Category: Olympia history (Page 8 of 10)

Andrew Mickel, still out there

July 11, 2013 / Emmett O'Connell / 5 Comments

Just over ten years ago Andrew Mickel shot a police officer in Red Bluff, California. Almost right up to that point Mickel had been a resident of Olympia and a student out at Evergreen. And, for the time being, his is still a resident of California’s death row.

Since those years, soon after I had finished up my own education at Evergreen, Mickel had held an interest for me, especially after Rachel Corrie was killed the next fall. Mickel and Corrie seemed to the poles of Evergreen and that part of Olympia culture that revolves around Evergreen.

While Mickel was obviously criminal and reprehensible, his beliefs where parroted from anti-government, anti-government, and especially anti-police political culture that is still part of Olympia.

I’ve wondered about Mickel’s time in Olympia. I lived here at the time, I wonder if I ever saw him (maybe on campus) and not remembered him later when his face became news.

From one of the stories that reference his time here:

Mickel chose this school, with its main gathering area called “Red Square.” He ostensibly came to study creative writing. The college was not as academically rigorous as his parents would have liked and, in his freshman year – when many new college students are confined to large lecture halls and tackling basic requirements – he was allowed to do independent study.

I actually take offense to this passage, that Evegreen isn’t as “rigourous” as other, more traditional schools. While Evergreen doesn’t have the same set-up as large lecture hall schools, it is just as hard (or harder) to get by as a geoduck, especially for someone expecting a more traditional set-up. Evergreen is essentially sink or swim

It was during this time that Mickel’s personal politics got increasingly intense.

In December 2001, he went to Israel with a pro-Palestinian activist group pushing for an end to Israeli “occupation.” The following summer, he went to Colombia, South America, to study nonviolent resistance, and to Northern Ireland, another global hot spot. In the Pacific Northwest, he joined protests against the World Trade Organization and was arrested in Seattle in April 2002 for interfering with a police officer.

Tehama County District Attorney Gregg Cohen would later say in court that Mickel had reached for an officer’s gun during the Seattle arrest, though Mickel would staunchly deny that in his jailhouse interview with The Bee three days before his sentencing.

But there is no denying that Andy Mickel became more political at college. He began railing about social injustice and corporate irresponsibility and capitalism run amok.

Scott Dixon, his old tutor back in Springfield, saw Mickel on a Thanksgiving visit home and heard him talk about politics – about corporations, environmentalism and the like. To him, Mickel seemed no more strident than many politically minded college students.

Late 2002 was not too late after 1999 in Puget Sound. As Fred Moody in Seattle and the Demons of Ambition, 1999 was a reckoning for the region, coming up against the limits of our self regard and economic growth. Young men like Mickel who protested violently in the streets in 1999 were the physical representation of this.

Olympia then had our own May Day protests in 2000 and 2001 and then 9/11 seems to sharpen everything.

This particular passage in the Chico News-Review feature on Mickel (in which the writer constantly refers to him by his pseudonym McCrae) is interesting in terms of his time in Olympia:

Evergreen’s reputation was again questioned after May Day protests in
each of the past two years. Two years ago demonstrators—including a
large contingent of Evergreen students—snarled traffic in Olympia during
protests.

Coincidentally, (Mickel) who was arrested at a protest last April for
obstructing a sidewalk, lived less than a half-mile from the Bayview
Thriftway supermarket, where a 59-year-old man died Nov. 8 after he was
subdued with a Taser stun gun following an alleged shoplifting attempt.

Activists in Olympia have charged police brutality in the case.

A spokeswoman for the Olympia Police Department said the department
had no contact with (Mickel) in the past and would be assisting California
authorities in their investigation. The department would not be
conducting an investigation of its own.

The incident the paper references is the death of Steven Edwards in the Bayview parking lot in early November 2002. Edwards had drawn a gun and was wrestling with a security guard who had accused him of shop lifting. After being stunned twice by the taser and handcuffed, Edwards stopped breathing and died. It might have been a coincidence, or the death of Edwards may have pushed Mickel out of Olympia to murder.

Just like Mickel, people continue to reference Edwards in Olympia, as he was the topic of a memorial protest just last year.

Currently, for Mickel, he’s on California’s death row. Voters rejected an initiative to ban the death penalty last year, so he’s currently working his way through an automatic appeal process.

Mickel represented himself when he was convicted and sentenced to death, but he was appointed a lawyer who was as late as this spring filing briefs with the state supreme court.

Today, on one fringe Mickel is remembered and described as “profoundly moving and inspiring.”

And, in Olympia he is largely forgotten, which really isn’t all that surprising. He really had no roots here, made little impact beyond his circle. He more or less represents a certain type of transient Olympian who attends Evergreen, comes by himself in his early 20s and then moves on. Usually not in such a tragic fashion though.

Remembering Northern Oregon’s Declaration of Independence

July 4, 2013 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

On July 4, 1852 Daniel Bigelow stood up at an Independence Day gathering in Olympia and gave a speech that would spur a division in what was then the massive Oregon Territory. While Bigelow’s speech doesn’t mention a split with the Willamette Valley dominated southern portion of the territory, the speech is rife with references of a natural love of liberty.

