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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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5/2/2024
Expo '74
Fifty years ago this week, on May 4, 1974, President Richard Nixon addressed a crowd of 85,000 people as he presided over the opening of Expo '74 in Spokane. Spokane was the smallest city to have hosted a world's fair, and it was the first exposition to have an environmental theme. Nixon said he was most impressed "that the idea did not come from Washington D.C., but from Washington state."
The opening ceremonies were the culmination of four years of planning and construction. Spokane boosters used the fair as an opportunity to revitalize the city's core, and they chose Spokane Falls for the fairground site. The falls had once been the city's main attraction, but had become blighted with rickety bridges, railroad trestles, and warehouses. The plan was to reclaim this area as a city park after the fair had ended.
The Washington State Pavilion Opera House opened three days before the fair did and served as a gala preview. During the fair's run from May 4 to November 3, almost 5.2 million visitors visited foreign and domestic pavilions, many of which had exhibits that dealt with ecological problems and solutions. Of course, there was plenty of entertainment too, from gospel choirs to innovative rock guitarists. There was also plenty of food, such as Danish aebelskivers, Russian borscht, and -- most popular of all -- sausages, schnitzel, and Munich beer at the Bavarian Beer Garden.
Overall, the fair was a clear success. Not long after it closed, work began on transforming the site into Riverfront Park, one vestige of the four large gorge parks proposed decades earlier by the Olmsted Brothers landscape-design firm. The clocktower and the tilted dome of the U.S. Pavilion (minus the vinyl covering) still dominate the park's skyline, and the Opera House is now home to the Spokane Symphony.
Protesting Against War
On May 1, 1970, protests erupted in Seattle against U.S. entry into Cambodia and intensified after National Guardsmen killed four student demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio on May 4. On May 5, more than a thousand protesters marched from Seattle's University District onto Interstate 5, blocking all southbound lanes before exiting peacefully after being confronted by police.
Things turned ugly two days later. After a violent confrontation between uniformed police and demonstrators on the UW campus, plainclothes officers of the Seattle Police Department's TAC Squad prowled the U District, beating up whomever they suspected of being "radical" or "anti-American." According to at least one eyewitness, the attacks were never seriously investigated by the press or by the City of Seattle.
Seattle wasn't the only community dealing with antiwar sentiment. Two days later, 450 Canadian protesters crossed the border and invaded Blaine. They were confronted by nightstick-wielding police and angry citizens, who repeatedly charged the protestors until they were forced back into Canada.
Exactly 40 years after the Louisiana Purchase, a few hundred American settlers in Oregon declared a provisional government on May 2, 1843, although the region was under joint occupation by the United States and Great Britain. The latter finally struck its colors in 1846, and two years later Oregon Territory was formally established. In 1853, Washington Territory was formed from the portion of Oregon Territory north of the Columbia River.
Seattle doubled in size with the annexation of nearby communities on May 3, 1891. Exactly 16 years later, the city expanded again with the annexation of South Park and Columbia City on May 3, 1907.
On May 4, 1893, Everett incorporated, two years after wealthy investors began planning and developing the waterfront community. Unfortunately, local residents didn't have much time to celebrate -- the New York stock market tumbled the next day, sending the nation into a deep economic depression. The fledgling city struggled for years to recover.
On May 7, 1906, Franz Edmund Creffield, the charismatic leader of an Oregon-based "Holy Rollers" love cult, was gunned down in Seattle by George Mitchell, the jealous husband of one of Creffield's acolytes. A sympathetic all-male Seattle jury quickly acquitted Mitchell on the grounds of temporary insanity and he was released. As Mitchell prepared to board a train at Union Depot to return home on July 12, his sister Esther -- a devoted cult member -- shot him point-blank on the platform. Seattle Police Chief Charles Wappenstein was moved to comment, "I wish these Oregon people would kill each other on their own side of the river."
On May 2, 1922, Kathryn Miracle and Bertha Landes became the first women elected to the Seattle City Council, 12 years after Washington women gained the right to vote. In 1926 Landes was elected as the city's first woman mayor.
Communities celebrating birthdays this week include Chelan, whose male residents voted to incorporate on May 7, 1902; Concrete, which got its start on May 8, 1909; Everson, which incorporated on May 4, 1929; and Mukilteo, which became a city on May 8, 1947.
On May 2, 1948, the first annual Golden Water Ski Race was held on the Sammamish Slough, which flows from Lake Sammamish to Lake Washington in northern King County.
"… the State of Washington, under the leadership of Governor Evans, I think is generally recognized to be the first State in the Nation in terms of trying to protect the environment. We congratulate this State, its Governor, and its legislators."
--Richard Nixon, Expo '74 opening address
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