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Topic: Curiosities

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Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (1909): Baby Incubator Exhibit and Cafe

Washington's first World's Fair -- the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition -- was held in Seattle on the grounds of the University of Washington campus between June 1 and October 16, 1909, and drew more t...

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Barackman, Mervin (1894-1977) and His Wrestling Bears

The "spectator sport" of bear wrestling is an ancient, if disturbing, one that is still practiced in only a few nations. In America, the man-vs.-bear spectacle became a fad among beered-up tavern patr...

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B&I Circus Store (Lakewood)

World War II army veterans M. Leo Bradshaw (1916-1993) and Earl Leonard Irwin (1909-1973) opened the B&I Sales Company, an army surplus store located in Lakewood in southern Pierce County, in 1945...

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Bicycle Tree at Snohomish (1890-1927)

An old-growth cedar tree near Snohomish gained a measure of fame after 1890 when a local logger was hired to cut a pathway through its massive trunk, allowing people to walk, bike, or ride a hors...

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Bobo the Gorilla (1951-1968)

Bobo the gorilla entertained visitors to the Great Ape House at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle for 15 years. He was a mainstay attraction for both young and old. A somewhat grumpy gorilla, Bobo love...

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Bobo's Fifth Birthday

Bobo (1951-1968) was a beloved gorilla who for 15 years entertained visitors to the Great Ape House at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo. Before moving to the zoo, Bobo lived with a human family. Bobo's hum...

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Burnley Ghost and Other Seattle Apparitions

In his famous, possibly apocryphal, speech of 1854, Chief Seattle is said to have warned his new neighbors that "the dead are not altogether powerless." There have been numerous reports of ghosts and ...

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Daylight Saving in Washington

Daylight saving in Washington has a long and contentious history, shaped by conflict between urban and rural interests. Its history is marked by many local referendums and three hotly debated, statewi...

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Edith Wilson Macefield: A House Is Your Home

When someone refuses to sell property while everyone around her does, it is known as a holdout. In China, holdout houses that remain while developments are built around them are called "dingzihu" or "...

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Finding Cherry Grove by Hunter Brown

Hunter Brown (1992-2017) wrote this account of locating and then traveling to the site of Cherry Grove, Illinois. Cherry Grove was the town the Denny/Boren family left behind in April 1851 when they s...

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Flying Saucers in Washington

The modern phenomena of UFOs and "flying saucers" began in Washington state on June 24, 1947, when Kenneth Arnold spotted nine mysterious, high-speed objects "flying like a saucer would" along the cre...

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Haunted Email from Rose Red

This essay contains selected email queries received by HistoryLink concerning Rose Red, an ABC-TV mini-series which aired in January 2002 and was based on a story concept by Stephen King and a related...

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Lusty Lady: A Seattle Panoram

The Lusty Lady, a "panoram," or peepshow, was a remnant of Seattle's bawdy past, an overly lipsticked cousin in a gentrifying family. The pawn shops, tattoo parlors, and strip clubs that were once its...

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Mapleine Advertisement, 1909

Mapleine is an imitation maple flavoring originally produced by Seattle's Crescent Manufacturing Company in 1905. Mapleine quickly became Crescent's signature product. The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposit...

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Oil Exploration in Washington

David Brannon has provided this overview of oil exploration and production in Washington, beginning with Native Americans and ending as recently as the 1960s.

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Prunarians (Vancouver, Washington, 1920s)

This piece on the Prunarians, a group of civic-minded Vancouver businessmen active in the 1920s, was written by Bill Alley. During the 1920s, Clark County, Washington, was the prune capital of the wor...

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The Story of Willie Keil

This account of the strange journey of Willie Keil (1836-1855) over the Oregon Trail was written by Dorothea Nordstrand (1916-2011) and first appeared in Adventure West in November 1994.

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The Swinging Chandelier: A Story for April 1 by Ralph Munro

Ralph Munro served as Secretary of State from 1980 to 2001. This story of the chandelier in the Capitol Building in Olympia also involves another person, Jack Metcalf (1927-2007), a Washington state s...

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Vashon Island's "Bike in the Tree"

In this People's History, Leigh Sheridan, HistoryLink's education intern, recounts her first encounter with Vashon Island's famous "Bike in the Tree." Her narrative focuses on how she learned more abo...

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Wild Man of the Wynoochee

A year and a half after killing two teenage boys on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, and then disappearing into the deeply forested Wynoochee Valley (in southern Grays Harbor County), John Tornow -- a ...

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World War I Era Spiritualism in Seattle

This story, prepared by museum historian Lorraine McConaghy, Ph.D., begins with a Ouija board held in the collection of Seattle's Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI). The simple wooden board meas...

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Ye Olde Curiosity Shop (Seattle)

A magnet for collectors and curiosity seekers, history buffs and bargain hunters, Ye Olde Curiosity Shop has thrilled visitors from Seattle and around the world for more than 120 years. Its founder, J...

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