Bigelow’s was the second speech in two years on the topic. John B. Chapman gave a speech on the same day in 1851. But, because Chapman himself didn’t play nice with the Democratic machine in greater Oregon, his secession effort ended dead in its tracks. Chapman left the territory by the time a Bigelow inspired convention happened in November 1852 at Monticello (where Longview is now).

The Northern Oregonians along Puget Sound argued that the Oregon Territory eas too big. So, it makes sense to split it. And, if you’re going to split it, you should split it into a northern and southern territory that would both have seaports. Also, evenly divided territories would be competitive, and through competition, would improve each other.

Also, and we hesitate to bring this up, but Northern Oregonians haven’t gotten much from the Willamette centered government. Makes sense, you know, vote in your own interest and all that. But, if we could be separate, would could take care of our own.

Iit was a possibility that certain parts of what are now Washington State were seriously considering not joining the territorial secessionists. From the Columbia (Olympia) newspaper in November 1851:

Living, as they do, on the boundary line between the two divisions of Oregon — in constant intercourse with the southern portion, with whose citizens they transact a large proportion of their every day mercantile and commercial business, it is but natural to suppose that their sympathies are pretty equally divided between north and south.

Today the folks along the southwest border in Longview and Vancouver still seem to face further towards the south than north to Seattle.

Even the location of the convention in 1852 was chosen to be in the heart of these just north of the river communities so as to convince their representatives to attend. If the location had been chosen in Olympia (writes the Columbian editor), the lack of enthusiasm from Columbia River residents would’ve prevented them from attending at all.

So, what would have happened to our territorial independence if the meeting was held in Olympia and not in Monticello? Would we have ended up with a new Puget Sound centric territory (and then state)?

While the population of Puget Sound was certainly growing, the balance of people still lived along the Columbia. It is possible that the Puget Sounders needed Columbia River folks to reach the necessary population for a new territory.

Also, it is possible I imagine that a Puget Sound territory would not have included any east of the mountains territory if not for the lower Columbia.

In the end, I think the deciding factor of our state’s separation from Oregon was the Columbia newspaper, founded as Olympia’s first newpaper just months before the November convention. It is no coincidence that Bigelow’s Independence Day Speech was published in the paper’s first edition. In that edition, the paper was also advertised as being neutral in politics, for Oregon in general, but specifically for the interests of Northern Oregon.

It also never advertized itself as being from “Olympia, Oregon Territory.” Rather (as Dennis Weber points out), in its early editions, the location of the Columbia newspaper was labeled as being, “Olympia, Puget Sound.”

Bordeaux, WA should be a park (Just another Thurston County ghost town)

June 24, 2013 / Emmett O'Connell / 4 Comments

Recently, I finally took the trek out beyond Mima Mounds to find where Bordeaux, Washington used to be.

Just a quick and important note before I go on. It seems that at least some of the old town site is on private property. I didn’t realize this when I was out there, most of the land is inside Capital Forest. But, on closer inspection, there are a couple of parcels that are privately owned. So, to get to some of the old town site, you should probably ask permission first.

Other than there still being parts of it around, Bordeaux seems like a pretty typical old timber town that lost its reason to exist.

Dark Roast Blend, Washington Ghost Towns, Webducks’s flickr set and this discussion at MyFamily each give a lot of details and imagery of what you can find out there today.

Mark Gibbs and Edward Echtle also went out back in 1988 and shot this footage:

Being out there and seeing what I saw and seeing the general setting and seeing what other saw, brings up one major question for me. Why isn’t Bordeaux, WA a park? Or at least, why isn’t there a maintained set of trails to the old ruins that would make it easier to appreciate the old town? I had to turn back fairly quickly because the undergrowth this time of year had taken over the small trails I was able to find.

Now that I think about it, I probably picked the worst time of year to trek through the woods to find some old buildings, the stinging nettles and other vegetation would too high for us to make it very far. I’m probably going to take another shot at it when it’s colder.

Other than pointing out all the good resources there are out on Bordeaux, here’s my main contribution. This is an aerial photo from 1941 when Bordeaux was in its twilight, overlaid with a modern map.

I couldn’t help myself, I made a bird’s eye view looking up the Mima Creek valley too.

Better Bob Bunting

June 20, 2013 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

Joseph Bunting is largely believed to have killed Quiemuth in Olympia in 1856. It’s assumed Bunting killed the Quiemuth because he believed the Nisqually had a hand in his father-in-law’s death. More than 20 years later, Bunting’s daughter Blanche and son-in-law Lorenzo Perkins were killed. His son Bob Bunting brought the last of the murderer to justice.

The most interesting thing about the death of Blanche (Bunting) Perkins and Lorenzo Perkins is that when several rounds of of white men went out to look for their killers, Blanche’s dad wasn’t among them. Her older brother Bob eventually put the entire episode to bed. Her uncle John was part of one of the early groups that went looking for her murders. But her dad, Joseph Bunting, is never mentioned in the aftermath of her death.

Bluntly, the death of Blanche and Lorenzo was an unfortunate, incredibly violent and insignificant detail in the history of the greater West. They were literally in the wrong place at the wrong time when a group of Indians bent on killing any white person found found them.

Just one day before the Perkins murder, Lt. Mellville C. Wilkinson commanded the gunboat Northwest as he and his crew patrolled the Columbia River. Wilkinson’s mission was to prevent a tribe from the Oregon side from crossing to Washington.

What he ended up doing was to commit one of the countless under-recorded massacres of Indians by American soldiers.

