Washington Trivia & Tidbits - Page 12

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

The inventor of the compact disc, James T. Russell, was born in Bremerton (pop. 37,259) in 1931. Russell loved listening to music, and was looking for a better playback system than vinyl records. He invented a digital-to-optical recording and playback system, or compact disc, in the late 1960s, and has since earned some 26 patents for CD-ROM technology.

first appeared: 6/29/2003

Wizards of the Coast Inc., the company that created the trading card games Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering, is headquartered outside Seattle in Renton. Founded in 1990, the company is the world’s largest publisher of hobby games, and is now owned by Hasbro, Inc.

first appeared: 6/22/2003

Bickleton (pop. 91) is known as the world’s bluebird capital because thousands of bluebirds reside in the area from February to October. Local residents have assisted the bluebirds since the 1960s, when a visiting couple began making birdhouses to provide safe nesting sites. Today, as many as 2,500 birdhouses can be found in the area, maintained entirely by volunteers.

first appeared: 6/15/2003

Washington is one of the few places along the Pacific coast where the geoduck is found in sufficient quantity to allow a commercial harvest. The geoduck is North America’s largest bivalve, and one of the world’s largest clams. The record for the largest is 14 pounds, with an average weight of 2 pounds. The oldest known geoducks are more than 165 years old.

first appeared: 6/8/2003

When Spokane set the 1974 World’s Fair on two islands in the Spokane River, it became the smallest city to host a World’s Fair. The fair’s legacy continues in venues such as the Spokane Opera House, which has featured entertainment ranging from Bette Midler to Les Miserabless since 1974.

first appeared: 6/1/2003

The state contains more glaciers than all the other 47 contiguous states combined. Washington also boasts the largest glacier in the continental United States—Emmons Glacier on the northeast side of Mount Rainier.

first appeared: 5/25/2003

The Governor Albert D. Rosellini Bridge at Evergreen Point is believed to be the longest floating bridge in the world. It crosses Lake Washington between Seattle and Medina (pop. 3,011) with a floating portion 1.42 miles long. The span was completed in 1963 and cost $34 million.

first appeared: 5/18/2003

Actor Bing Crosby, who was born in Tacoma in 1903, held a long-standing affection for Gonzaga University in Spokane, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1937. Today, the university houses the largest public collection of Crosby memorabilia, including his 1944 Oscar for Going My Way.

first appeared: 5/11/2003

King County, the largest county in the state, was originally named after William R. King, who was vice president under Franklin Pierce. Its name was reaffirmed in 1986, this time in honor of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

first appeared: 5/4/2003

Cape Flattery, on the Olympic Peninsula, is the northwestern-most point in the lower 48 states. From a three-quarter-mile walking trail on the cape, views overlook the meeting point of the Pacific Ocean and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

first appeared: 4/27/2003

The Boeing Manufacturing Plant in Everett is considered the largest building in the world based on volume. It encloses 472 million cubic feet of space, and has a footprint of more than 98.3 acres. The plant, which manufactures Boeing 747, 767, and 777 airliners, has its own fire department, security force, medical clinic and water-treatment plant, and receives nearly 110,000 visitors each year.

first appeared: 4/20/2003

The dry channels and islands of eastern Washington’s Channeled Scablands were created some 13,000 years ago in the Bretz Flood, when massive Lake Missoula broke through an ice dam. For two days, floodwaters several hundred feet high, moving at 50 to 90 mph, poured toward the sea through a breach more than a hundred miles wide.

first appeared: 4/13/2003

The Guinness record for the world’s largest apple pie ever baked was set by the North Central Washington Museum of Wenatchee (pop. 27,856) on Aug. 16, 1997. The pie was baked at Walla Walla Point Park in a dish, measuring 44 by 24 feet, and weighed 34,438 pounds.

first appeared: 4/6/2003

Soap Lake, near the town of the same name (pop. 1,733), is named for its most abundant mineral—washing soda. The lake, which has a very high mineral content, was once called Smokiam, or “healing waters,” by local American Indians. Today, people still visit Soap Lake to be covered in its mineral-rich mud, which is reputed to help skin conditions.

first appeared: 3/30/2003

Nearly 1,500 alpacas (gentle, woolly-looking animals from South America) can be found at the Alpacas of America ranch near Arlington (pop. 11,713), north of Seattle. The herd is the largest in North America, and features the Huacaya alpaca, which has a short, dense fleece, and the Suri alpaca, which has long, silky fibers. Alpacas are shorn much as sheep are, with the fiber used to create luxury fashion garments.

first appeared: 3/23/2003

With 29 ships serving 20 ports in Washington and British Columbia, Washington State Ferries is the nation’s largest ferry system. It carries more than 11 million vehicles and 26 million people annually.

first appeared: 3/16/2003

One of the nation’s oldest operating gas stations, the Teapot Dome, built in 1922, is shaped like a teapot, complete with spout and handle. The gas station is located in Zillah (pop. 2,198), 15 miles southeast of Yakima.

first appeared: 3/9/2003

Five thousand Roosevelt elk call Olympic National Park home, one of the largest concentrations of the species anywhere. In Sequim (pop. 4,334), elk have been equipped with radio collars that trigger electronic signs warning motorists when the animals are crossing near the highway.

first appeared: 3/9/2003

Dixy Lee Ray, who became Washington’s first woman governor in 1976, was born Margaret Ray in Tacoma in 1914. The University of Washington science professor also was chair of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and became the youngest female, at age 12, to climb Mount Rainier. She died in 1994.

first appeared: 3/2/2003

Gov. Gary Locke, the first Chinese-American governor in U.S. history, was elected Nov. 5, 1996. Born in 1950 and raised in Seattle, Locke was elected to a second term in 2000.

first appeared: 2/23/2003

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