Seattle's waterfront has served as a central hub for people, transportation, and commerce since time immemorial. A low natural shoreline provided the Duwamish-Suquamish people with excellent canoe access to permanent villages and seasonal fishing camps. High bluffs served as a sacred place for tribal members' final journey to the spirit world. When the first settlers arrived in the 1850s, Seattle's shoreline began to change drastically. Emerald

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Clarkston, Washington, and Lewiston, Idaho, are twin cities that meet at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers in southeast Washington. Gold was discovered upstream in the Clearwater drainage in 1860. A few settlers crossed the Snake River to an area called Jawbone Flats. It was flat and covered with sagebrush. Thirty years later, investors from back East arrived with big plans. C. Van Arsdol designed the first irrigation system, and Charles...

Bob Boring, great-grandson of the Civil War veteran who lent his name to the community, says, "Boring is a name, not a condition." The recent pairing of Dull, Scotland, and Boring, Oregon, has created worldwide multimedia reports, including articles in Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal that published the same week. Never incorporated as an official entity, Boring has been a thriving farm, logging, and sawmill community since Joseph and Sarah...

Bellingham is known as the city of subdued excitement, but it was not always this way. From its discovery by a British naval captain to its coal, lumber, and fish industries and to its riots and social movements, Bellingham has had quite a rich and sometimes controversial past. Starting out as four separate towns, it took the leadership of a few and the work of many to bring a community together and create one of Washington's secret masterpieces.

When the Northern Pacific Railroad laid its final tracks within the fledgling hamlet of Tacoma, it brought opportunity and wild characters by the car full. Seemingly overnight, the quiet Puget Sound village transformed into a booming metropolis and eccentric playground with its fair share of growing pains. On one unlucky evening, residents awoke to the cries of a man who fell into the sewers after a road collapsed. Tacoma's first school avoided demolition...

The community of Keizer was shaped by the banks of the Willamette River. It was first inhabited by the Kalapuya tribe, and then came fur trappers and early missionaries farther north along the river. Homesteaders arrived in the 1840s. The rich river-bottom farmland remained quiet until the boom of automobiles after World War II. Keizer boasts neither fancy buildings nor brick edifices but proudly carries its spirit of volunteerism and perseverance....

The spirits of the early pioneers still roam the streets of Leavenworth and lurk in the lengthening shadows of the surrounding hills. Chas Gordon's murder sits unsolved after a century of mystery, as does the location of the lost Ingalls gold. Muffled sobs mark out the Thorp Cemetery, while a ghostly hand coaxes a soft tune from the piano in the lobby of the Tumwater Inn. Saloon shootings and railroad tragedies left their own legacy of restless souls....