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. :-) 

Cranberry Glass

Do you recall your mother or grandmother having any cranberry glass? This very special type of glass became famous in the Victorian Era in Britain and came with the English immigrants to America. Cranberry glass creations were most popular as a table display, often holding candy or flowers. 

If you happen to have one of your grandmother's cranberry glass pieces, please know that it is highly collectible but its value varies wildly from $10 to thousands of dollars! The value of the piece is determined by the amount of gold used to make the rich color.

Antique cranberry glass is occasionally found in old outhouse pits (privies). Before city trash pickup, people threw broken household trash—including expensive glassware—into outhouse holes. 

I became intrigued when viewing a YouTube video where a fellow found cranberry glass in an old privy pit! (No comments on my eclectic viewing habits, please. :-) 

Videos

Cranberry Glass and a Small Figure - Bottle Dump Finds

YouTube · Mudlarking with Steve

Dec 15, 2025

YouTube · Mudlarking with Steve

 

Odd Fellows Hall in Hillyard

This sad looking building in northeast Spokane (Hillyard, actually) was an important social hub back in the day. It was built to serve the booming railroad community that sprang up after James J. Hill decided to avoid Spokane taxes and build his railroad shops in that area..which ultimately was named after him. 

In the 1880s, Spokane was becoming the premier rail hub of the west and tycoon James J. Hill wanted it on his Great Northern line to the coast. Hill had the "hutzpah" and pulled the right strings to achieve his goal. The Hillyard yard became the biggest rail shop west of the Mississippi. 

To help the families and the workers, several fraternal organizations sprang up in the area. The Odd Fellows Hall was one. Located on North Market Street, the hall hosted community dances, meetings and charitable gatherings but the purpose of the organization was to "visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead and educate the orphan." Since one goal of the group was to provide burial for its members, they established Resthaven Cemetery (now Evergreen Cemetery). The building was completed in 1896.

According to an article in The Spokesman Review, March 7, 1996, "Built by lodge members from Waverly, it opened on March 17, 1896, according to John Nunn, a member who keeps many of the lodge's historical documents." The article spotlighted that the Lodge's centennial celebration was being held on March 10, 1996, with members planning a picnic "and the lodge will lay out its old photographs and letters, dues ledgers, attendance books and documents, including the original deed that passed the property to the lodge."

The question screaming into my mind is where are those documents today????? My husband's grandfather worked for the railroad in Hillyard in the 1920s..... might he have been a member of this lodge? Wouldn't we like to access these records of our ancestors? 

P.S. In 1900, there were about 170 Odd Fellows Lodges in Washington; some 25 are still active today. 

Who Was John Day?

 

Little is known about the man for whom a river, a dam and two towns (John Day and Dayville) were named.  The following story is based on historical fact - some of it may be true. Pictured is an illustration of what John Day might have looked liked.

"John Day,1770-1820,  was a hunter from the backwoods of Virginia.  He had been employed by Ramsay Crooks for several years when he arrived in Oregon, at about 40 years of age.  He was described as "six feet two inches tall, a handsome man with a manly countenance, straight as an Indian with an elastic step 'as if he trod on springs'".  It was his boast that in his younger days nothing could hurt or daunt him, but he had lived too fast and injured his constitution by excesses.  Still, he was strong of hand, bold of heart, a prime woodsman, and an almost unerring shot."

Website FindAGrave has his biography of him (plus several more pages). He was most surely quite the guy. His death and burial place as noted on FindAGrave states "buried or lost at sea. Specifically: Drowned in Snake River." 

John Day Dam, spanning the Columbia River kinda between The Dalles, Oregon, and Goldendale, Washington, was constructed between 1958 and 1971, costing $511 million dollars. It has a fish ladder and a navigation lock, that lock being 110-feet, the highest lock-lift on the river. The dam forms Lake Umatilla, a 76-mile long reservoir. 

Next time you zoom along I-80 in Oregon along the Columbia River, pause to appreciate the John Day dam and remember the hardy frontiersman who was John Day. 

Summer Joke Time

 

JOKE: A Russian and a Czech bear scientists came to the Rocky Mountains to study bears; they chose the mating season, a bad time for bear encounters. They were warned about the dangers but headed off into the woods anyway. After four days with no word from them, the rangers followed their tracks. They found a female Grizzly bear; shot her and opened her up and sure enough, inside was the Russian guy. So, said one ranger to the other….. ARE YOU READY?  “The Czech must be in the male.”  L J

*** *** *** ***

This from a newspaper clipping of which I did not note the paper nor the date, sorry:  "Denver, Colo. March 6 --  "Here is a dead man," was the comment made by a parcel post clerk here as he held up to the view of his fellow clerks a package nine inches square and weighing seven pounds.

The package contained the ashes of Edward E. Knotts of California, who died here a few days ago following an attack of appendicitis. The package was addressed to the widow, Mrs. Ada Knotts, San Francisco. It cost 51cents and bore a ten-cent insurance stamp."

Just for fun, I did a bit of research to learn more about Edward and Ada Knotts but found nothing. If it's your family, do go for it!

Washtucna: A Tiny Town

Thanks to an article in The Spokesman Review last April, I learned about a tiny town in the southeastern corner of Adams county that has a great big heart. 

Folks are trying their best to save their piece of Washington history, the Bassett Hardware building, which is 125 years old, according to the folks at the Washtucna Heritage Museum and Community Center. Michelle Plumb, officer in that society, shared "I don't know how many things in this area are that old. It would just break our heart to lose this building."

Built in the town's center in 1901 by George W. Bassett, the building has survived through "boom and bust, storm and sunshine" and remains a fixture of the town's frontier past. "The upper part of the building was always some sort of community space," Plum said. Several fraternal organizations held their meetings there over the decades. In the 1910s and 1920s, plays and movies were shown there. 

Fear not, lovers of old historic buildings. This building has been placed on the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation's list of Most Endangered Places which hopefully will guarantee its future.

Why the spotlight today on an old building in a nobody-knows-where town? Because the people who built the place, used the place and loved the place are collectively all our ancestors. That's why. 

Website www.FindAGrave.com has this photo of GWB and information on his family. He was a pioneer for many. He and his wife Alice were parents of seven children.