Michael McKenzie writing in the Columbia magazine in 2008:

Steaming down from Wallula, he fired his artillery and Gatling gun without the slightest provocation into a group of peaceful natives camped there, killing at least two men and one woman, wounding others, and laying waste to the entire camp. Even some of the settlers of the period reacted to his action with distaste, (A.D.) Pambrun calling it a “massacre” and stating flatly that “there was no excuse” for what Wilkinson had done. The following month the Walla Walla Union heaped scorn on the lieutenant’s action…

Jim Soh-yowit in 1917 told his story to historian L. V. McWhorter

…a band of Indians crossed the Columbia at Oom-i-tal-lum and pitched camp on the Washington shore. There were women and children in this camp, all peaceable, the men not having many arms. A steamboat came down the river, and without any warning opened fire on us with what seemed a machine gun. A man named Wah-la-lowie, belonging at La-qwe on the Columbia, was shot in the belly and killed. He was a middle-aged man. A middle aged women named Wah-lul-mi from Ti-che-chim, on the Columbia, was shot in the forehead, and fell dead. The Indians scattered and hid.

I had a single breech-loading rifle which I grabbed and ran among the rocks and lay so they could not see me. A few horses were killed. They fired at where I lay hid but did not reach me. Finally the boat went away without landing. Indians lost a lot of things, for they did not try to gather up their belongings.

Shaw-ou-way-coot-shy-ah to McWhorter:

The white people from The Dalles, they all organized and got guns and got a steamboat and went up to the village and they killed all the old people, [who] don’t do nothing, all the old ladies and all the old men and before these Indians got back to their home they were all dead so part of them went up to the Umatilla River and then part of them went up the Columbia River and crossed the Columbia River…and they came there to a white man and his wife and some of the Indians says, “Here the white people have killed our fathers and mothers and they were not doing any harm, now I am going to kill this white man to make even.”

Wilkinson and his crew murdered Indians on Monday, July 8. Chuck-Chuck, Moos-tonie, Wi-ah-ne-cat, Shu-lu-skin, Te-won-ne, Kipe, and Ta-mah-hop-tow-ne met up with the Perkins’ couple on Tuesday, July 9.

Compared to the gunboat Northwest massacre, the story of the Perkins’ murder is well known and well detailed. This is because the story was literally told by an Indian who was there and white authorities repeated his story often. In the aftermath, Shu-lu-skin gave 17 pages of testimony to prosecutors.

He talked about how the group that killed the Perkins were made up of two groups of Indians. One group were the survivors of the gunboat attack, the other a group they’d met later in the day. After the survivors shared the story of the massacre, all seven planned to kill the next white people they found as vengeance.

Shu-lu-skin talked about how they waited by Rattlesnake Spring, an important way station for travelers, because someone would show up eventually.

They let the Perkins couple dismount, Lorenzo took care of the horses while Blanche cooked. They both at while they went for a walk.

The Indians thought far enough ahead to come up with a cover story. They planned on saying that the Perkins couple had attacked them and they’d only defended themselves.

A.J. Splawn, who wrote history and had acted as interpreter during the trials, recounts details that made the revenge mission sound much less organized:

When they found the man and his wife at the springs, they said, Wi-ah-ne-cat suggested that they kill them. Ta-mah-hop-tow-ne said that two of their own people had been killed by the gunboat, one of them a friend of his, and that he wanted revenge. During their argument Perkins and his wife, no doubt becoming alarmed, began to saddle their horses. Wi-ah-ne-cat and Ta- mah-hop-tow-ne drew their guns and ordered Perkins to stop. He had his own horse saddled by this time and mounted. Mrs. Perkins, who was a splendid horsewoman, did not wait to saddle, but mounted her mare bareback, and with only a rope around her neck to guide her, they started on the run. A shot from Ta-mah-hop-tow-ne’s gun wounded Perkins, but he kept on till a shot from Wi-ah-ne-cat reached him. when he fell from his horse and soon died.

Mrs. Perkins’ mount now began to run and was outdistancing her pursuers, when a deep ravine appeared, which the brave little mare failed to clear. The animal fell, throwing her rider, who lay stunned until the Indians came up. She raised her hands, they said, as if in prayer, then begged them, if they must kill someone, to let it be her. and to save her husband, she not knowing that he was already dead. While the Indians who had come up with Mrs. Perkins sat upon their horses, undecided. Wi-ah-ne-cat rode up and asked why they sat there like women, instead of killing her. He promptly drew his gun and fired.

From gunboat attack to murders, this is a story told by Indians. No white soldier on the gunboat ever faced trial and had to retell exactly what happened. Instead of being hunted down, these men worked their way through history.

On the other hand, the white response to the Perkins murder was drawn out and intense. At its highest point it included over a 100 person posse standing off with Indians before the majority of the accused were brought in. One of the accused committed suicide, several escaped at different points and only two out of the seven eventually faced the gallows.

The last mention of the Rattlesnake Springs murderers was in 1881 when Blanche’s older brother Bob brought in Ta-mah-hop-tow-ne.

Similar to McAllister, Riley and his father over 20 years earlier, Bob Bunting decided that tricking his target would be the best. After hearing where Ta-mah-hop-tow-ne was living, Bunting went to find him, bringing a friend along.

The rouse was that Bunting and his partner were looking to buy horses.

