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Diablo Dam incline railway climbing Sourdough Mountain, 1930. Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives, 2306.
Children waving to ferry, 1950. Courtesy Museum of History and Industry.
Loggers in the Northwest woods. Courtesy Washington State Digital Archives.
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3/20/2025
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The Kingdome's Rise and Fall
Has it really been 25 years since Mariners and Seahawks fans had to sit indoors to watch their favorite sports teams? How time flies. Interestingly enough, those same sentiments were applied on March 26, 2000, when the Kingdome was demolished less than a quarter century after its opening. In its place, two sports arenas have risen, now called T-Mobile Park and Lumen Field.
Plans for a domed stadium in Seattle were first hatched in 1960, but voters balked at funding it until 1968, when hopes were high for Seattle’s first Major League baseball team, the Pilots. Unfortunately, after playing one season in an aging Sicks' Stadium, the Pilots flew the coop to Milwaukee, where they became the Brewers.
As plans for another baseball team were underway, discontent grew between citizens and public officials – mostly over building costs and planned locations for a new stadium – which delayed construction even further. The Kingdome finally opened on March 27, 1976, and many people never guessed that they would witness its rise and fall within their lifetime.
Electric Power for All
On March 22, 1886, Seattle agents of Thomas Edison switched on the first central incandescent lighting plant west of the Rockies. Soon enough the city's streets and homes became illuminated by this innovation, which was quickly used to power streetcars as well. This led to the creation of a regional electric monopoly, which in turn triggered development of Seattle City Light
Just months after Edison's men flipped the switch in Seattle, Tacoma began lighting its city streets and running trolley lines with power bought from private firms. The city found this arrangement unacceptable and became a vanguard in the municipal-ownership movement by taking control of its own public utilities. Tacoma soon began harnessing the power of nearby rivers, and this week marks the March 23, 1926, anniversary of the first delivery of electricity from Cushman Dam No. 1.
An even greater event in the annals of Washington's hydroelectric history took place on March 22, 1941. On that day, two small service generators at Grand Coulee Dam went online for the first time, sending some 10,000 kilowatts of electricity into the Bonneville Power Administration’s transmission network. Small as it was, there was more hoopla for this event than when the dam's main generators began to fire up just a few months later.
On March 22, 1778, Captain James Cook gave Cape Flattery its current name after he unwittingly missed the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Captains Robert Gray and George Vancouver met near the same spot 14 years later. Vancouver left to explore Puget Sound, and Gray went on to find the Columbia River.
Three years after Walter Granger organized the Yakima Land and Canal Company, water gushed into the Sunnyside Canal for the first time on March 26, 1892. Farmers and orchardists soon established themselves along the canal, and although the Panic of 1893 slowed work on expanding the irrigation system, it eventually led to bountiful harvests for the Yakima Valley and later proved beneficial to the state's wine industry.
On March 20, 1891, Marysville incorporated in Snohomish County. Like many communities, the logging town suffered during the Panic of 1893, but rebounded in the early 1900s as berry framers began growing crops and boosting the local economy. This week also marks an anniversary for Bridgeport, in Douglas County. It incorporated on March 21, 1910 as it was transitioning from a mining town to an agricultural center.
On March 25, 1921 – less than three years after Pierce County voters created the Port of Tacoma – the port's Pier 1 welcomed its first ship, which docked ready to take on cargo. Members of the International Longshoremen's Association worked around the clock to load 600,000 board feet of lumber in record-setting time. Within 24 hours after its arrival, the fully loaded Edmore set sail for Yokohama, Japan.
On March 26, 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans hockey team – coached by Pete Muldoon – won the Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Les Canadiens Habitants three games to one. Both teams played in the Stanley Cup finals two years later, but the championship match was cancelled after five games – the last being held on March 29, 1919 – due to that era's flu pandemic.
On March 22, 2014, a catastrophic landslide near the community of Oso – between Arlington and Darrington in Snohomish County – killed 43 people, making it the deadliest landslide disaster in United States history. Besides loss of life, the disaster caused severe impacts on the local economy and the environment and damaged a half-mile section of State Route 530, which took months to repair.
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After the manufacture of wine was legalized, St. Charles Winery was granted Washington's first post-Prohibition winery permit on March 22, 1933.
"The classical city promoted play with careful solicitude, building the theater and stadium as it built the market place and the temple."
–Jane Addams
