Central Washington

Lake Chelan, often mistaken for an Italian lago

Posted on August 4, 2012 by Washington, Our Home

I’m reading (actually, listening to) a book called The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan. In it, Gifford Pinchot comments that Washington State’s Lake Chelan bears a striking resemblance to Italy’s Lago di Como (Lake Como). I thought that was interesting so I put together this little side-by-side … Continue reading »

Categories: Central Washington, History, Mt. Saint Helens, Western Washington | Tags: Gifford Pinchot, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Google, Grover Cleveland, Idaho, Italy, John Muir, Lake Chelan, Lake Como, Montana, Mt. Saint Helens, Nancy Barker, Olmsted Brothers, Pacific Northwest, Pulaski, Teddy Roosevelt, The Big Burn, The Great Fire of 1910, Timothy Egan, US Forest Service, Washington, Washington State Department of Natural Resources, William McKinley | 1 Comment

Don’t mess with park rangers. Seriously.

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Washington, Our Home

They’ll kick you out. In the nicest, most passive-aggressive way, they’ll politely ask you to leave. Let me go back and explain what happened. As anyone from Washington State knows, the drive from Seattle to Spokane (or vice-versa) can be riddled with boredom unless you’re playing traffic games with other drivers or looking for something … Continue reading »

Categories: Central Washington, Family, History, Recreation, State Parks | Tags: Beverly Gap, Columbia River, Discover Pass, Ginko, Ginko Petrified Forest, Interstate 90, Kelly, Lewis and Clark, National Park Service, Native Americans, North Bend, Outlet Malls, Parker, Petroglyphs, Seattle, Snake River, Spokane, United States, Vantage, Wanapum Dam, Wanapum Tribe | Leave a comment

Easy week in eastern Washington, Part 1: The roads less traveled

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Washington, Our Home

My father, Walt Ebel (who blogs here under the name ProudEbel), and I began our second annual trip to the Colville Indian Reservation on a Monday in early June. Dad’s been doing this for decades; he visits his best friend, Lyn, and they spend a week on Twin Lakes at Hartman’s Log Cabin Resort near … Continue reading »

Categories: Central Washington, Eastern Washington, Family, Fishing, Recreation, State Parks | Tags: Almira, Cascades, Cedonia, Cheney, Chester A. Arthur, Cle Elum, Cle Elum River, Columbia River, Colville, Colville Indian Agency, Colville Indian Reservation, Coulee, Coulee City, Creston, Davenport, Dennis Patchin, Dry Falls, Dry Falls Dam, Dry Falls Heritage Area, Dry Falls Interpretive Center, Ellensburg, Ephrata, Fairchild Air Force Base, Fort Spokane, Fruitland, George, Gifford, Hartline, Hartman's Log Cabin Resort, Highway 167, Highway 17, Highway 18, Highway 2, Highway 25, Highway 28, Highway 283, Highway 395, Highway 512, Hunters, Inchelium, Interstate 5, Interstate 90, KXLY, Lacey, Lake Smokiam, Lakewood, Lyn Hartman, Mount Si, Mt. Rainier, National Park Service, Native American, Niagara Falls, North Bend, Orin Rice Road, Puyallup, Quincy, Reardan, Rice, Rick Lukens, Ryegrass, Seattle, Soap Lake, Spanish-American War, Spokane, Spokane Falls, Spokane Indian Reservation, Spokane River, Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park, Twin Lakes, Walt Ebel, Washington Territory, Wilbur, Yakima, Yakima River | Leave a comment

What’s in a name? As it turns out, a lot

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Washington, Our Home

As I tweeted last week, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources’ Committee on Geographic Names is meeting to consider changing the names of a number of Washington State locations, the most prominent being Soap Lake in Grant County. Someone had the bright idea of renaming it “Lake Smokiam” despite the local community having spent … Continue reading »

Categories: Central Washington, History, Legislature, Puget Sound, Western Washington | Tags: Arlington, Blue Mountain, Bryant Hill, Bryant Lumber and Shingle Company, Cable Street, Cascades, Charles Wilkes, Chief Tseul-ted, Clark County, Committee on Geographic Names, Crawdad Creek, Dahlberg Mountain, DuPont, Ebey Estuary, Ebey Slough, Echo Lake, Everett, Google, Granite Falls, Grant County, Homstad Road, Isaac Ebey, Jefferson County, Jordan, Jordan Ridge, Jordan Road, Lake Louise Road, Lake Smokiam, Louisiana, Marysville, Marysville Sewage Lagoon, Mill Pond, Mount Washington, Olympics, Palouse, Possession Sound, Puget Sound, Reflection Creek, Rufus Creek, Skagit County, Snohomish County, Soap Lake, Squamish Harbor, Stimpson Reserve, Stimson Hill, Stimson Lumber Company, Sultan, Sultan Ridge, Suquamish Harbor, Suquamish Tribe, Washington, Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Washington Territory, Wayback Brook, Whatcom County, Whidbey Island | 3 Comments

Young man in a hurry: The life of Isaac Stevens

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Washington, Our Home

Isaac Ingalls Stevens was the first governor of the newly-formed Washington Territory in 1853. I’ve been reading more about the significance of his life since I began diving into library books about Washington state history. In a previous post I wrote about how I visited the cemetery where our first territorial lieutenant governor, Charles Mason, … Continue reading »