While discussing exactly which horses he wanted from Ta-mah-hop-tow-ne Bob Bunting bent down to scratch a brand design in the dirt. Ta-mah-hop-tow-ne bent down to all fours to take a closer look and that’s when Bunting and his friend tackled him, trying to tie him up to bring him back to Yakima.

Ta-mah-hop-tow-ne yelled out to his wife to bring him a gun while he wrestled with the two white men. Two other Indians joined the fray. It was probably Bunting or his friend that fired first, but both Ta-mah-hop-tow-ne and his wife ended up with gunshot wounds. The retelling of the story in the newspapers that covered the capture don’t mention if she survived, but Ta-mah-hop-tow-ne was brought in. It took over a month for the authorities to hang him.

Ta-mah-hop-tow-ne was the subject of some coverage before his death. In one story, he gives his point of view:

Since my confinement I have been thinking of all the good words I have spoken and the good deeds I have done. I believe in the law of the land and the law of God. I know that those who sin against God should be punished. The Lord guards over both the Indians and the whites.

…

When I was brought before the court, I expected to have a talk, but the whites did all the talking.

In fact, Ta-mah-hop-tow-ne was tried and convicted two months before his capture.

I had no chance to say anything. I want to say that while growing up from my boyhood I missed the trail, the good trail and by doing so I fell over the bank. I told the judge I was very sorry. I knew that I did wrong, I am now sorry for my soul after death.

On the day of his death, speaking from the gallows, he was much more hopeful about the prospects for his soul:

You all see me, I have your brother. I hope you have no ill feelings toward me. I love you all and I am ready to die this day. I shall go to heaven and I hope to meet you all there.

Three geologic features in Thurston County that are more awesome than Mima Mounds

June 3, 2013 / Emmett O'Connell / 9 Comments

Mima Mounds? Over rated! They aren’t special!

Much of Thurston County’s landscape was shaped by glaciers, melting or otherwise. So, while the Mima Mounds may be cool, there are other totally awesome features that you should take notice of.

1. For example, did you even see before that southeast Olympia is basically full of small lakes that were created by massive chunks of broken off piece of glacier? Lakes, created by massive pieces of ice.

Some Kettles from Southeast Olympia (from Geodata):

Can you imagine the block of ice that created Ward Lake?

How Kettles form:

2. So, in addition to dropping massive pieces of ice making massive holes in the ground, melting glaciers also created rivers that don’t exist anymore. And, if you look closely, you can find out where these old river channels are. Probably the easiest to spot is Spurgeon Creek just south of Lacey.

You can see exactly what I’m talking about on Spurgeon Creek Road, just south of the intersection with Fox Ridge Lane. To the west, you can see the Spurgeon Creek valley. But modern Spurgeon Creek is much too small for its creek valley. After the last time glaciers retreated from here, they created a massive meltwater river that carved the valley, eventually meeting up with the glacier swollen Chehalis River.

This detail of this map show exactly how the water flowed in the ancient Spurgeon Creek.

The Washington Landscape Blog has a great explanation of how these glacier meltwater rivers were different than today’s:

One is the lower Chehalis occupies a valley that it did not carve. The Chehalis follows the former valley of a much larger river. During the maximum ice extent during the last glacial period melt water from the Puget lobe ice sheet drained to the ocean via what is now the Chehalis River. The river that carved that valley was a much bigger river than the Chehalis.

3. Lastly, there is at least one massive rock that was brought to Thurston County by a freaking massive sheet of ice. Glacial erratics are pretty awesome on their own, and there seems to be plenty in the Puget Sound area.

So, I don’t know if it’s just me, but I think it’s pretty cool that we have one here.

The massive rock brought here by a sheet of ice is pretty far out of town on 153rd Avenue off of Vail Road.

It’s a Massive Rock brought here by a Massive Sheet of Ice!


An old photo of the erratic from “	The Natural History of Puget Sound Country”	by Arthur R. Kruckeberg

One last shot of the erratic, from “Ground Water in the Yelm Area Thurston and Pierce Counties Washington,” USGS, 1955.

And, here, as an extra special bonus is a tour of the three geologic features that are more awesome that Mima Mounds.

My big questions about Big Mike

May 19, 2013 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

Just over two decades after following the same trail up from the Columbia River to Puget Sound, the body of “Big Mike” Simmons entered the county that almost bore his name. Simmons died on November 15, 1867 at the land claim farm he took after failing at being a timber man in Mason County.

Michael Troutman Simmons is certainly one of the giants of Thurston County history. Leader of the first group of Americans to settle in Puget Sound, delegate to the territorial convention, Indian agent and businessman. Yet, he died poor and almost anonymous in Lewis County.

We seem to know everything about Michael Troutman Simmons. But, for me, there are as many questions as facts about Simmons that I need answered before I get a true image of him.

First off, what is it about Clanrick Crosby?

Soon after this other founder of Thurston County and Tumwater arrived in 1851 (some would say the founder of Tumwater, since he did more to move New Market to Tumwater than Simmons) the two men filed suit against each other. Both men claimed ownership of the land around the Deschutes falls, which would prove to be the economic heart of Tumwater. According to at least one source, the first lawsuit spawned additional lawsuits that lasted beyond Simmons’ death.

Why did he leave Olympia?

