Washington Our Home Podcast By Erich R. Ebel Fearless Field Guide and Washington State Storyteller cover art

Washington Our Home

Washington Our Home

By: Erich R. Ebel Fearless Field Guide and Washington State Storyteller
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 Your fearless field guide, Erich Ebel, takes you on an exciting and entertaining trip to explore the history, heritage and culture of the greatest state in the lower 48. Washington is filled with fascinating stories, mysterious myths and legends, and unbelievable tales you’ll simply have to hear for yourself. Discover lost cities and natural wonders. Relive horrifying massacres and disasters. Survive in the wild frontier. Fight in the Treaty Wars. Track down clues to unsolved mysteries. Washington State Historian Erich Ebel tells stories of the state like none you’ve heard before.Erich R. Ebel, Fearless Field Guide and Washington State Storyteller World
Episodes
  • The Spokane Sun-God

    The Spokane Sun-God
    Aug 5 2024

    Battling violent storms, forest fire smoke, head winds and fatigue, a pair of Spokane, Washington, aviators flew nonstop across America and back in 1929 to establish a new world record. Their Buhl CA-6 sesquiplane, named Spokane Sun-God, was the first airplane to make a non-stop transcontinental round-trip flight. Sponsored by the National Air Derby Association along with Texaco, who supplied the gas, Buhl Aircraft Company, who provided the plane, and many Spokane citizens and businessmen, pilot Nick Mamer and mechanic Art Walker took to the skies at 6 p.m. and headed west into the sunset from Felts Field on August 15th as a crowd of thousands looked on.
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    49 mins
  • Exploring Maritime Washington

    Exploring Maritime Washington
    Apr 3 2023

    I am proud to announce the publication of my new book, Exploring Maritime Washington—a History and Guide. Each of the places covered in its pages has a connection to Washington’s maritime history, whether a popular tourist destination or a hidden gem known only to longtime locals. Exploring Maritime Washington provides visitors with a fun and easy way to enjoy each community while learning about Washington’s nautical history. By visiting and experiencing Washington’s special maritime features—museums, ships, lighthouses, waterfronts and all—the heritage traveler can obtain an authentic understanding of maritime Washington’s diverse history and culture.
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    1 hr and 14 mins
  • Spokane’s Garbage Goat

    Spokane’s Garbage Goat
    Mar 6 2023
    Installed in 1974, just in time for the World's Fair Exposition in Spokane, Washington, this iconic structure has delighted children and adults visiting the Inland Northwest for generations—but it isn't the canted pavilion that once marked the US presence at the fair, or the gondola across Spokane Falls that takes visitors so close they can feel the spray on their faces, or even the German beer garden facility that now houses the 1909 Looff Carrousel (which is on the National Register of Historic Places). No, those destinations in Riverfront Park are amazing remnants of a global event that drew 5,187,826 visitors, including US presidents, foreign dignitaries, and Hollywood stars. Those icons, still in use today, are enthralling…the one we're talking about, some might say, kind of sucks.Spokane's famous Garbage Goat has kept its corner of the park free of debris for nearly 50 years. I happen to have a long relationship with the burnished Bovidae. Growing up in Spokane, we often visited our voracious friend…taking pictures, goofing around, and searching for anything we could possibly find to satiate its never-ending hunger. And when we ran out of trash, nearby leaves and sticks would fall victim to the goat. And sometimes…once in a great while…Spokane's garbage goat would even suck the mitten right off some poor unsuspecting child's hand.To really tell the story right, we have to go back to the early 1960s, when Seattle held its Century 21 World's Fair exposition in 1962. I'll cover that story in a future podcast episode for sure, but for now let's just remember that the fair was a huge success, bringing nearly 10 million people, revitalizing Seattle's economic and cultural life, and leaving behind the Space Needle, the monorail, several sports venues and performing arts buildings, and—unlike some other world's fairs of its era—making a profit for the city. By comparison, little old Spokane wasn't sure it could duplicate the success of its westside counterpart. But hey…if you're going to dream, dream big!The theme of the 1974 World's Fair was Ecology, and every pavilion—from the USSR to the Japanese, the South Koreans to Canada, Australia, Iran, West Germany, and the Philippines—all of them were focused on some sort of environmental theme. And a more fitting location for an environmental fair would be hard to find, what with the natural beauty of the Spokane River cutting right through the middle of the festivities, and the falls creating a constant cacophony of environmental ambiance.On May 4, 1974, President Richard M. Nixon presided over the opening of Expo '74, the Spokane World's Fair. Spokane's population at that time was about 170,000, making it the smallest city ever to host a world's fair. When Nixon formally declared the Fair open, officials released 50,000 balloons into the sky (which is funny, given the Fair's environmental theme. Lord only knows where those ended up; they don't just vanish, after all).Portions of the speech made by President Richard Nixon at the Opening Ceremony. Footage courtesy of Dr. Larry Cebula, edited by Anna Harbine. Information from Cory Carpenter, “When Nixon Came to the Fair,” Spokane Historical, accessed March 5, 2023, https://spokanehistorical.org/items/show/384.To make room for the US Pavilion, the iconic structure that still looms large over Riverfront Park today, city officials had to tear down the historic 1902 Great Northern railroad depot on Havermale Island. The only remnant that remained from Spokane's earliest railroad days is the 155-foot-tall clock tower, which quickly became another beloved piece of Spokane's downtown skyline.In the years leading up to the '74 world's fair, most of the Spokane community was either dead set against it or totally committed to it. There were very few residents with ambivalent attitudes. One of the more committed members of the community was a Catholic named Sister Paula Mary Turnbull,
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    26 mins
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