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Excerpt from Stevens County 1966 Special Census
History Friday: Stevens County 1966 Special Census

History Friday: Stevens County 1966 Special Census

The 18th United States Census, conducted in 1960, was the first U.S. Census in which the questionnaires were mailed to households, as opposed to paid, in-person enumerators who visited each house. Previous census enumerations used mail-in questionnaires in a limited way, but the 1960 Census relied very heavily on self-reporting. The census determined the U.S. population was 179,323,175. Over the next six years, however, there were many challenges to the census from communities which felt they were under-counted, and short-changed…

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Archives Spotlight: The Seattle team that became America’s first Stanley Cup champion

Archives Spotlight: The Seattle team that became America’s first Stanley Cup champion

This week, Seattle took a giant step closer to procuring a National Hockey League franchise. On Tuesday, February 13, Oak View Group Seattle — an ownership group headed by Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who has given us such classics as Armageddon and Top Gun — formally submitted an application for expansion along with a $10 million application fee. The same group has also agreed to renovate Seattle’s Key Arena (sigh, come home, Sonics) at a $660 million expense. They will…

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Mugshot of Linda Burfield Hazzard
Archives Spotlight: Hungry for wealth, ‘starvation healer’ ran deadly Olalla clinic

Archives Spotlight: Hungry for wealth, ‘starvation healer’ ran deadly Olalla clinic

Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard was an infamous fraud and a crook. She was known for her starvation “cure.” Dr. Hazzard purported fasting was the only cure for disease under the theory all illnesses were borne of impaired digestion. Unsurprisingly, a lot of Hazzard’s patients died slow, miserable deaths. These patients also had a weird habit of signing over their estates to Dr. Hazzard shortly before dying. What’s even more surprising? The ill continued to undergo fasting treatment despite her fairly…

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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…

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Denny Lodge
Archives Spotlight: Seattle’s first retail store sat on Alki Point

Archives Spotlight: Seattle’s first retail store sat on Alki Point

“That’ll be six dollars,” Charles C. Terry probably said to J. N. Low on November 28, 1851. Low bought two axes from Terry, the first sale at Seattle’s first store, located in the town of New York, which is now known as Alki Point. The next time you tell yourself Seattle is super expensive, remember this sale. Six dollars in 1851 is roughly $180 in 2018. Pretty steep for a couple of axes, right? Then again, I haven’t checked prices…

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Man breaking into bank vault
Archives Spotlight: The Hollywood Bandit

Archives Spotlight: The Hollywood Bandit

“I don’t want any bait bills or dye packs, got it?” Scott Scurlock, known to police as “Hollywood,” clutched a black pistol. He didn’t point the gun at anyone. He didn’t wave it around. But he made sure everyone knew he had it as he confidently made simple demands. Heeding Scurlock’s warnings, a bank teller escorted the robber to the vault, while two henchmen manned the lobby. Within minutes, Scurlock wielded a duffle stuffed with over a million dollars, and…

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Archives Spotlight: Washington’s official state monster

Archives Spotlight: Washington’s official state monster

Just over 50 years ago, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin unleashed their Bigfoot video, better known as the Patterson-Gimlin film, on the world. The 59.5 seconds of original footage were met mostly with criticism and accusations—and not much has changed. To the delight of conspiracy theorists around the world, Patterson denied hoax allegations until his death in 1972, and Gimlin still maintains the film ’s legitimacy. Pretty much everyone else, however, fully acknowledges the film was a hoax. That certainly hasn’t stopped…

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