His first venture out of Olympia and Tumwater was a mill on Skookum Bay in Mason County he started in 1853 with Wes Gosnell. A newspaper article announcing to Simmons’ new mill, also noted that the valuable land near Tumwater was “no longer entangled in vexatious chancery.” The courts had apparently settled in Crosby’s favor by 1853 (for the moment), and Simmons had taken his enterprises north.

By 1857 he is listed as a property owner in Sawamish (before it was called Mason) County.

For a man whose legacy is tied so closely to Tumwater, he spent more of his time in Washington away from Tumwater then in it.

What about his race for congress?

Is there more to know about Simmons’ failed campaign in 1854 for territorial delegate? He ran in the general election as an Independent and lost by a landslide.

The nomination of Columbia Lancaster as the Democratic candidate in 1854 was one of territorial unity over sectionalism, according to the papers. Lancaster was a resident of the Columbia portion of the new territory. The newspaper in 1854 writes about the state having two centers, one on Puget Sound, the other on the Columbia. Lancaster brings those two together. “The first blow of union and democracy of the territory has been struck”

Simmons wasn’t nominated (or possibly even present) at the Democratic convention that chose Lancaster. James Patton Anderson of Tennessee (who later served in the Confederacy) was the strong runner up in four ballots. Anderson would be elected delegate a year later and serve until Issac Stevens himself was elected in 1857.

Yet, a letter written arguing for Simmons’ independent candidacy pointed out that five of the six who had been nominated were new to the territory and all were lukewarm for the recent split from Oregon. On the other hand, Simmons had lived on Puget Sound for almost a decade by that point and was an early advocate for a split from Oregon.

There’s not a shred of irony from Simmons or his supporters when he mentioned that newcomers were taking over territorial politics.His ten years (compared to the centuries of the Indian tribes) were apparently to him, the most important ten years.

This feud with the Democrats in 1854 would eventually spill into other contests when Simmons apparently even supported the growing Republican party in the territory (as noted in “Confederacy of Ambition”). Political pressure was put to local civic leaders to force Simmons out as Indian agent because of his partisan disloyalty.

Was their economic pressure put together with political pressure to keep Simmons from finding success in the territorial capital? He apparently outlasted all that pressure though, and was only replaced when Lincoln’s administration replaced him with a loyal Republican.

Earl Newell Steele comes to Olympia, 1903

May 8, 2013 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

Doan’s Cafe, Olympia, WA 1906 (UW Digital Collections)

From a longer piece I’m working on about E.N. Steele, Olympia lawyer, civic leader, oyster booster and treaty rights activist:

Earl Newell was born outside of Des Moines, Iowa in 1881. After graduating from State University of Iowa, he made a short tour of the west. Once in Olympia, he sat down for a dinner of oysters. That meal sealed Olympia for Newell.

Steele tells the story in his unpublished manuscript, “Letters to Grandpa” about a chance meeting with an old friend and an oyster lunch kept Steele in Olympia:

I again met people from Seattle who strongly advised me to locate in Seattle. Two of my classmates in college had located. But again some thing told me “No, see Olympia first.” So I listened, but I had to change at Centralia to get to Olympia. And that proved to be the most fortunate decision of all. We arrived there about noon. Not knowing where I was going I started toward what appeared to be the business district. I had not gone more than a couple of blocks till I met a young man. We took a good look at each other.

Then he stopped facing each other and he almost shouted at me “Pete Steele, where did you come from?” “Roy MacRenalds, where did you come from?” I then recognized him, for he said “Pete”, and I had not heard that since I left school in Perry, Iowa, We had been friends in school. We had both lost track of the other. After a little chatter he said he was on his way to lunch and asked me to go with him. We went to Doan’s Oyster House. He ordered Doan’s oyster pan roast. As they served it he said, “Pete, after you eat this you will never want to leave Olympia.” He had spoken more than he knew. I had never eaten any thing I enjoyed so much.

So Steele stayed. He started out as a teacher in Tenino, but eventually entered the law practice in Olympia in 1903.

Steele’s love for Olympia is obvious in his writing. He was either a great salesman for Olympia or the rest of his Iowa-based family (four brothers, sister and mom and dad) had tenuous ties to Iowa. Within months of Earl settling in Puget Sound, all seven of them made the trek west to Washington State.

May 1, 2000: A look back at my first and only go as an online reporter

May 1, 2013 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

Thank you, Internet Archive. You Rock.

Olympia Today: May Day Marchers Head to Westside Streets

I wrote this piece when I was running the above Olympia Time website. At the time, the site was actually owned by a small web design firm that I approached as part of an independent contact at Evergreen. Ah, the independent contract… boy, those were the days.

My idea was to add regular content to a site that was already sort of useful (with a perl weather script and a series of interesting maps) and watch what happened. I think I called the project an online community newspaper.

The run up to May Day 2000 in Olympia was stressful. It would come only five months after the WTO protests paralyzed Seattle and no one knew if these sort of things were rising to some crescendo. In the end, I think it would be remembered as a big and long, if otherwise uneventful and typical Olympia protest. Traffic was tied up, but no lasting impact.

May Day 2000 turned out to be (as I remember it) the high water mark for the site under my control. It was certainly the most interesting day for me and the highest web traffic day too.

My goal was to head over to the west side, watch May Day unfold, take notes and pictures, and then go home and put everything online. My ultimate goal was to beat the Olympian online with a final report, and I think I really did do that.

