This story was originally published at HistoryLink.org. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter. Bighearted On January 4, 1907, Anna Clise and 23 of her affluent women friends came together to found the Children’s Orthopedic Hospital Association. Nine years earlier, Clise and her husband, James, had lost their 5-year-old son to inflammatory rheumatism. Seattle had no physicians or hospitals…

This story was originally published at HistoryLink.org. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter. Cheer for the Home Team Forty-five years ago this week, on December 5, 1974, the Seattle Seahawks got their start — a half-century after the Anacortes Sea Hawks first took the name — when a group of Seattle businessmen led by the Nordstrom family was awarded an…

This story was originally published at HistoryLink.org. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter. A City on the Go Happy birthday, Seattle! One hundred and fifty years ago this week, on December 2, 1869, the city was officially incorporated by the Washington Territorial Legislature — but getting there was no easy task. Eighteen years earlier, the Denny Party arrived near Alki Point on…

This story was originally published at HistoryLink.org. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter. In the Woods Fifty years ago this week, on November 24, 1969, Sasquatch tracks were discovered in Stevens County, renewing searches for the legendary but elusive cryptid. Sasquatch sightings in Washington date back to the 1800s, when fur trappers and loggers claimed to have seen…

This story was originally published at HistoryLink.org. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter. The Rains Came November is here, and in Western Washington that usually means wet weather. On November 16, 1897, massive flooding in Snohomish County began destroying access to the town of Monte Cristo, eventually putting an end to the community’s mining boom. And on November…

This story was originally published at HistoryLink.org. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter. Farewell, Jim Ellis King County lost perhaps its greatest visionary this week when civic leader Jim Ellis died at the age of 98. Although Ellis never held public office, he devoted most of his adult life to public service, dreaming of ways to strengthen and…

This story was originally published at HistoryLink.org. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter. Fire Fights One hundred and thirty years ago this week, on October 17, 1889, the Seattle Fire Department was created, just a few months after the devastating fire that turned most of the city’s downtown into “a horrible black smudge.” Gardner Kellogg, a volunteer firefighter…

This story was originally published at HistoryLink.org. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter. The New Burke This week HistoryLink gives a rousing cheer to the Burke Museum — Washington’s premier repository of natural history and cultural heritage — and looks forward to visiting its new home, which opens on October 12. Located on the northwest corner of the…

This story was originally published at HistoryLink.org. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter. Italian Americans in Washington October is Italian American Heritage Month, and this week HistoryLink looks at some of the contributions Italian Americans have made in Washington. One of the first Italians to visit the Northwest was explorer Alessandro Malaspina, who sailed here under the Spanish…

This story was originally published at HistoryLink.org. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter. Planting a Seed On September 27, 1876, Thurston County pioneer William Owen Bush won a top prize for grain at the nation’s centennial exposition in Philadelphia, and he would later attend three other American expositions, winning prizes at each. Bush’s interest in agronomy took root at…