Washington history Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Scrutiny Mounts Against Legacy Of Northwest Missionary Marcus Whitman

By NWPB News June 1, 2021

The legacy of Marcus Whitmas and his missionary efforts in the 19th century are under increasing scrutiny, which Washington state lamakers recently voting to replace his statue in the U.S. Capitol with one of Native American rights leader Billy Frank Jr. CREDIT: Tom Banse/N3

For generations Marcus Whitman has been widely viewed as an iconic figure from early Pacific Northwest history, a venerated Protestant missionary who was among 13 people killed by the Cayuse tribe near modern-day Walla Walla, Washington, in 1847.Read More

Remaking Oregon Trail Video Game With An Eye Toward More Accurate Native American Depictions

By Anna King May 12, 2021

The fresh Oregon Trail game is part of the new Apple Arcade. It features more accurate depictions of Native American characters, historically-based story lines and researched clothing styles. Courtesy of Gameloft

The company Gameloft tackled the redesign of Oregon Trail for Apple Arcade just in time for the increase in worldwide play because of the pandemic. Its target audience: the now-40-year-olds and their kids. And more Native American players. Read More

Past As Prologue: Rural Places Are Queer Places And The History Of WSU’s LGBTQ Awareness

By NWPB News April 30, 2021

WSU Student newspaper The Daily Evergreen article on homosexuality.

What the struggle over recognition for WSU's Gay Awareness student group shows is some of the similarities between rural and urban LGBTQ rights. Rural areas — especially college towns like Pullman or Moscow — are also queer places. People in cities who were against gay rights used the same tactic as those in Pullman—the public-referendum—to deny housing or employment Read More

The Northwest Was A Ski-Jumping Hotbed. A New Book And Museum Exhibit Share The History

By Tom Banse April 22, 2021

Olav Ulland, Gustav Raaum, Alf Engen, and Kjell Stordalen perform a four-person simultaneous ski jump at Sun Valley, Idaho, in December 1948. Courtesy of National Nordic Museum

Few among us have tried our luck at competitive ski jumping, and there is no shame in that considering these skiers can reach speeds around 60 mph before they take flight. But there's something riveting about the daring sport even for casual onlookers. The Northwest was once a "hotbed" for Nordic jumping as detailed in a new book and a parallel museum exhibit.Read More

Past As Prologue: Sheep, Ranching And The Beginning Of Industrial Agriculture In The Northwest

By NWPB News April 16, 2021

Sheep being loaded onto a boat to go to market.

Learn how sheep ranchers in the late-nineteenth century in Eastern Oregon were already a part of complex agricultural and industrial systems that provided food, clothing and commodities to markets across the U.S. Read More

It’s Official: Statue Honoring Billy Frank Jr. To Replace Marcus Whitman At U.S. Capitol

By Tom Banse April 14, 2021

Billy Frank Jr. poses at Frank's Landing on the Nisqually River near Olympia on June 29, 2012. CREDIT: Ted. S. Warren/AP

The Billy Frank Jr. statue would replace one of Oregon Trail pioneer Marcus Whitman. The larger-than-life bronze of Whitman has stood in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall for nearly 70 years.Read More

Washington Legislature Approves Bill To Honor Billy Frank Jr., Replacing Marcus Whitman At Capitol

By NWPB News April 6, 2021

A statue of tribal rights activist Billy Frank, Jr., left, could someday replace pioneer missionary Marcus Whitman in the U.S. Capitol. CREDIT: NWIFC 2007/Glenn Drosendahl

A measure to honor the late Billy Frank Jr. with a statue at the U.S. Capitol cleared the Legislature Monday. On a 44-5 bipartisan vote, the Democratic-led Senate approved the bill that seeks to replace Washington’s Marcus Whitman statue in the National Statuary Hall Collection with a statue of Frank, a Nisqually tribal member who championed treaty rights.Read More

Past As Prologue: A Seattle Police Bootlegging Racket Informs Lessons Of Modern Drug Cartels

By NWPB News April 2, 2021

Seattle Daily Times front page saying Olmsted was Jailed.

Prohibition did not limit the demand of alcohol, and many people did not support it, including the police. On an early morning in March 1920, Seattle Police Lieutenant Roy Olmstead and Sergeant T.J. Clark met a crew of bootleggers loading a shipment of Canadian whiskey from Vancouver, B.C. for Seattle. Olmstead and Clark were not there to arrest the criminals, but to watch Read More

Women’s History Month: 4 Influential Women From The Pacific Northwest

By Mia Hunt March 31, 2021

Women have shaped so much of how we live in Washington. As Women’s History Month comes to an end, meet prominent figures in the state’s history who have worked in community activism, environmental preservation and more.Read More

Past As Prologue: How Northwest Women In Rodeo Changed Perceptions Of Ability

By NWPB News March 5, 2021

Black and white photo of Alice Greenough Orr.