Obviously, I tried to strike a straight up newsy tone:

Celebrants and protestors marched
this afternoon from the Value Village at Division and Harrison to the corner
of Black Lake and Cooper Point. The marchers took the intersection in what
they call an act against global capitalism.

I was also more interested in the other people not taking part of the march (like me), but were there to watch in some official capacity:

No local politicians were
recognized, but Olympia’s Police Chief Gary Michel was present, standing
with other senior officers north of the intersection on Black Lake.

I love my third person reference, no politicians were recognized, instead of “I didn’t see anyone I recognized.”

I was also fascinated by the media response:

The march attracted
much of the regional media, including Olympia bureau chief for the Seattle
Times David Postman (who also brought a photographer), an AP photographer,
KING 5, KOMO 4, KGY’s Doug Adamson, the Olympian, and helicopters from
KIRO 7 and Fox’s Q13.

KGY was the most active among
the media, interrupting their regular broadcast to bring updates. Adamson
road shotgun on a specially outfitted truck in which he broadcasted updates
and followed the march. The Olympian also did their first midday update
on their website to cover the story.

Doug Adamnson really did do a massive job that day, I mean check him out.

And, I suppose I really didn’t “beat” the Olympian, they did do a midday update. But, it is worth noting that if I read myself right, it was their first midday website update ever. That’s certainly something.

What I left unsaid about baseball, ambition and community

April 17, 2013 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

I recently submitted a rough outline of Olympia’s minor league baseball history to the local historical society newsletter. It was based on a longer piece that I really hadn’t put finishing touches on, so I took out some thoughts that strayed off the historically cite-able path. They were mostly thoughts on the communities that made up the well defunct Southwest Washington League.

Here’s the piece in the Olympia Historical Society Newsletter: Olympia in Minor League Baseball.

Here are my extended editorial thoughts, in rough form:

(League organizer John P.) Fink first reached out to organizers of local teams in the timber towns early in 1903, asking them if their communities had it in them to step up to professional baseball. First on his list were Olympia, Chehalis, Centralia, Montesano, Aberdeen and Hoquiam.

These six cities were at the time very similar. Today, they stand apart culturally and demographically, Olympia in particular. In more than a century, Olympia has gone from a timber town in the same classification as Aberdeen and Chehalis (with a state capitol) to a city on the southern edge of the Puget Sound metroplex. Olympia grew from just under 4,000 to more than 10 times that size. Today, you can put Olympia together with neighboring Lacey and Tumwater and get more than 100,000 people living in and around Olympia. This is more people in either of the individual county’s that also made up the Southwest Washington League in 1903.

The 1903 cities of the old league almost seems like ghosts now. Olympia has grown outside its 1903 version, practically leaving nothing behind of its former self. The other cities have grown, seeing high times after World War II. Through the 1930s and World War II Olympia lagged behind cities like Aberdeen and Hoquiam. It wasn’t until 1960 that Olympia was the largest in population. It was the 1980s that Olympia started putting real distance between itself and its former league-mates.

While state government grew and Olympia took advantage of its connection to the urban centers of Washington, the other cities in the old Southwest League suffered from the decline of the timber and other resource industries.

Olympia became even more distant as it got more liberal relative to its neighbors. Being the home of state government and the politically and culturally liberal Evergreen State College, the old Southwest League towns turn their ire at Olympia. The infamous “Uncle Sam” highway billboard in Chehalis has included many anti-Olympia messages over the years, including “Evergreen State College – Home of Environmental Terrorists and Homos?”

But, as Fink sent out his inquiries in early 1903, these really were cities of the same league.

Draft: Midsummer curse and Olympia minor league baseball

November 28, 2012 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

John P. Fink, a newspaper man and promoter, had an idea for a baseball league.

Fink seems to a jack of all trades sort of promoter in the era. Mostly mentioned in that gray area between public relations and newspapering. He covered sports, worked for newspapers, but also ran teams and leagues. In 1903 he is also noted in the first ever mention of the Southwest Washington League as “the manager of the Tacoma druggists” baseball team.

This is the same era that saw the consolidation of the Pacific Coast League between California and Pacific Northwest teams. The highest level of baseball on the west coast to that point had been split between Pacific Northwest and California. In 1903 the two warring baseball regions joined together, in an outlaw league.

Was it because of the attention being paid to the Portland Browns, Tacoma Tigers and Seattle Siwashes in the press that Fink saw opportunity in a baseball circuit throughout timber towns in bottom left hand corner of Washington?

The Pacific Coast League was no small undertaking.

Baseball had been growing along the west coast since after the civil war, with Portland teams playing since the late 1860s. It slowly expanded from a game played between clubs and soldiers to a game of semi-pros and pros, business patrons and fans paying gate.

The new regional league from Los Angeles to Seattle was outside the bounds of baseball law, but Fink sought to toe the line.

1903 was also the first year of the National Association, the agreement major league baseball on the East and midwest and minor leagues throughout the country. This agreement gave certainty to players and owners (mostly owners) that contracts would be recognized across professional leagues and that poached players could not re-enter organized baseball without outlaw teams paying.

This was also the agreement that Pacific Coast League ignored, if only for a year or so. But, the smaller (class D) Southwest Washington League was inside the law from the beginning.

This was even fact trumpeted by the the league in “The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide.”

