Topic: Maritime
After 1900, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) built up its Princess Line, the pride of the Pacific Northwest coastal service, to a fleet of 32 steamships. Most Princess Liners plied the famed "Triang...
Five years before the 18th Amendment kicked off national Prohibition, Washington voters approved a state initiative banning the sale and manufacture of alcohol. Within days of this new state law, a th...
Washington has 75 public port districts, more than any other state. Each is an independent government body, run by commissioners elected by local voters. They operate major marine terminals and small ...
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, located adjacent to the city of Bremerton on Sinclair Inlet, was established in 1891. It was the first dry-dock and repair facility in the Northwest capable of handling the...
Between 1891 and 1950, sailing schooners based in Seattle, Poulsbo, and Anacortes fished cod in the Bering Sea and Alaskan waters. Famous vessels included the Lizzie Colby, Joseph Russ, C S Holmes, Ch...
Captain William Renton was a lumber and shipping merchant, at first based in San Francisco, who established a sawmill on Puget Sound in 1852. In 1863, he relocated to Blakely Harbor, Bainbridge Island...
Robinson Point Light Station (also known as Point Robinson) is situated on the easternmost point of Maury Island, a 36.7 square mile extension of Vashon Island, in southwest King County. It marks the ...
The Salmon Bank is a submerged shelf located off the southern shore of San Juan Island along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Created by the advance and retreat of the continental ice sheet, the shelf's sh...
For centuries, salmon have been intrinsic to the culture and subsistence of the Native peoples of King County. For Lushootseed-speaking groups living along rivers and streams where salmon spawn in the...
Seafair, the gala annual Seattle-King County water festival, began in August 1950 and continues to this day. The festival erupts all over King County and has included hydroplane speed competitions, li...
In this excerpt from his unpublished autobiography, Jim Douglas (1909-2005) recalls the many steps involved in coordinating Seafair. Jim Douglas was one of a group of local citizens called together by...
Seattle's waterfront is a natural location for an aquarium, and proposals to build one go back many years, though it wasn't until a Forward Thrust bond issue was approved in 1968 that funds were alloc...
This is Part 1 of a three-part slideshow photo essay on the history of the Seattle Aquarium and its neighborhood beginning in 1841 through the present day. Part 1 takes the story from the early dates ...
This is Part 2 of a three-part slideshow Show photo essay on the history of the Seattle Aquarium and its neighborhood beginning in 1841 through the present day. Part 2 takes the story from the Great S...
This is Part 3 of a three-part slideshow photo essay on the history of the Seattle Aquarium and its neighborhood beginning in 1841 through the present day. Part 3 continues the story from the beginnin...
Coast Salish Indians fished, hunted, and gathered shellfish along Elliott Bay for millennia before May 1792, when European sailors first gazed at the site of present-day Seattle. Sixty years later, U....
Bob Davidson is the President and CEO of Seattle Aquarium. In this recording he discusses the history of the aquarium and how it dovetails with the wider history of Seattle's waterfront. He also expla...
The Seattle Yacht Club, at 1807 E Hamlin Street on Portage Bay in the Montlake neighborhood, has been a Seattle institution for well more than a century. First founded, briefly, in 1879, its existence...
The Skansie Shipbuilding Company, formerly located at 3207 Harborview Drive, Gig Harbor, in western Pierce County, was a South Sound shipbuilding powerhouse in the 1910s and 1920s. Established in 1912...
David E. "Ned" Skinner, II and his wife Katherine (LaGasa) "Kayla" Skinner were individually prominent in Seattle's civic affairs beginning in the 1940s, contributing their income, their influence, an...
This is the story of the brothers Harald Blekum (1865-1950) and Einar Blekum (1864-1910) and their assimilation to life in Seattle, 1891 to 1950. It is based on research, documents, and images submitt...
In 1779, Spain launched a third expedition from San Blas, Mexico, to Nueva Galicia (the Pacific Northwest). The third expedition was planned after the triumphant return of Juan Francisco de la Bodega ...
In March 1775, the second Spanish expedition, commanded by Bruno de Hezeta (sometimes spelled Heceta), sailed north from Mexico to Nueva Galicia (the Pacific Northwest). This expedition set forth shor...
Juan Perez (Juan Josef Perez Hernandez), sailing on the frigate Santiago with a crew made up mostly of Mexicans, was the first non-native to sight, examine, name, and record the islands near British C...