The women athletes of early rodeo provide a broader understanding of women’s roles in rural history. Several top cowgirls like Fannie Sperry Steele, Mabel Strickland, and the Greenough sisters were born and raised on ranches across the Northwest. By studying these women, we have learned that women gentled and trained horses, moved cattle, and managed ranch duties. Read More

New Monument At Washington State Capitol Will Honor Black Pioneer George Bush And Family

By Austin Jenkins February 24, 2021

Black pioneer George Bush's grandson, left, and son, right, stand next to a fanning mill on the family's farm near present day Tumwater, Washington. A monument to George Bush and his family is planned for Washington's Capitol Campus. CREDIT: Washington State Historical Society

Washington’s sprawling Capitol campus features war memorials, a granite monument to fallen police officers, a replica of a Roman-style fountain and a brass sundial. As soon as this summer a new monument will join the collection. It will honor George Bush, Washington’s first Black pioneer, along with his son, William Owen Bush, who was the state’s first Black lawmaker, and Read More

Past As Prologue: End Times Preaching In Seattle And The Politics Of The Apocalypse

By NWPB News February 19, 2021

The Reverend Mark A. Matthews (1867-1940), a southern-born fundamentalist supporter of the Social Gospel movement, came to Seattle in 1902. CREDIT: University of Washington-Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

During the early decades of the 20th century, Mark Matthews became one of the most powerful religious leaders in the United States. His Seattle congregation was the largest Presbyterian church in the world with more than 10,000 members at its peak.Read More

Past As Prologue: Harry Allen In The Northwest And The Slow History Of Trans Acceptance

By NWPB News February 5, 2021

Today we would recognize Harry Allen as trans. That term and concept did not exist in 1912, but there were many people in the past who had been assigned one sex at birth, but later in life transitioned to the sex that they more readily identified with.Read More

Possible Statue Swap Of Billy Frank Jr. For Marcus Whitman Marks A Reckoning For Northwest History

By Tom Banse February 3, 2021

Leaders of seven Northwest tribes testified this week in favor of replacing a statue of Oregon Trail pioneer and missionary Marcus Whitman in the U.S. Capitol. A proposal pending in the Washington Legislature would install a statue of the late Native rights activist Billy Frank, Jr. in Whitman's place of honor.Read More

Sifting Through ‘Unsettled Ground’ Of The Whitman Massacre To Reckon With Northwest History

By NWPB News January 31, 2021

Unsettled Ground book cover - with Marcus Whitman statue

Cassandra Tate’s recent book on the storied white missionaries sheds light on a poorly understood chapter of our state’s settler past.Read More

Past As Prologue: How The Namesake Of Pullman Tried To Improve Worker’s Lives, But Failed

By NWPB News January 28, 2021

The strike—and the violence that occurred—became George Pullman’s legacy, rather than his attempt to create the utopian worker’s town. When he died, his family buried him in a lead-lined coffin because they were concerned workers would try to desecrate it. Read More

Northwest Mask Wars And Pandemics: Nothing New For Washington As Politics Of 1918 Return

By NWPB News July 20, 2020

Volunteers wearing gauze masks at a street kitchen in Cincinnati serve food to children of families afflicted by the flu pandemic in the winter of 1918-1919.

In 1918 Walla Walla, the chief of police, refused to enforce a state mask mandate. He pointed out that he was going to meet heavy resistance and, anyway, that he had no authority to carry out a state directive, only city ordinances. Still, he also openly defied the instructions of the city’s health officer, J.E. Vanderpool, to follow the state health officer’s guidance.Read More

Nearly 100-Year-Old Historic Marker Stolen From Washington Capitol Campus

By Austin Jenkins May 29, 2020

This bronze plaque commemorating the location of the home of Washington's first territorial and state governors was stolen from the Capitol Campus earlier this month. Now the Washington State Patrol is seeking tips from the public.

A nearly 100-year-old historical marker has been mysteriously stolen from Washington's Capitol Campus and, with no leads on who took it, the state patrol is now asking the public for help solving the crime.Read More

At Age 6, He And Classmates Fled Mount St. Helens. 40 Years Later, This Reporter Recalls That Day

By Austin Jenkins May 18, 2020

Reporter Austin Jenkins, in green circle, was part of a Puget Sound Primary School trip to Camp Cispus in May 1980. Austin and his classmates were evacuated from the camp after Mount St. Helens erupted.

Olympia Correspondent Austin Jenkins was a first grader on a school camping trip near Mount St. Helens when the volcano erupted on May 18, 1980. Austin recently unearthed his scrapbook from that time and interviewed several others who were on that memorable trip. On this 40th anniversary of the eruption, Austin recounts their harrowing escape.Read More

When The Pandemic Came To The Inland Northwest — 102 Years Ago

By Nicholas Deshais April 3, 2020

The year was 1918 – the last time a pandemic reached Spokane. A century has passed, and the Inland Northwest and the world are once again contending with quarantine and the powerful role public health officials can play in times of outbreak.Read More

The Oral History Wasn’t A Myth. Tsunamis Hit This Tribal Village Five Times, Study Shows

By Tom Banse May 7, 2019

A mural in Port Angeles shows Klallam plank houses, as they might have looked after being rebuilt following a long-ago tsunami. CREDIT: SARAH STERLING / PSU

A legend about a great flood has been passed down through the centuries among the Klallam people on the north side of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. As re-told by Klallam elder Ed Sampson on a recording preserved by a University of North Texas linguist, the people noticed the fresh water turning salty -- a detail from which we infer a tsunami. Read More

TV Review: The Ted Bundy Tapes Show Uneasy ‘Conversation With A Killer’ From Washington

By T.J. Tranchell February 18, 2019

A review of 'Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes' and why people find the serial killer from the Northwest interesting. Read More

Proposal To Replace Statues Of Northwest Pioneer Marcus Whitman Stokes Backlash In Olympia

By Tom Banse January 30, 2019

A proposal to remove the larger-than-life statues of pioneer missionary Marcus Whitman from the Washington state capitol and the U.S. Capitol drew angry responses during an initial legislative hearing in Olympia.Read More