jelly, avoid pressing the pulp.

For every 2 1/2 cups of juice, use one pound of sugar (less to taste). For a firmer set, you can add a teaspoon of pectin if Mahonia's natural pectin content isn't enough. Add the lemon juice. 

Still continually over low heat until sugar has fully dissolved, then bring the mixture to a rapid boil. Boil until the jelly reaches setting point (104oC or 220oF). Pour into warm, sterilized jars and seal. 

TIP: Pick RIPE berries only; under ripe berries are overly bitter. 

If anybody makes this jelly, I'd surely like to know how it was. :-)