My visit to Conconully

Hey Frontier Washington Bloggers!

Check out the highlights of my recent trip to Conconully on Marla's Frontier Washington Blog!

Report on Elliott Bay Historic Tour

Click here to see images of the historic tour.

June 22, 2009 -- The students of History 300 - West, Frontier Washington, assembled aboard the Freedom VII on Monday morning for a cruise of historic sites in Elliott Bay -- the same waters visited by George Vancouver and Peter Puget in 1792. We had the advantage of charts and a diesel engine. We used information on HistoryLink.org as a template for our voyage. For example below is a picture taked from Freedom of the lighthouse at Alki Point. From HistoryLink we read a moving account of the first families to arrive in Seattle, "stranded" at the point, and the women sitting down to have a "big cry."

Read full account of the landing of the "Denny Party" at Alki in HistoryLink.com.

Preparing for a Field Trip -- Waterfront Seattle

Tomorrow the students in Frontier Washington - West and I will be "exploring" the historic Seattle waterfront. We will first review the general history of frontier Seattle, focusing on a series of essays in HistoryLink.org, and then we will board Freedom VII and adventure out into Puget Sound cruising by Alki point and past the downtown wharfs. I'm using text-to-speech software to record the ten-part historical tour guide of the Seattle waterfront written by Paul Dorpat and Walt Crowley and published on HistoryLinkorg. We'll listen to their description of the history of various piers as we cruise by them. To see the text and related images for the waterfront tour click on the link above.

Before "setting sail" we will also visit the wonderful HistoryLink.org site"Ferry Whistles on Puget Sound" which features pictures of historic ferry boats and recordings of their historic Whistles.

Another HistoryLink.org link -- we will be visiting "The Denny Party Lands at Alki Point" on HistoryLink before cruising past Alki Poiint ourselves. Most of them, by the way, arrived in the schooner "Exact" which looks a lot like "The Advernturess" -- the vessel that graces our masthead. See above an historic drawing of the "Exact" from HistoryLink. Click here to see our video of "The Adventuress" under sail.

Five Digital Sources for Frontier Washington History

By no means everything is online, and libraries and archives remain the natural habitat of historians. But here are some sites that might enrich your research:

1. Classics in Washington History from the Secretary of State includes a ton of classic published accounts of our early history.
2. Also from the Washington Secretary of State, check out Historic Newspapers in Washington.
3. The Washington State Digital Archives is the first, largest, and still the only state digital archives.
4. Use the advanced search page at Google Books to discover thousands of books relating to early Washington. Limit your search to "full view" to find only those that are out of copyright and available in their entirety.
5. Finally, visit the Northwest History blog for more resources. Visit it every day. Several times.
   

Historical Timelines

key events in the early Washington history

Here we are discussing some key events in the early history of Washington -- and wondering which ones are most important and which ones we would like to understand more fully.

First Meeting -- Bellevue

We are starting off class tonight in Bellevue with a discussion of timeline of Frontier Washington, starting with the superb timeline on the HistoryLink.org web site. April, Kelly, Cole, and Keith are reading the first 40 entries on the timeline. As two sets of partners they need to choose 5-7 events that they consider especially important and justify their choices. Using other materials they need to expand their lists by two sites not mentioned (yet!) on HistoryLink.

It's 3:00 Wednesday afternoon and Phil Carter and Bill Youngs are working away at the Blackboard materials for History 300. Today we've added a list of key timelines for frontier history, including the incredible timeline available on HistoryLink.com, more information for the syllabus, and a film. Go to the Blackboard site to view these.