Edmonds Beacon - Your Hometown News Source

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;... — Updated 1/20/2022

The greatest pleasure in digging up buried history is that you never know what you're going to get. Because you don't what, if anything, is buried. It's a bit like Forrest Gump's... — Updated 1/15/2022

I call Skykomish my home away from home. But due to COVID-19, I haven't gotten there as often in the last two years as I would have liked. Fortunately for me and others, there is a... — Updated 12/22/2021

Everyone knows about the Titanic. Almost no one has heard of the Sultana. The Titanic sinking claimed more than 1,500 souls. It was worldwide news. But fifty years earlier, the... — Updated 12/16/2021

Did you ever play post office? I never did, and had no idea of the rules until doing some research on local post offices. A town was measured by its post office, as much as by its... — Updated 12/9/2021

While viewing the early arrivals of white birdies near the tulip fields in Skagit County, I visited the sites of Florence and Skagit City. Florence and Skagit City were pioneer... — Updated 12/2/2021

A number of years ago there was much complaining about a bridge to nowhere in Alaska. My story today is a bit different. It is about roads that would have gone somewhere useful in... — Updated 11/23/2021

I play pub trivia Tuesday nights at Shawn O'Donnell's American Grill and Irish Pub. O'Donnell's location is usually described as in south Everett, or maybe Mariner. It wasn't... — Updated 11/18/2021

Did Edmonds kids live in fear of "silk trains"? That question came to mind while visiting Easton, Wash., to help the people there who hope to organize a new historical society. We... — Updated 11/14/2021

At the Black Diamond Museum in King County, a memorial commemorates men killed in coal mines. They went to work to make a living for themselves and their families, and one day... — Updated 11/4/2021

Why does it matter that Seagen is now the sixth most valuable company in Washington, and who cares other than shareholders? Would the jobs at Seagen still be as valuable if the... — Updated 10/28/2021

Recently, former Edmonds resident Cyndi Correnti invited me to speak to her book club in Suncadia. The subject was the ghost town of Alpine, Washington. Cyndi also invited author... — Updated 10/14/2021

On May 29, 1922, Herbert Anderson drove with Elias Gillette from Seattle to Leavenworth. Herbert took photos and documented the trip in a travel journal along the way. His... — Updated 9/9/2021

Did you know 84th Avenue West to Five Corners and east to Edmonds-Woodway was originally part of what was called "Trunk Road"? Stick with me. We'll get to that. It was on a Monday... — Updated 8/26/2021

The name Diamond Knot is familiar to many residents of southwest Snohomish County. Many are acquainted with the brewpubs in Mukilteo and Mountlake Terrace, but few know the origin... — Updated 8/12/2021

We spent a day chasing history. The first location was the Cleveland High School Memorial Forest. After World War II, Cleveland High School students bought 20 acres on Issaquah-Fall... — Updated 8/5/2021

"Those who don't know history are condemned to repeat it" has become a popular phrase among apologists for the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. The actual quote from George Santayana... — Updated 7/22/2021

On July 4th I didn't do the usual ritual of going to Civic Park to watch the fireworks show, but I did get a chance to enjoy it in another way. And I wondered how the first July... — Updated 7/15/2021

It is truly amazing what one may find when looking in places that haven't been visited in years. In my case, it was a search for my high school yearbooks. I was looking for the... — Updated 7/8/2021

Edmonds has many civic, cultural, and historic assets that are usually found only in larger cities. While COVID has upset some of the organizations, most continue, such as the... — Updated 6/17/2021

While I was doing some much overdue cleaning at my house, I found a series of photographs from the boatyard where my father had been superintendent during World War II. I was deligh... — Updated 6/3/2021

In the 1950s, The Seattle Times carried a column written by C. T. Conover about Seattle's early days. I don't know how often his “Just Cogitating” column ran. I suspect it may... — Updated 5/26/2021

May is a significant month in Washington history. May 1871, 150 years ago, the Northern Pacific Railway drove its first spike in Kalama, Washington. Northern Pacific intended to... — Updated 5/20/2021

There’s plenty of history in Edmonds, but 20 years ago my late wife and I, and our three younger daughters, took a trip of discovery to canyon country: Grand Canyon, Bryce... — Updated 2/11/2021

Editor's note: Edmonds resident Tim Raetzloff, who writes the History Files column for the Beacon, was a contestant on a "Jeopardy!" episode that aired in January 1989. (His show... — Updated 1/17/2021