With today being Groundhog Day, many are curious to know if that small, furry mammal in Pennsylvania saw its shadow. It did not, which supposedly means an early spring. Thanks to today’s sunny weather in Olympia, the shadow of the Legislative Building’s dome appears on the nearby Temple of Justice. So if we substitute the dome for a groundhog, does this mean winter around here will continue for several more weeks?
The last time this happened was five years ago when they went to the Super Bowl. So is it a good omen that the Seahawks’ 12th Man flag was flying high today in the Flag Circle between the Legislative Building and the Temple of Justice? We’ll know late Saturday afternoon, when the Hawks’ first-round game against the defending Super Bowl champ New Orleans Saints should be finished.
From Salt Creek looking north across the strait to Vancouver Island. Photo courtesy of Russ Veenema. Nearly 100 miles long, this waterway forms the international boundary between Canada’s Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula on the American side. The strait connects Puget Sound with the Pacific Ocean. Port Angeles is among the handful of towns located along its southern shore. According to “Washington State Place Names,” the strait was named in 1787 by English maritime fur trader Charles William Barkley…
Photo courtesy of www.funbeach.com This picturesque town of about 1,100 occupies the state’s southwest corner and is the base of Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula. It’s renowned for salmon fishing. Surrounded by Baker Bay, the Columbia River and Pacific Ocean, the town’s rich history starts with a local Native American tribe. Elowahka Jim, a Chinook Native and renowned sturgeon fisherman, always referred to the local settlement as ‘Elowahka Ranch,’ which was later abbreviated to Ilwaco. Earlier settlers, drawn by talk of…
Photo courtesy of Polson Museum, Hoquiam After being on a six-month hiatus, we’re bringing back a “From Our Corner” feature that examines how different Washington towns acquired their names. Located along the banks of the Hoquiam River near its mouth where it empties into the Chehalis River channel and Grays Harbor, Hoquiam (population 8,770) was settled in 1859 by the James Karr family, according to “Washington State Place Names,” written by James W. Phillips. Hoquiam was named after the river…
In 1910, Emma Smith DeVoe and May Arkwright Hutton led campaigns in Washington supporting the women’s suffrage amendment. The ballot measure to amend Article VI of the Washington Constitution was on the 1910 General Election ballot and was passed by majority of 22,623, a favorable vote of nearly 2 to 1. Washington State joined the western states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Idaho, that had already enacted women’s suffrage. Washington was the first state in the 20th century to pass…
Mark your calendars for November 7 and 8 for two events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the vote to amend the Washington Constitution for women’s right to vote in the state as part of a Day of Jubilation. The American Association of University Women is sponsoring a Women’s Suffrage Pink Tea at the State Capital Museum in Olympia on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Visit this website for more details! The Office of the Secretary of State, the WSHS/Women’s…
1887 and 1888 proved to be dark years for the women’s suffrage movement in Washington. In the 1887 case of Harland v. Territory, the Territorial Supreme Court overturned the Women’s Suffrage Act of 1886 because it allowed women to serve on juries. Justice George Turner (photo on left courtesy of Washington State Archives), who firmly believed that women were incapable of voting intelligently on public matters (tsk-tsk!), ruled that the title of the 1886 election law was defective and the…
Photo by Stephanie Horn Secretary of State Reed has helped officially open the 2010 Central Washington State Fair in Yakima. Daniel Liao with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle joined Sam with the ribbon-cutting ceremony. State Sen. Curtis King (standing on the far right) accompanied Sam at the fair, which runs through October 3. For more info about this fair, go here .
The year was 1878. In hope of qualifying Washington for statehood, a Constitutional Convention was held in Walla Walla to draft a state constitution (which Congress failed to ratify). A separate measure granting women to vote was put on the ballot, but it was rejected by a three-to-one margin of all-male voters.