Washington Our Home

By: Erich R. Ebel Fearless Field Guide and Washington State Storyteller
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  • Summary

  • Washington Our Home’s fearless field guide Erich Ebel educates and entertains listeners about fascinating and little-known aspects of Washington state history, heritage and culture. Whether it’s interviews with eyewitnesses to a Sasquatch sighting or a timeline of events that led to a long-forgotten local massacre, the Washington Our Home podcast both expands and enriches the experience of the listener in a way that helps them better connect with the greatest state in the lower 48. Learn more at www.washingtonourhome.com.
    © Washington Our Home
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Social Sciences World
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Episodes
  • The Spokane Sun-God

    The Spokane Sun-God
    Aug 5 2024
    Battling violent storms, forest fire smoke, head winds and fatigue, a pair of Spokane, Washington, aviators flew nonstop across America and back in 1929 to establish a new world record. Their Buhl CA-6 sesquiplane, named Spokane Sun-God, was the first airplane to make a non-stop transcontinental round-trip flight. Sponsored by the National Air Derby Association along with Texaco, who supplied the gas, Buhl Aircraft Company, who provided the plane, and many Spokane citizens and businessmen, pilot Nick Mamer and mechanic Art Walker took to the skies at 6pm and headed west into the sunset from Felts Field on August 15th as a crowd of thousands looked on. Art Walker (L) and Nick Mamer (R) pose in front of the Spokane Sun-God, circa 1929. Photos of the 1939 art deco clock dedicated to Nick Mamer at Spokane's Felts Field.
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    49 mins
  • Exploring Maritime Washington

    Exploring Maritime Washington
    Apr 3 2023
    I am proud to announce the publication of my new book, Exploring Maritime Washington—a History and Guide. Each of the places covered in its pages has a connection to Washington’s maritime history, whether a popular tourist destination or a hidden gem known only to longtime locals. Exploring Maritime Washington provides visitors with a fun and easy way to enjoy each community while learning about Washington’s nautical history. By visiting and experiencing Washington’s special maritime features—museums, ships, lighthouses, waterfronts and all—the heritage traveler can obtain an authentic understanding of maritime Washington’s diverse history and culture. This historical travel guidebook seeks to provide Washington residents as well as visitors from near and far a more comprehensive, inclusive picture and understanding of the maritime heritage of Washington. It's been nearly two years in the making, but thanks to the efforts of my co-author, maritime historian and author Chuck Fowler, and all the good people at The History Press, the book is now available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The History Press's website, and as many gift shops and bookstores as you can find along the Washington state coastline. In 2019, Congress designated nearly 3,000 miles of Washington's immense coastline as a National Heritage Area…one of only 55 in the country, but the only one to focus exclusively on maritime history and heritage. National Heritage Areas are places where natural, cultural, and historic resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally important landscape. They are locally run and completely non-regulatory. NHAs can support historic preservation, economic development, natural resource conservation, recreation, heritage tourism, and educational projects. And why shouldn't it be a special heritage area? Within Washington's protected waterways, you can find a treasure trove of seafaring stories beginning with this area's original inhabitants, through the period of European-American exploration, settlement, growth, and on up to today's high-tech working waterfronts. The book, Exploring Maritime Washington, is as much authoritative historical narrative as it is indispensable travel guide. It's divided into five sections: Central Puget Sound, North Puget Sound, South Puget Sound, the Olympic Peninsula and the Columbia River. While the Maritime Washington National Heritage Area covers nearly 3,000 miles of Washington’s coastline from the Canadian border down to Grays Harbor County, it doesn’t fully extend into the Columbia River—and there's a good reason for that. While stakeholders were planning the Maritime Washington National Heritage Area, Columbia River counties in Washington and Oregon were strategizing on creating a heritage area of their own; the Columbia-Pacific National Heritage Area. These efforts unfolded simultaneously, until plans for the Columbia-Pacific Area met resistance and were unable to move forward, ultimately leaving Washington's Pacific County out of the Maritime Washington National Heritage Area. My book, however, does include Pacific, Wahkiakum, Cowlitz and Clark Counties...basically as far upriver as tidal activity is still measurable. The five sections in the book each contain Hub Cities from which maritime explorers may choose to venture out to other destinations, like spokes extending from the hub of a wheel. I'm going to tell you some of my favorite stories from each section, beginning with the Central Puget Sound, which includes destinations such as the Museum of History and Industry, the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center, Mukilteo Lighthouse Park, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, the Poulsbo Maritime Museum, and many more. Central Puget Sound Historic Ship's Wharf at the south end of Lake Union is just outside the Museum of History and Industry. It is perhaps the best place in the state to see a collection of iconic maritime vessels of significance to Washington...
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    1 hr and 14 mins
  • Spokane’s Garbage Goat