The Southwest Washington League, under the protection of the National Association, enjoyed a most successful season, financially and artistically, under the able administration of President John P. Fink, of Olympia. The season opened May 10, 1903, and closed September 6, with Aberdeen and Hoquiam tied for the pennant. Hoquiam refused to play a post-season series to decide the tie, and the league directors awarded the pennant to Aberdeen.

Fink first reached out to organizers of local teams in the timber towns early in 1903, asking them if their communities had it in them to step up to professional baseball. First on his list were Olympia, Chehalis, Centralia, Montesano, Aberdeen and Hoquiam.

These six cities were at the time very similar.

Today, they stand apart culturally and demographically, Olympia in particular. In more than a century, Olympia has gone from a timber town in the same classification as Aberdeen and Chehalis (with a state capitol) to a city on the southern edge of the Puget Sound metroplex. Olympia grew from just under 4,000 to more than 10 times that size. Today, you can put together neighboring Lacey and Tumwater and more than 100,000 people live in and around Olympia. This is more people in either of the individual county’s that also made up the Southwest Washington League.

The cities of the old league almost seems like ghosts to me now. Olympia has grown outside its 1903 version, practically leaving nothing behind of its former self. The other cities have grown, seeing high times after World War II. Through the 1930s and World War II Olympia lagged behind cities like Aberdeen and Hoquiam. It wasn’t until 1960 that Olympia was the largest. It was the 1980s that Olympia started putting real distance between itself and its former league-mates.

While state government grew and Olympia took advantage of its connection to the urban centers of Washington, the other cities in the old Southwest League suffered from the decline of the timber and other resource industries.

Olympia became even more distant as it got more liberal relative to its neighbors. Being the home of state government and the politically and culturally liberal Evergreen State College, the old Southwest League towns turn their ire at Olympia. The infamous “Uncle Sam” highway billboard in Chehalis has included many anti-Olympia messages over the years, including “Evergreen State College – Home of Environmental Terrorists and Homos?”

But, as Fink sent out his inquiries in early 1903, these really were cities of the same league.

The $250 that Fink and other organizers wanted in 1903 to enter the league is about $6,000 today. By February 1903 almost 20 Olympia businessmen had lined up behind the team, putting up the nearly the entire sum needed to enter the league. Gathering investors, officially forming the league, putting together a board of directors were early steps for the Olympia team in the Southwest League. By mid-February the local electric utility — Olympia Light and Power — promised to rip down a defunct veladrome — a bike track — on the bluff above their powerhouse. The plan was to use the timbers to build a grandstand and bleachers on the stadium site, which also coincidentally was along the OLP’s streetcar line.

In April, Olympia baseball me were calling the home field “Electric Park” but it was not yet fit to practice on. Process on the park is going slow, despite the effort of the OP&L company.

When the Olympia Maroons opened in a exhibition on April 19, 1903 against the Tacoma Athletes, an amateur team, Olympia won 4-1. Six hundred Olympians support the Maroons with “lusty yells.”

The board of directors meetings for the Olympia Maroons are public in 1903 and covered like local government meetings. For example, a decision to charge admission is discussed in a regular news column. It’ll cost 25 cents to get into the park, and additional 25 cents to get into the grandstands. Ladies get into the grandstands for free.

And, by May 10 the Southwest Washington League was in action.

The first really big event of the baseball schedule is on May 22 when President Roosevelt comes to town and Aberdeen plays a “President Day” special the same afternoon. A train full of Harborites come into town with their ball team to see the bull moose. Their team loses to the Maroons.

Turns out, Olympia was a pretty bad team.

By August, the Morning Olympian was advising against betting on the Maroons. Or, at least during league games, during which the Maroons were apparently snake bit:

Any man will tell you, provided he has money on the game, that he is willing to back the Maroons against any team in the Pacific National or the Outlaw leagues, on exhibition, but when it comes to Southwest Washington league games he will hereafter save his money to buy bread…

That’s a difference between today and then. While teams like Olympia would play throughout the week against teams in and out of their league, only weekend games played against other SWWL teams counted towards the standings. Apparently Olympia was a weekday team.

By August things are getting worse for the league on a much larger scale. Hoquiam was threatening to leave the league. They seemed to have sarcasm back then as the Hoquiam Perfect Gentlemen were apparently not perfect or gentlemen. Well, if you assumed that amateur ball players who worked mill jobs during the week and in the SWWL on the weekend, aren’t Gentlemen. The amateur team from Hoquiam was leading the league in August against teams made up of a mix of professional and amateurs.

This apparently led to a decision by the owners of the other teams to expand the number of league games, which ate into Hoquiam’s small league lead.

Hoquiam stayed in the league, but not without dragging arguments through organizational meetings and letters.

At the end of the first season, half the league had 11 wins, the other 7.

Aberdeen Pippins 11-7 .611
Hoquiam Perfect Gentlemen 11-7 .611
Centralia Midgets 7-11 .389
Olympia Maroons 7-11 .389

In September the Maroons needed financial help. The Elks and Foresters clubs held a charity baseball game to support the town’s professional ball team, the Maroons. This is an auspicious end to Olympia pro-baseball in 1903. Two amateur ball teams were raising funds for the pro team.

The league would play three years before breaking apart. In 1904 the Maroons became the Senators and in 1905 Centralia is replaced by Montesano Farmers.

