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.
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. :-)
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. :-)
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.
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.
*** *** *** ***
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!
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.
This was an ad in The Spokesman Review from days long, long ago. If you cannot read it, here goes:
First Showing of Bathing Suits
Tomorrow we place on sale our new line of ladies' misses' and children's bathing suits. The line includes many new styles never shown before. Come in mohairs, brilliantines and the new jersey goods that is all the rage this season. Suits have the new collars and staple sailor collars and the new vestee effects. Come in tans, browns, red, black and blues, trimmed with braid.
Prices for ladies' suits.... $6.60 to $2.75
Misses' and children's.......... $4.00 to $2.50
Children's One Piece Suits..... All sizes from 2 to 6, in blue, at.... $1.50
Bathing caps... $1.00 to 25cents
Bathing shoes.... 50 cents
Aren't you shaking your head and saying good grief?? Can you imagine "bathing"...... which really meant wading in perhaps to your waist, never jumping in....... wearing a woolen dress and SHOES? And of course black stockings, heaven forbid bare legs would be viewed. Did you catch that they're not called "swimming suits?"
No wonder they didn't jump in and swim around! They'd surly have drowned in those heavy "bathing suits."
His flag, known as the Commander-in-Chief Standard, marked his location on the battlefield and at his headquarters. The flag features 13 white, six-pointed stars representing the original colonies arranged on a faded blue silk background.
One of his original flags still survives. It measures roughly 27-inches by 35-inches; the six-pointed stars (unlike the five-pointed stars on our U.S. flag) mimics the English heraldic designs found on Washington's military epaulets. The blue background was chosen because it was the same color he used for the sash and ribbons that designated his rank.
If you would like to see the original of General George Washington's flag, you will have to visit the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. Here is what it now looks like, faded with time:
Thanks to the Flag Museum in Spokane and Google for the information and images.
* We here in the Pacific Northwest do love our often-immense Douglas Fir trees. Did you know that this tree was named for David Douglas, born in Scone, Scotland, in 1799? This famous botanist arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River in April 1825 and during the next two years he traveled up the Columbia, Snake and Okanogan rivers, some 4000 miles. Why? He was noting, comparing, gathering and preparing specimens for shipments back to London. In July 1834 he was on the island of Hawaii, planning to walk the 100 miles to Hilo. He met his death on July 12th by falling into a rock-walled pit, built to trap wild bulls. Unfortunately there was also in the pit an angry bull. There is a small monument on the spot but today it is rather inaccessible.
* Did your ancestors come from Alsace-Lorraine? Where is this, Germany or France? Alsace-Lorraine is a region in the northeastern part of France, located on the border with Germany. The small area covers only about 12,000 square miles of territory. Switzerland lies to the south and Luxembourg to the north. For hundreds of years, the inhabitants of this territory have been part German and part French. The area has seen wars of conquest many times beginning about 300A.D. Both France and Germany sparred over ownership of the area but after World War II the region became part of France.
* Ever been to a podunk town? A common implication of Podunk is that it's a place so dreary and remote that it's not even worth situating on a map. One of the most famous people to refer to Podunk was Mark Twain, who in 1869 wrote that a certain fact was known even "in Podunk, wherever that may be." Would you guess that there was a town originally known as Podunk in Washington? Yepper, tiz so. On the Lewis River, sixteen miles north of Vancouver is the bitsy town of LaCenter. John Pollock claimed a homestead there in 1865 and folks have lived there ever since. Early on, the only access to the town was via the river for there were no roads. Do you know anybody from Podunk? (There are also towns by that name in Connecticut, Michigan, Vermont, Massachusetts, Nebraska and New York. Now you're ready for Jeopardy!)
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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?)
"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.
