Washington Trivia & Tidbits - Page 7

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

Before she married, golf champion JoAnne Gunderson Carner was known as the "Great Gundy." She won five U.S. amateur golf titles between 1957 and 1968 and the U.S. Women’s Open titles in 1971 and 1976. Born in 1939 in Kirkland (pop. 45,054), Carner was inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame in 1982.

first appeared: 8/28/2005

In 2001, a construction crew in Moxee (pop. 821) discovered a large tusk, estimated to be 14,500 years old, from a Columbian mammoth, a non-woolly ancestor of the modern elephant. Columbian mammoths, unique to the southern half of North America, became extinct about 12,500 years ago. They traveled in herds of up to 20 individuals led by a dominant female.

first appeared: 8/14/2005

A dentist from Eatonville (pop. 2,012) provided service to a very different patient—with very big teeth—last October. Dr. Katherine Bieker and several other local dental professionals performed a dental cleaning and several extractions on a 65-pound female wolf that had developed a tartar build-up. The wolf, who lives at the 615-acre Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, was under anesthesia at the time.

first appeared: 7/31/2005

Built in 1944 and used to transport workers from Blaine (pop. 3,770) to the salmon cannery on nearby Semiahmoo Spit, the MV Plover is the state’s oldest foot passenger ferry. Now fully refurbished, the wooden-hulled, 32-foot-long ferry still plies the route daily, from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

first appeared: 7/17/2005

A sign at the city limits of Kettle Falls proclaims a population of 1,550 friendly people, plus one grouch. Each year, the Stevens County town holds an election for the town grouch, and because there is a 25-cent fee for each ballot cast and people can vote as often as they like, it’s widely known that the election can be bought. Results are announced at the end of the Town and Country Days in June, and proceeds from the ballot sales fund Kettle Falls Chamber of Commerce programs.

first appeared: 7/17/2005

The first wagon train to cross the Cascade Mountains north of the Columbia River was the Biles-Longmire party in 1853. When the emigrants, including James Longmire from Indiana, reached the top of Naches Pass, they had to lower their 30 wagons one at a time by rope down a near-vertical precipice of several hundred yards. The Longmires settled on Yelm Prairie and became much-sought-after guides for exploring Mount Rainier.

first appeared: 6/19/2005

Ezra and Eliza Jane Meeker moved into their 17-room Victorian home in Puyallup (pop. 33,011) in 1890, the same year that Ezra was elected mayor. They lived in the house for nearly 20 years, after which it was used as a hospital and nursing home. Today, the Meeker Mansion is being restored by the Ezra Meeker Historical Society.

first appeared: 6/5/2005

Overlooking the Columbia River near Skamania, 848-foot Beacon Rock was named by the 1805 Lewis and Clark Expedition. At 57,000 years old, it’s the youngest-known volcanic rock west of Mount Hood.

first appeared: 5/22/2005

Stehekin is one of the most remote and peaceful travel destinations in the nation. No roads lead to the area; the best ways to get there are by foot or horseback over mountain trails, by floatplane, or by ferry boat on Lake Chelan.

first appeared: 5/8/2005

Seward Park, a 300-acre park in Seattle, is home to a flock of two dozen wild parakeets. The colorful green and red birds—whose species is common to Peru—may have descended from pet birds that escaped into the wild. They are sometimes spotted feeding at backyard birdfeeders.

first appeared: 5/8/2005

A native of Gig Harbor (pop. 6,465), runner Doris Brown Heritage won five consecutive world cross-country running championships from 1967 to 1971. She made the U.S. Olympic teams in 1968 and 1972 and was inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1990. She coaches cross-country runners at Seattle Pacific University.

first appeared: 4/24/2005

D.B. Cooper hi-jacked a Northwest Airlines plane en route to Seattle on Nov. 24, 1971. After the plane refueled in Seattle, and Cooper received a $200,000 ransom, he ordered the plane’s crew to fly to Mexico. Near the town of Ariel, east of Woodland (pop. 3,780), he parachuted out and was never seen again. Ariel commemorates the mystery each year with a party.

first appeared: 3/27/2005

Tulips, daffodils and irises grow on 1,500 acres near Mount Vernon (pop. 26,232), producing 40 million bulbs and 50 million cut flowers annually and generating more than $12 million in revenue.

first appeared: 3/13/2005

Between June 8 and Sept. 28, 2004, Nate Olive and Sarah Janes hiked from Washington’s Cape Flattery, the northwestern-most point of the lower 48 states, to the U.S.-Mexico border at Border Field State Park in California, the first known continuous trek of the 1,800-mile West Coast Trail. Their purpose was to promote and mark the trail, sections of which are not yet linked.

first appeared: 2/27/2005

In December 1950, a 221-foot Douglas fir tree set a record as the world’s tallest cut Christmas tree when it was installed and decorated at Northgate Shopping Center in Seattle. The tree, which had its own generator to power its lights, was featured on the cover of Life magazine.

first appeared: 2/13/2005

Tacoma’s Commencement Bay got its name in 1841 from Lt. Charles Wilkes (1798-1877) of the U.S. Navy who began his survey of the Puget Sound there. The city is known not only for that beginning but for an ending as well—in 1873 it became the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad.

first appeared: 2/13/2005

Visitors with a head for heights can stay in a tree house perched 50 feet above the ground in a 200-year-old Western red cedar near Ashford (pop. 267). The Cedar Creek Tree House, which sleeps up to five people, offers views of Mount Rainier, and a rainbow-painted bridge leads to a separate observatory perched 200 feet up a fir tree.

first appeared: 1/30/2005

Pop singer Jimmie Rodgers, born James Frederick Rodgers on Sept. 18, 1933, in Camas (pop. 12,534), released his chart-topping Honeycomb in 1957 and went on to record other hits, including Kisses Sweeter than Wine, Oh-Oh, I’m Falling in Love Again and Secretly. The multi-talented Rodgers also hosted a variety show on NBC in 1959 and appeared in the movies Little Shepherd from Kingdom Come (1961) and Back Door to Hell (1964).

first appeared: 1/16/2005

Another Washington celebrity, singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins won the Grammy for song of the year in 1980, with co-writer Michael McDonald, for What a Fool Believes and another Grammy for best pop vocal in 1981 for This Is It. Loggins, formerly of the duo Loggins & Messina, was born in Everett in 1948.

first appeared: 1/16/2005

In the early 1970s, Winthrop (pop. 349) recalled its earlygold mining boom days by creating an 1890s atmosphere along its main street,with false-fronted Western-style buildings, wooden sidewalks and old-style streetlights-anappropriate legacy for a town that author Owen Wister used as a setting forhis 1902 novel The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains.

first appeared: 1/2/2005

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