Catch Local History Fever - Western Washington Authors Featured in Article

I live in Tacoma in the year 2010, but lately I've been obsessed with a particular day here, from over a century ago. It was May 22, 1903, the day President Theodore Roosevelt's private train pulled into the station and the sound of a 21 gun salute thundered over the waters of Commencement Bay, just as he stepped down from his rail car. Shortly after that moment, Roosevelt's lavishly decorated carriage rolled through town toward Wright Park and it seemed everyone was determined to get a glimpse of the president. A reporter for The Daily Ledger, described in exactly these words, the sight of "spanking northwesterners above the housetops, or dipping from every window." Back then you would only have to spend a nickel on the newspaper, in order to read about the event if you missed it.

I'm aware of the details of this day in history because I'm editing a book written by local author Michele Bryant. This gorgeous volume filled with photos, including many rare ones, will be published soon to benefit the Theodore Roosevelt Association. It documents Roosevelt's several visits to Washington State beginning with his first in 1903. Bryant is one of many Puget Sound writers we'll be especially grateful for in the future, because they are preserving our local history.

Did you ever feel the urge to do the same, to write down what you know, or the stories told by your parents and grandparents? Maybe your family is lucky enough to own artifacts with great stories behind them, like this modest example of Northwest Native American basket weaving from the Makah tribe. My grandfather bought it at the Pike Place Market in the 1920s, from the Makah woman who made it, and I grew up with this basket in our home.

Do you have your own special family stories, or want to record the events and life experiences that took place in your community long ago, before they're lost forever? If so, please read on. It's easier than you think to preserve and share your local history, and you don't even need to write a book. There are other, less time-consuming ways to publish and disseminate this information.


I interviewed writers from Everett to Olympia for an article published just this week, on a website called Neighborhood Life, the second of two I've had published there, on the topic of local history. The first featured Pierce County historian Andy Anderson, and his book "In the Shadow of the Mountain." This second article focuses on other ways to see your writing in print, through museums, historical societies, brochures and newsletters, on the web, and places you've never thought of. It contains useful insights and advice offered by authorities such as,

Drew Crooks, historian and author from Thurston County,

David Dilgard Everett Public Library, who is the author of books, articles, and more,

Priscilla Long, widely published writer, teacher, and Senior Editor of HistoryLink.org, and

Joe Follansbee, local journalist and Senior Editor of Fyddeye, a website about maritime history. He's also the author of "Ship Builders, Sea Captains, and Fishermen: The Story of the Schooner Wawona."

If you do decide to do this kind of writing, please do so responsibly. Carefully check and document what you represent as fact. Be exact with the details, dates, the spelling of names. It matters. There is nothing more upsetting than seeing published material concerning your own family or community that you know to be incorrect. Remember your obligation to future generations, and especially to the truth.

Now go call your Grandma and ask her to tell those stories again. Better yet, ask her about things she's never discussed before.

Watch out though. If you catch "local history fever" it can last a lifetime.

To read the article "Writing Local History - Options for Publication and Dissemination" please click here.


Makah basket photos courtesy of Robert Dickhoff.

Writing Local History - a Pierce County author featured on website

We've all seen it happen. Year after year you drive by an old house or barn, still standing its ground as development encroaches, and then it one day it's gone and a strip mall takes its place. And what about that neighbor in his nineties who spent his entire life in your community and could tell a million stories, if anyone cared to listen? He'll be gone one day too, and with him the eyewitness account of maybe a century of experiences, changes, and perspectives. We all see it happen, but few of us do anything about it. I look around Tacoma and see history everywhere, much of it threatened, and I wonder how much will survive. The saddest part is that most of the time we don't even know what we've lost until it's too late.

An enthusiastic local historian named Lawrence "Andy" Anderson hates to see those kinds of things happen. He grew up in logging country, near Graham in rural Pierce County, Washington, surrounded by history. When he played in the woods as a boy he could still find what remained of pioneers' log cabins, and even as a boy he appreciated the what his older neighbors knew about the past. As a young man, Anderson realized the old folks who remembered would soon be gone so he began to seek them out and record their stories. They shared photos with him, opened up, and brought local history to life with their rich and vivid memories from those times.

The result was his book, "In the Shadow of the Mountain - A History of Early Graham, Kapowsin, Benston, Electron, and Vicinity." It's filled with photos, carefully researched and documented, well written and entertaining to read. I'm one of the lucky people with a copy because now even the second printing is sold out. I'm pestering him to publish a third. But every one of us is lucky that this important piece of Washington history exists at all. If Anderson hadn't decided to take on this project decades ago, when those interviewees were still alive, maybe no one else ever would have, the opportunity lost forever. To many of us Anderson is a hero.

Are you curious about your community's past? Did you ever have the urge to write about local history? Maybe your own family has been in one place for generations and your connection to that heritage inspires you to preserve it. If so, you might want to read an article I wrote based on an interview with Anderson, and recently published on a website called Neighborhood Life This website's growing number of readers appreciate it as an important source of helpful information, ideas, and discussion for anyone who wants to improve the quality of life in their neighborhood. My article, called "A Closer Look at Home - Thoughts on Writing Local History" can be found listed first on the "Features" page, and is also directly linked to from the Home page. It offers all kinds of good advice on writing local history. By reading it you can benefit from the experience Anderson gained through many years of work.

Quoting from the article, he says, "Writing good local history requires nothing less than total determination and passion in pursuit of the subject." If you think you can meet those requirements, consider this important endeavor. As in the case of Anderson's book, maybe if you don't do it, nobody else will. Please have a look:
Neighborhood Life

Note: The photo at the top of this page is a snapshot of my great-grandparents' homestead in Alberta, Canada and the photo in the still life below is of a huge tree stump on Vashon Island, taken by Albert Therkelsen. Neither exists today.