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Tag: Cowlitz County

Check out new Washington Rural Heritage collections

Check out new Washington Rural Heritage collections

Another grant cycle for the Washington Rural Heritage project is wrapping up! The folks at the Washington State Library are working with participants from all over the state to put finishing touches on new and existing digital collections. In the past year, nearly 2,000 items have been added to Washington Rural Heritage, a digital collection hosted by the State Library. Five new collections were created, 10 libraries became project partners, and nearly 20 partnerships were formed between libraries and local…

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Understanding the February Special Election

Understanding the February Special Election

Did you know there’s an election coming up on Tuesday, February 13th? Springtime special elections sometimes get overlooked, especially when it feels like the recent November election is so fresh in mind. But in the February 2018 special election, 65 percent of Washington’s registered voters are eligible to participate — that’s 2,753,553 people. Voters from all but two counties have issues and/or races on the February ballot. San Juan and Skamania are the exceptions, but not all other counties have…

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On the road again

On the road again

Over the past few months, Secretary Wyman has been traveling around Washington on a number of multi-purpose trips. As she is the Secretary OF State, we’ve been calling these community visits her Secretary IN State tour. Since August, she’s visited Kelso and Longview in Cowlitz County; Vancouver and Camas in Clark County; Aberdeen in Grays Harbor County; Pasco, Richland and Kennewick in Benton and Franklin Counties; Walla Walla in Walla Walla County; Bellingham and Fairview in Whatcom County, Mount Vernon…

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A Snapshot of Cowlitz County

A Snapshot of Cowlitz County

Washington is proud of its rich Native American heritage. Many counties in Washington have names derived from native languages. Cowlitz County, which was founded in 1854, is a great example. The word Cowlitz is a rough adaptation of the Native word tawallitch, the tribal name of the Native Americans who lived there before pioneers arrived. It is also the name given to a river running through the county, as well as a massive glacier that feeds into the river. Although…

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Reed does a lot of swearing (in)

Reed does a lot of swearing (in)

(Photo courtesy of Don Jensen) No, not the type requiring bleeps. Actually, Secretary Reed spent part of Wednesday participating in separate county swearing-in ceremonies in Kelso and Olympia. The Secretary traveled south in the morning to the Cowlitz County Courthouse to swear in County Commissioners Mike Karnofski and Dennis Weber (in photo above), and PUD Commissioner Kurt Anagnostou. After returning to Olympia, Reed made the short trek around Capitol Lake and up the hill to the Thurston County Courthouse to…

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A Day of Accidents on the Sternwheeler Toledo

A Day of Accidents on the Sternwheeler Toledo

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: This week I grabbed a reel of microfilm at random and found myself drawn to an article on the very first frame. I was reading the June 3, 1887 issue of Cowlitz’s Advocate, a newspaper from Kalama. The newspaper was less than a year old when the presumed writer of the article below, William D. Close (1845-1914), purchased the paper in May 1887. A Union…

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A Good Year for Library Elections

A Good Year for Library Elections

With the final votes tallied, and some close calls, libraries have come out on top in the recent Washington elections with a perfect 6 for 6 score. In Cowlitz County, the levy for the Castle Rock Public Library succeeded with 62.34% of the vote, which is great because it needed a supermajority (at least 60%) to pass. The final tally was 298 votes for and 180 against. A levy failure in 2008 forced the library to rely solely on donations…

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Castle Rock Library levy passing

Castle Rock Library levy passing

Last June, we blogged about a fun run/walk event in Castle Rock to help raise money for the Castle RockLibrary, which has been struggling to stay open since voters there narrowly defeated a levy measure last November to help finance it. It appears that the second time might be the charm for the library. Updated elections results Thursday afternoon show the library levy is passing, with 342 voters (62.3 percent) supporting it and 207 (37.7 percent) opposing it. The levy…

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