Browsed by
Tag: Columbia River

Archives Spotlight: The top secret Hanford Project

Archives Spotlight: The top secret Hanford Project

More than 51,000 people worked at the Hanford site between 1943 and 1945. Less than 500 knew what they were making. Plutonium is a radioactive element derived from uranium, and was discovered at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1941. Scientist Glenn Seaborg wrote a detailed description of plutonium and its potential uses. It could be a plentiful energy source, or used as a component in a major explosive weapon, he wrote. Of course, the creative insights fell upon deaf…

Read More Read More

Classic WA photos: Bonneville Dam

Classic WA photos: Bonneville Dam

(Photo courtesy of Washington State Digital Archives) Our State Digital Archives has thousands of classic cool photos of everything Washington – especially people and places. This photo shows people parked downriver from Bonneville Dam, the last dam that the mighty Columbia River pours over before reaching the Pacific Ocean. The photo is part of the State Library Photograph Collection, 1851-1990  and was taken sometime between 1932 and 1942. The dam is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Interested…

Read More Read More

A snapshot of Douglas County

A snapshot of Douglas County

Douglas County flag (Image courtesy of Washington State Archives) Just east of the Cascade Mountains in roughly the center of Washington lies Douglas County. Douglas, which was founded in 1883 out of land from Lincoln County, is the ninth county in our snapshot series. Douglas was named after Illinois Senator and statesman Stephen A. Douglas, who famously lost to Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election. He participated in historic debates with Lincoln regarding issues such as slavery and abolitionism….

Read More Read More

Before Celilo Falls disappeared

Before Celilo Falls disappeared

1945 postcard shows Native Americans fishing at Celilo Falls. (Images courtesy of Washington State Archives) March 10 marks the anniversary when a famous and treasured fishing and trading spot for Northwest tribes for thousands of year vanished in a matter of hours. It was on this date in 1957 when Celilo Falls along the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon disappeared after floodgates on The Dalles Dam closed. To remember this moment, the State Archives brought out these classic photos…

Read More Read More

From Digital Archives: Boat racing in Tri-Cities

From Digital Archives: Boat racing in Tri-Cities

(Photo courtesy of Washington State Digital Archives.) For many in the Northwest, a summer highlight is watching the hydros race on the Columbia River in the Tri-Cities in late July or on Lake Washington in Seattle a week later during Seafair. With the 48th running of the Columbia Cup races taking place this weekend at Columbia Park in the Tri-Cities, we checked the Digital Archives for a photo of an early boat race there. Sure enough, there was one. This…

Read More Read More