In early May 1905, the Morning Olympian introduces the players as if they’re elected officials: Senator Cook, Senator Christian, Senator Almost Stubavor Dye. “A newly elected member who represents the Solid South is Senator Autray.”

I know why the Olympian was practically begging Olympians to come out to support the Senators in 1905. Its the same reason Mayor P.H. Carlyon was deciding whether to declare a half civic holiday for their home opener. Just like in the 1903 season, the hope of a warm Olympia May was smashed by the the heat of August and the league was in trouble.

In 1903, August featured a dust up between Hoquiam and the league, in 1905 it was the very fate of the league.

In early August the owners came together in an Aberdeen hotel. At the urging of Montesano and Aberdeen, they decided to press on, despite very real financial concerns for the rest of the league.

Then two days later, the Olympian carries this passage in a otherwise typical homestand preview:

The Kids (the team’s nickname in the paper is not the Panama Kids for some dumb reason) have played good ball all season, and have been a good advertisement for Olympia all the way. They have not received the support at home that they deserved. The league this year has been faster than ever before and a team that at this time is in second position with a chance still left for the pennant is worth of support of any city in this state. Turn out today, and tardy though you are, be there with the big boost and help the team out, not only with your presence, but encourage them with your two-bit piece. That’s where they need your help most. It costs money to run a team and every citizen should help defray this expense. Olympia needs a team and should be glad to pay for it when she has a team like the present one.

They need your two-bit the most, your fandom second. The team is an advertisement for the city. Costs money to run a team, Olympia needs a team, every citizen should pitch in. Seems more like a road or a school.

By the way, Olympia at this point did not have a high school building. That came a year later.

But, Olympia, is in inferior headspace after statehood in 1889. An economic depression was brought on in part by national recession and local over-extension to retain the capitol after statehood. It would be decades before finally a permanent capitol was built and Olympia felt comfortably away from fears of losing the capitol.

With the SWWL collapsing in late summer 1905, Olympia needed baseball to be a real city.

And, unfortunately, the Senators and what they mean for Olympia are in deep trouble as 1905 ends and the baseball men look to 1906.

1905 SW Washington League Standings
Montesano 25-10 (.705)
Olympia 20-16 (.555)
Aberdeen 17-17 (.500)
Hoquiam 9-27 (.250)

Senators finish well behind the Farmers and in late winter in 1906 the ground is being laid for a pro-baseball free Southwest Washington. A league may not come around, but the possibility of an independent team in Olympia is brought up. The increased interest in baseball from amateur clubs is also mentioned as a bright spot.

A local league between Hoquiam and Aberdeen clubs (with the support of the streetcar company between the towns) is promised, but no one knows if they want to start a league between other cities.

While parlaying Olympia interest in reviving the D-level SWWL, the Grays Harbor towns (Cosmopolis, in addition to Hoquiam and Aberdeen) jump up into the B level Northwestern League.

The class A Pacific Coast League (by now not an outlaw, but a law-abiding member of Organized Baseball) includes Seattle and Portland along with California cities. The combined Harbor cities join other also-ran cities in the region, such as Spokane, Tacoma and Butte, Montana.

Surviving as the Grays Harbor Lumberman and Grays, and the Aberdeen Black Cats, the Harbor super team survives in the Northwestern League until 1910 when the league drops them. The Northwestern League exists in those years somewhere in the historic backwash of the legendary (and sometimes considered major league) Pacific Coast League. Cities like Seattle, Portland and Spokane would fall out of the PCL and into the Northwest League and then back up again.

The Grays Harbor consolidated cities tried to play in that league, but were eventually bounced out by their bigger siblings.

In 1910 they tried to put back the old SWWL relationship to salvage organized baseball on the Harbor. Olympia had fielded an independent team in 1909 and felt up to the task.

But, only if things would be different in 1910.

Olympia only wanted games on the weekend. No expanding the league schedule (like what happened under-handily to Hoquiam in 1903) to shoo out smaller clubs. Between 1903 and 1905 the number of league games had expanded, stretching the baseball resources of Olympia. A strict salary cap. “What we are planning on is a league run in such a manner that there will be no danger of it getting along nicely until the Fourth of July and then going to pieces.”

While Olympia wanted a ball team in 1910, they wanted it under more humble standards.

In addition to the old SWWL towns (Olympia, Centralia, Chehalis, Hoquiam and Aberdeen), Elma, South Bend and two Tacoma teams are also considered. But, the 1910 Class D Washington State League did not end up including Olympia. The cost of travel, keeping players and drawing fans drove Olympia’s interest away from the league.

Olympia ended up fielding semi-pro, unaffiliated with Organized Baseball teams through the 1920s. Eventually even interest in that level of baseball lagged in the capital city.

Gordon Newell describes the final death of semi-pro Olympia Senators in Rogues, Buffoons and Statesmen. The midsummer curse did the baseball Senators in again:

The coming of electronic home entertainment media may have provided the final straw which, added to the summer mobility of the family motor car, broke the back of paid admission baseball in the capital city. The sport itself was popular enough. The local merchants organized a twilight league and the sawmills fielded amateur teams in the sawdust league. The Olympia Senators even began the season bravely under the leadership of ex-major leaguer Ham Hyatt, but by the end of July the lakc of patronage caused the semi-pro players to give up in disgust and turn the new Stevens Field over to high school and amateur teams.