Topic: Recreation
Gerry Johnson has been a central figure in the planning and redevelopment of Seattle's central waterfront as a board member with Friends of Waterfront Seattle. According to its website, the "Friends,"...
In the winter of 1934, Seattle made national news when its Board of Park Commissioners opened one of the first municipal ski areas in the country at the old Milwaukee Railroad stop of Laconia at Snoqu...
In 1972 at the age of 12, Yasser Seirawan walked into the Last Exit on Brooklyn, a coffeehouse in Seattle’s University District where the local chess luminaries gathered. He had been told that h...
During the 1930s, skiing in the northwest grew rapidly. Seattle and Tacoma area enthusiasts traveled to Snoqualmie Pass, Paradise on Mount Rainier, and Mount Baker on weekends to ski. Travel to ski ar...
Martin was a stop on the Northern Pacific (NP) rail line in Kittitas County, at the east portal of the NP tunnel through the Cascade Mountains under Stampede Pass. It was named for nearby Martin Creek...
Rick Steves (b. 1955) is a best-selling travel writer, businessman, philanthropist, and television personality whose work revolves around encouraging people to broaden their perspectives through trave...
The Mountaineers is a Western Washington-based organization that has had a major impact on outdoor recreation and wilderness preservation in the state. Started in Seattle in 1906 primarily as a mounta...
The mountain wilderness that rims the Puget Sound Basin has beckoned adventurous residents since the late 1800s. Hiking, backpacking, and mountain and rock climbing grew steadily there until Worl...
The San Juan Islands, an archipelago located in Salish Sea waters between Washington and Vancouver Island, B.C., have always held a strong attraction for visitors. From the first peoples who inhabited...
From the earliest settlement of the San Juan Islands, visitors traveled to the enchanting archipelago in the far Pacific Northwest Salish Sea to fish and hunt; explore rocky coasts and inland forests;...
The roots of Trager USA in Monroe, Snohomish County, trace back to Lloyd F. Nelson (1894?-1986) of Bremerton, Kitsap County. Nelson was working in Alaska in 1920 when he decided to enjoy a hike into t...
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, men and women hiked and climbed together in the peaks and valleys of Snohomish County and throughout Washington. Nature recreation in Snohomis...
Admiralty Inlet was considered so strategic to the defense of Puget Sound at the turn of the century that three forts were built at the entrance with huge guns creating a "Triangle of Fire" that could...
The eighth essay in HistoryLink's series of Turning Point essays for the The Seattle Times recaps the history of the YMCA of Greater Seattle, and parallel developments in Seattle's religious, social, ...
The Union Bay Natural Area, located along the north shore of Lake Washington adjacent to the University of Washington's East Campus, occupies what was for many years Seattle's largest garbage dump and...
Three Seattle City Light dams on the Upper Skagit River in the Cascade Mountains today (2000) produce 25 percent of the electrical power consumed in Seattle. (The dams are located in southeast Whatcom...
Volunteer Park, located on Seattle's Capitol Hill, is an Olmsted-designed, landmark park that is home to the Volunteer Park Conservatory, the Seattle Asian Art Museum, and a city water reservoir and s...
Volunteer Park was designed by John Charles Olmsted, who developed Seattle’s park and boulevard system in 1903. It includes neighborhood parks, playfields boulevards and parkways, and large park...
When Waterfront Park opened in 1974, it was the first public park on Seattle's central waterfront, an area that had long been used for work and play, but never had a designated public recreational spa...
In 1952, a Wenatchee junior high school principal asked English teacher and circus aficionado Paul K. Pugh to put together a tumbling team that could entertain crowds during school sporting events. Pu...
This file contains Bob and Ada Hallberg's memories of West Seattle's Alki Beach and the log rafts swimmers could sit on and dive off up until the 1950s. It is an exerpt of an oral history interview co...
This file contains recollections of swimming in West Seattle at the Lincoln Park pool and at the Alki Natatorium. Gertrude Stevens recounts how she learned to swim, Ada Hallberg talks about swimming i...
This file contains memories of West Seattle's Luna Park taken from oral history interviews conducted in 1999 by the Southwest Seattle Historical Society. Luna Park, Seattle's "Coney Island of the West...
A Willits canoe, considered one of the finest canoes ever made, was the life's work of the Willits brothers: Earl Carmi (1889-1967) and Floyd Calvin (1892-1962). Born in the Midwest, they arrived in t...