    Spokane’s Garbage Goat
    Mar 6 2023
    Installed in 1974, just in time for the World's Fair Exposition in Spokane, Washington, this iconic structure has delighted children and adults visiting the Inland Northwest for generations—but it isn't the canted pavilion that once marked the US presence at the fair, or the gondola across Spokane Falls that takes visitors so close they can feel the spray on their faces, or even the German beer garden facility that now houses the 1909 Looff Carrousel (which is on the National Register of Historic Places). No, those destinations in Riverfront Park are amazing remnants of a global event that drew 5,187,826 visitors, including US presidents, foreign dignitaries, and Hollywood stars. Those icons, still in use today, are enthralling…the one we're talking about, some might say, kind of sucks. Spokane's famous Garbage Goat has kept its corner of the park free of debris for nearly 50 years. I happen to have a long relationship with the burnished Bovidae. Growing up in Spokane, we often visited our voracious friend…taking pictures, goofing around, and searching for anything we could possibly find to satiate its never-ending hunger. And when we ran out of trash, nearby leaves and sticks would fall victim to the goat. And sometimes…once in a great while…Spokane's garbage goat would even suck the mitten right off some poor unsuspecting child's hand. To really tell the story right, we have to go back to the early 1960s, when Seattle held its Century 21 World's Fair exposition in 1962. I'll cover that story in a future podcast episode for sure, but for now let's just remember that the fair was a huge success, bringing nearly 10 million people, revitalizing Seattle's economic and cultural life, and leaving behind the Space Needle, the monorail, several sports venues and performing arts buildings, and—unlike some other world's fairs of its era—making a profit for the city. By comparison, little old Spokane wasn't sure it could duplicate the success of its westside counterpart. But hey…if you're going to dream, dream big! The theme of the 1974 World's Fair was Ecology, and every pavilion—from the USSR to the Japanese, the South Koreans to Canada, Australia, Iran, West Germany, and the Philippines—all of them were focused on some sort of environmental theme. And a more fitting location for an environmental fair would be hard to find, what with the natural beauty of the Spokane River cutting right through the middle of the festivities, and the falls creating a constant cacophony of environmental ambiance. On May 4, 1974, President Richard M. Nixon presided over the opening of Expo '74, the Spokane World's Fair. Spokane's population at that time was about 170,000, making it the smallest city ever to host a world's fair. When Nixon formally declared the Fair open, officials released 50,000 balloons into the sky (which is funny, given the Fair's environmental theme. Lord only knows where those ended up; they don't just vanish, after all). Portions of the speech made by President Richard Nixon at the Opening Ceremony. Footage courtesy of Dr. Larry Cebula, edited by Anna Harbine. Information from Cory Carpenter, “When Nixon Came to the Fair,” Spokane Historical, accessed March 5, 2023, https://spokanehistorical.org/items/show/384. To make room for the US Pavilion, the iconic structure that still looms large over Riverfront Park today, city officials had to tear down the historic 1902 Great Northern railroad depot on Havermale Island. The only remnant that remained from Spokane's earliest railroad days is the 155-foot-tall clock tower, which quickly became another beloved piece of Spokane's downtown skyline. In the years leading up to the '74 world's fair, most of the Spokane community was either dead set against it or totally committed to it. There were very few residents with ambivalent attitudes. One of the more committed members of the community was a Catholic named Sister Paula Mary Turnbull,
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    26 mins

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