Washington Trivia & Tidbits - Page 11

Looking for Washington trivia? Try our list Washington little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Dorothy Scott Memorial Airport in Oroville (pop. 1,653) honors Women’s Airforce Service Pilot Dorothy Scott, who grew up in the community. Scott entered the service in October 1942, when it was known as the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, and was killed in a collision on a training flight at Palm Springs Army Air Base in California on Dec. 3, 1943.

first appeared: 11/16/2003

At 26 of the 43 safety rest areas operated by the state’s Department of Transportation, non-profit organizations can offer free coffee and light refreshments to travelers, and accept donations. Except for three that close during winter, the rest areas are open 24 hours a day, offering amenities such as restrooms, drinking water and travel information.

first appeared: 11/9/2003

Artist Robert Motherwell, born in Aberdeen (pop. 16,461) in 1915, became one of the nation’s most recognized Abstract Expressionist painters. The Peggy Guggenheim Art of This Century Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art, both in New York, are among the sites that exhibit Motherwell’s work.

first appeared: 11/2/2003

To honor the economic importance of the state’s maritime trade, Washington adopted the container ship President Washington as its official ship in 1983. The ship, which travels the Pacific Ocean between Washington and the Pacific Rim, is 860 feet long, has a 43,000 horsepower diesel engine, and a 23-foot propeller that weighs 98,000 pounds.

first appeared: 10/26/2003

The Ex-Nihilo sculpture park east of Elbe (pop. 21) features the recycled Spirits of Iron creations of artist Dan Klennert, who sculpts figures such as sea creatures and dinosaurs from junkyard metal. The name of the four-acre park is Latin for “something created out of nothing.”

first appeared: 10/19/2003

The state leads the nation in generating hydroelectricity, with hydroelectric facilities accounting for 87 percent of Washington’s total electricity production of 100.5 billion kilowatt hours each year. Major hydroelectric facilities include the Grand Coulee, Chief Joseph, and John Day dams.

first appeared: 10/12/2003

Actress Dyan Cannon was born Samille Diane Friesen in Tacoma in 1937. She earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress—in 1969, for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, and in 1978, for Heaven Can Wait. Her marriage to Cary Grant lasted from 1965 to 1968.

first appeared: 10/5/2003

The logo for the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center in Stevenson (pop. 1,200) is the petroglyph (prehistoric rock art) image of large, stylized eyes known as Tsagaglalal, or “She Who Watches.” The Wishram Band of the Yakima Nation dedicated the spirit of Tsagaglalal, who watches over the people and the river, to the interpretive center on June 14, 1987.

first appeared: 9/28/2003

With its surface at 1,486 feet above sea level and its deepest point at 400 feet below sea level, Lake Chelan is the nation’s third deepest lake. Although its average width is less than two miles, the lake extends more than 50 miles into the Cascade Mountains, with lakeshore communities that include Chelan (pop. 3,522).

first appeared: 9/21/2003

Members of the World Peace Project for Children, based in Issaquah (pop. 11,212), folded the world’s largest origami paper crane at Seattle’s Kingdome Stadium on Nov. 10, 1999. The crane had a wingspan of more than 215 feet and was designed to promote peace and friendship.

first appeared: 9/14/2003

The 24.5-inch Cas-segrain telescope at Goldendale Observatory State Park is one of the nation’s largest public telescopes. It was built between 1964 and 1971 by four amateur astronomers from Vancouver, who subsequently donated it to Goldendale (pop. 3,760) as part of a public education center. The center opened in 1973, and became a state park in 1980.

first appeared: 9/7/2003

Launched by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, N.M., in 1975, Microsoft Corp. moved to Bellevue in 1979, and then to Redmond (pop. 45,256), where it’s now headquartered, in 1986. The Redmond campus has more than 10,000 employees, and spans 355 acres of wooded, park-like grounds.

first appeared: 8/31/2003

Juan de Fuca, a Greek navigator sailing for Spain along the Pacific coast in 1592, claimed to have found a broad inland sea that he followed for 20 days. While his claim is undocumented, he’s remembered in the channel of water that lies between Washington’s Olympic Peninsula and Canada’s Vancouver Island: the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

first appeared: 8/24/2003

When 1,224 inches of snow fell at Paradise near Mount Rainier between Feb. 19, 1971 and Feb. 18, 1972, it set a world record for the greatest snowfall in 12 months. Paradise, which consists of a seasonal inn, ranger station, and visitor center, is one of the snowiest places on Earth, with snow falling between late September and mid-July.

first appeared: 8/17/2003

With 1.7 million people, King County is Washington’s largest county by population—but it’s not the largest by area. That distinction belongs to Okanogan County, which measures 5,281 square miles. Thanks to our readers for pointing out the difference. Okanogan, by the way, means “rendezvous,” and was named for the place where the Okanogan River joins the Columbia.

first appeared: 8/10/2003

One of the world’s tallest one-piece totem poles, measuring 140 feet in height, stands on the Columbia River waterfront in Kalama (pop. 1,783). It was carved by the late Chief Don Lelooska of nearby Ariel, and can be seen by passing motorists on Interstate 5.

first appeared: 8/3/2003

Rising 848 feet above the Columbia River 35 miles east of Vancouver, Beacon Rock is the world’s second-largest monolith, or single block of stone. The rock is the core of a volcano that was exposed after Ice Age floods swept rocks and dirt toward the Pacific Ocean. It’s also the furthest point inland where the ocean’s tides influence the Columbia River.

first appeared: 7/27/2003

Each year, up to 45,000 people handpick 10 to 12 billion apples in Washington between mid-August and early November. If you placed the harvested apples side by side, they would circle the Earth 12 times.

first appeared: 7/20/2003

Highway construction near Vantage (pop. 70) in the 1930s uncovered the petrified remains of a 16-million-year-old forest with more than 30 different tree species—one of the most diverse known. Preserved as Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park, the ancient trees include conifers, maple, birch, poplar, hickory, gum, and some species that today exist only in Asia, such as the ginkgo, Chinese walnut, and katsura.

first appeared: 7/13/2003

The Fred Redmon Memorial Bridge, on Interstate 82 between Ellensburg (pop. 15,414) and Yakima, is one of North America’s longest single-concrete-arch bridges. The arch is nearly 550 feet long and rises to 330 feet.

first appeared: 7/6/2003

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