News
This Week Then: Saying Farewell to King County Civic Leader Jim Ellis
The 'father of Metro' leaves behind a vast legacy including the creation of the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle and the cleanup of the badly polluted Lake Washington
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…
Meet the 2019 ‘Crosscut’ Courage Awards Winners
Here are the six individuals chosen by the local online news outlet for their leadership and altruism
This article appears in print in the November 2019 issue. Click here to subscribe. Being courageous isn’t necessarily comfortable. Supporting a belief or a cause means taking a stand, speaking out and holding firm. It means advocating for others and tirelessly educating. It takes fearless determination and steadfast patience. Not everyone is up for the challenge. Luckily, some…
This Week Then: Seattle Fire Department Turns 130
The department was created just months after Seattle's Great Fire
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 Week Then: Celebrating the New Burke Museum
Plus: Dig into Washington Archaeology Month
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 Week Then: Celebrating Italian Americans and Filipino Americans in Washington
Plus: The first military plane to land in Seattle
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…
Local Criminal Justice Reformer Receives Prestigious MacArthur Grant
The grant awards $625,000 with "no-strings-attached" to its fellows, paid out over five years in quarterly installments
Lisa Daugaard, the Seattle criminal justice reform advocate and director of the Public Defender Association (PDA), used to joke with her staff that she would never get a MacArthur grant—the no-strings-attached financial stipend commonly known as the “genius grant.” “It has been kind of an internal joke among my colleagues and family that this would…
This Week Then: How Washington State University Got Its Start
Plus: Famous presidents make stops in Washington state
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…
Details Emerge from Seattle and King County Officials on New Regional Homelessness Authority
'What you see today is everybody joined in one cause, together'
King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced key details about a long-planned regional homelessness authority Wednesday morning, including how much funding the new entity will receive from the city and the county, how it will be governed, and which functions of the city’s Human Services Department (HSD) will be shifting to…
This Week Then: Four King County Cities Celebrate Birthdays
Plus: The start of the Columbia Basin Reclamation Project
This story was originally published at HistoryLink.org. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter. Cities Start to Grow Four King County cities share a birthday this week on August 31. On that day in 1995 Shoreline incorporated. Homesteaded in the 1890s, the community grew slowly over the years until the completion of Interstate 5. The resulting growth led its…
Mountain Goat Relocation Project Aims to Protect the Olympics Ecosystem
This summer, mountain goats are on the move once again as an ambitious relocation project attempts to transfer them from one mountain range to another
MOVING ON. Mountain goats like these in the Olympic Mountains are being moved to locations in the Cascades. Around 100 were relocated last summer; more have been moved this summer
This Week Then: King County’s Worst Coal-mining Disaster
Plus: How UPS got started
This story was originally published at HistoryLink.org. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter. Fires Below One hundred and twenty-five years ago this week, on August 24, 1894, fire broke out in the Oregon Improvement Company’s coal mine at Franklin, a small coal town southeast of Black Diamond. The men working below rushed to the main shaft, desperate to…
New Approach from a Seattle Pilot Program Aims to Reduce Homelessness in King County
People with mental illness and/or drug addiction make up a small fraction of our homeless population, yet are among the most visible members of that segment. Can a pilot program get them off the streets for good?
This article appears in print in the August 2019 issue. Click here to subscribe. On a day in late spring, David Lucas, 26, is standing in front of Seattle Municipal Court Judge Damon Shadid, waiting to find out if he gets to go home. Lucas (not his real name) has been locked up in the King County Jail…
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