1903 protest against the muddy streets in Seattle

Yakima's Bitter Harvest - a cover from Seattle's underground paper The Helix (1967)

By Jack Brummet, Northwest History Editor

This image is a cover from the Seattle underground paper The Helix, in 1967. Walt Crowley (whom I met a couple of times and exchanged emails with later) drew this cover and was--I think--one of the editors of The Helix. This cover is on the plight of migrant workers who travel to the northwest in the summer to pick fruit and vegetables in Eastern Washington.

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The Electrification of Washington State (from the 1962 Seattle World's Fair)

"A large 16x24 foot relief map of Washington "floating" in a pool shows how the most electrified state in the Union is harnessing its rivers to produce an abundance of low-cost electricity.

"A colorful water wheel symbolizes the old "at site" use of water power. Alongside is a modern water wheel generator which demonstrates how water power is converted to electric power which can be transmitted to where it is needed.

"An animated display of nature's water cycle shows why water power is inexhaustible. Another illustrates how power dams not only produce electricity but bring extra benefits of flood control, navigation, recreation, and irrigation. Two more displays explain how electricity is produced from atomic and solar energy.

"Like others at the Space Age World's Fair, this exhibit points out how our wonderful world will be even better in Century 21."


click to enlarge
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Mount Rainier: Beauty and terror

Source: Washington State Archives. State Library Photograph Collection. Photo by L.D. Lindsley - click to enlarge

I have two friends climbing Mount Rainier this weekend. I recently read the best book I'd ever read about it... The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier by Bruce Barcott. He focused on climbing, the native folklore about the mountain, the animals and insects, the history, including a detailed account various expeditions, and of the army plane crash in the 40s that left dozens of bodies buried in the Tacoma Glacier.

If you are fascinated by Mt. Rainier--and it's hard not to be in Seattle, when its massive presence looms over us every day ("the mountain's out today!")--this is a great book to start with. What makes Barcott's book so engrossing is that he digs in to all aspects of the mountain. And tells his personal story of climbing the mountain, and how when he finally summited, he didn't feel much at all. Except anxious. He does a great job describing both the danger and the beauty.


click to enlarge - Rainier from the northwest

The mountain is arguably the single most impressive mountain in the lower 48. It's only the 5th tallest mountain-- a few feet lower than California's Mt. Whitney (14,494'/4418m) and also a few feet shorter than some of the Sawatch Range peaks in Colorado. It is second to Shasta in total volume for a single peak, and only nearby Mount Baker has more glacial ice. In terms of it's high elevation, massive bulk, and 30 glaciers, Mt. Rainier reigns supreme. And it is only 40 miles to the sea level shores of Puget Sound. Because it is so big, and relatively alone, it dominates the landscape, and can be seen from Oregon to Canada.

Climbing Mt. Rainier, by its easiest route, requires you to ascend 9,000 vertical feet! This is actually the same distance as the climb from advance base camp in the Western Cwm to the top of Mt. Everest. Of course, the air is considerably thicker...
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The Posies: Solar Sister Video

A live, acoustic version of Solar Sister. They look so young. . .they look about 20. I also include a 1994 Phoenix live Solar Sister with the full band. The Posies were in their hair band mode.





The Posies' misfire (e.g., not becoming rich and famous) is one of the great puzzlers of rock for me. They put out a passel of exciting, melodic, moving, harmonic power pop albums:

Failure (1988) [a wonderful, chiming, exuberant, youthful album]

Dear 23 (1990) [ a college hit: beautiful, rapidly maturing]

Frosting On The Beater (1993) [their near-hit that got a lot of MTV and college airplay, with many of their greatest tunes]

Amazing Disgrace (1996) [Probably their greatest. A stunning record, and the greatest mystery of all...why this didn't soar to the top of the charts]

Success (1998) [possibly my least favorite album, 'though it is not without merit either]

In Case You Didn't Feel Like Plugging In (2000) [a wonderful and charming live album: great tunes and banter, and The Posies at the height of their power]

Alive Before The Iceberg (2000) [a middling live album, maybe my least listen to Posies CD]

Last, At Least (Box Set) (2000) [rarities etc. for fans. If you love The Posies, you'll love this.]

Dream All Day(Best Of The Posies) (2000) [as with all Best ofs, puzzling for the omissions]

Nice Cheekbones And A PhD(2001) [A knockout EP with two heartbreakingly great songs: Ken's Matinee, and their gorgeous cover of David Crosby/The Byrd's Lady Friend. When The Posies played my birthday party in 2003, the only song I even requested was Matinee. They kncked it out 0f the park.]

Every Kind Of Light (2005) [the revival album...totally respectable, with several songs as good as anything they ever did. Of course, it stiffed].

And then, there is their great work with Big Star:

Columbia - Live At Missouri University 4/25/93 (1993)
Big Star Story (2003)
Big Star In Space (2005)
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Mercer's Maidens, Or, How Seattle Imported Women For The Lonely Pioneers And Sourdoughs

In the 1860's Seattle was between a hard place and a rock. Women here were outnumbered by males ten to one). A Seattle founder, Asa Mercer, went back to Boston and convince some of the "surplus" females there to come west, with their journey to be paid for by subscribers in Seattle who hoped to become their husbands. He met with opposition in Boston (duh!), but found more willing pickings in Lowell (Jack Kerouac's hometown), where many of Mercer's Maidens came from.

After a long long journey that included crossing the Panama isthmus, and a rest stop in San Francisco, they arrived on Seattle's waterfront on May 16, 1864. All of the girls, except one (who got sick and died), rapidly found husbands (although nowhere near all of the men who financed the adventure actually snagged a wife). A television show, Here Come The Brides, based on the story aired in 1968, starring teen heartthrob Bobby Sherman, and David Soul, among others. The show was a megahit in French Canada...and did OK here.

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Paul Revere And The Raiders - northwest rock pioneers (with video goodness)

For a short moment, after the British/Liverpool invasion, northwest party band heroes Paul Revere and The Raiders were about the biggest rock band in America. They had a string of 24 hit singles, and various gold records with great pop/rock tunes (Hungry, Kicks, Steppin' Out, Him or Me?, Let Me, I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone, Good Thing, Ups and Downs, among others).

The Raiders had a ridiculously campy stage show (they still do), and absurd and flashy Revolutionary War–era stage costumes. They were all over the TV, and also hosted a daily show on ABC called Where the Action Is. The Raiders were probably the first television age rock band.

Being a northwest band, they played Louie Louie too (and released a single, but another local band, the Wailers made it a hit), as well as their own creation, Crisco Party.





I saw them two or three times at the Seattle Teen Fair and at one of the local battles of the bands. Mark Lindsay was always popular with the girls and women. Paul Revere could have been a baggy pants vaudeville comedian. The stageshow was a strange mixture of slapstick and garage.






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