The 1910 Wellington Train Disaster

The 1910 Wellington Train Disaster

Just after one o’clock in the morning, on a frigid, starless night in March 1910, more than a hundred souls aboard Great Northern Railway’s Spokane Local No. 25, a passenger train, and Fast Mail Train No. 27 slept tightly bundled in their cars. They’d been stuck near Wellington in King County, Washington, for almost a week…waiting as railroad crews attempted to clear the tracks of snow, which had been accumulating

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Say WA! Part II: How to Pronounce Washington’s City Names

Say WA! Part II: How to Pronounce Washington’s City Names

There are 281 official cities and towns in the State of Washington, according to the Washington State Association of Cities, and every one of them has a unique story to tell. Some of them have hundreds of stories…others, perhaps just one major story. All of them have their own character, vibe, ambiance, and backstory, and many of them have weird, interesting or unusual ways they got their names. Why is

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Say WA! Part I: How to Pronounce Washington’s County Names

Say WA! Part I: How to Pronounce Washington’s County Names

Today, we’re beginning the creation of THE definitive pronunciation guide for Washington State. This will be part one of a three-part series looking at Washington’s notoriously difficult county, city and geographic names, so you’d better favorite these episodes if you want to sound like you’re from here. For this episode, we’ll stick to the tricky county names. Of course, we’ll also have our monthly trivia quiz, and we’ll pepper in

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Time to finish what I start

Time to finish what I start

Happy new year, and welcome to 2015! In the spirit of new beginnings, making resolutions and so forth, I thought I would share some of the blog posts from the last two years that didn’t quite make it to the publish stage. So let it be known that, from this day forward, I will finish every blog post I start – no matter the time or research involved, and no matter

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