Today:  The Spruce Railroad Trail is a 4-mile paved walking/biking trail along the north shore of Lake Crescent in Clallam County, just a few miles west of Port Angeles. It’s now part of the 134-mile Olympic Discovery Trail and hundreds walk this trail regularly. 

History:  Built near the end of World War I, the Spruce Production Division was organized to build a railroad line to transport spruce wood from the western Olympic Peninsula to the nearby lumber mills and ultimately to aircraft manufacturing plants in the east. The railroad was completed in 1919, a year too late for its intended purpose; it was abandoned in 1951.

Why spruce wood? And why Clallam County?

Spruce wood was the best for constructing airplanes………. and remember that World War I era planes were made of wood………..for it would not splinter, shatter or snap. And it was light and strong, perfect for the job.  

Demand for aircraft in Europe during World War I soared. The Aircraft Production Products Board of the U.S. wanted 3,000,000 board feet of lumber per month. 

(Here is a pix of 7,000,000 board feet……. it’s a wonder there are any spruce trees left!)

Sitka spruce was the ideal wood and was found mainly in WA, OR, CA and Alaska. The largest source was in Clallam County.  Harvesting of the wood began in July 1918 and provided all sorts of jobs, especially loggers and lumbermen. By the end of the war, nearly 100,000 people worked harvesting spruce wood for warplanes but the need was gone by the time the project was fully underway. The day after the armistice was signed (12 Nov 1918) the Spruce Production Division shut down and the many workers went home to find other jobs. 

The project cost $10,000,000 and did produce 88,000,000 board feet of wood which was enough to manufacture 12,000 warplanes. 

Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war,

with the cross of Jesus going on before.

Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe:

Forward into battle, see his banner go!

Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war.

With the cross of Jesus going on before. 

I’d bet that most every 19th century hymnal, Catholic or Protestant, carried this beloved hymn. I’d bet that many of my ancestors and yours loudly sang these lyrics.

The words were written by Sabine Baring-Gould (1832-1924)q`, a Roman Catholic priest, in 1865 to be a processional for children walking from the church were he was curate to a nearby church in Yorkshire. “It was written on great haste,” Baring-Gould related, “and I am afraid that come of the lines are faulty.” 

The song/hymn became popular after the lyrics were put to the music of Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) in 1870. 

The hymn has been associated with war: soldiers going to war, beginning with the Civil War (as shown in John Paul Strain’s painting). In 1912, presidential candidate, Theodore Roosevelt, included this song and said his party was “going to battle for the Lord.”

When Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt met in August 1941 on the battleship HMS Prince of Wales to agree to the Atlantic Charter, Churchill chose this hymn for their onboard church service. 

As I energetically sing that hymn today, I do imagine my forebears belting it out with gusto. Bet yours did too. 

(Map of Virginia in 1600 from Alamy)

Once upon a time, all of North America between Florida and Nova Scotia was known as Virginia for a number of years ………. did you know that? The area was named by Queen Elizabeth (ruled 1558 to 1603) after herself as “the Virgin Queen.” She charmed by Sir Walter Raleigh’s, her favorite sea captain,  accounts of the coasts of the Carolinas in 1585 that she favored him by taking his suggestion for a name of this new land. 

True or false? I found this bit in a book, The History of Orange County Virginia, by William W. Scott, published in 1907.

I spent a bit of time digging into this recent reprint looking for information on my Orange County ancestors. Like with many checked-into sources, I found no real answers but several clues. (Isn’t that what real research is all about???)

I did find these rather amusing names:

Prettyman Merry, “a prominent citizen during the Revolution”

Mourning Pegg,  found on the 1782 census

Peachy Bledsoe, in 1792 a Regiment

Oceanus is the publication of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. I quite enjoy the issues of Oceanus and learn from the WHOI website and frequent free educational webinars. 

Living in Washington, with the whale-waters of Puget Sound, Straits of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean, we’re very aware of ferries and their potential negative impact on whales. (This article’s information applies to all ocean-going big vessels.)

“Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has come into worldwide use and in many ways we’d never have imagined.” The Spring 2021 issue of Oceanus explained……

“Vessel strikes are one of the biggest threats to the survival of the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale (and I would add, ALL whales). Restrictions on shipping speeds and routes have reduced the number of vessel strikes, but at least sixteen North Atlantic Right Whales were killed by ship strikes between 2003 and 2018. Only about 360 of these endangered animals remain.

“Various methods or remedial action have been utilized but up to now, nothing has really “done the trick.” A WHOI team is developing a new detection system, Thermal Imagine Scanners (cameras!) to be used to scan the water’s surface for whale blows. The cameras are linked to AI that the team has trained to ignore waves, birds and boats and to only sound alerts of a thermal signature…. ie, whale detection.

“Mounted on ships, the system can alert captains to the presence of a whale several kilometers away within seconds…..enough time for the vessel to slow down or change course.”

Don’t we all mourn when we read a news story of a dead whale on a beach with clear propeller slashes on its body?? Let’s hope our Washington ferries also get this technology to better protect our Orcas. I want my great-grandchildren to see leaping Orcas in our Washington waters!!

Way up on a Washington bluff overlooking the Columbia River, a huge stone castle pokes in and out of view as you zoom along I-82 in Oregon. “What the Sam Hill?” You’ve heard that expression, haven’t you? 

There is no population center for miles and yet here’s this castle, Sam Hill’s mansion. Hill was an “inspired lunatic”  and the son-in-law of railroad baron, James J. Hill. Sam bought 7000 acres of scrubland on a high bluff overlooking the mighty Columbia River in 1907. He intended to erect a glorious home for his wife, Mary. 

“No way!” she must have said when told about her proposed new home. She never left Europe to come see “her” castle home. 

After 20 years, the mansion/castle was till unfinished. Over the years, the place remained unoccupied and unfinished. People wandering through the deserts of Washington and Oregon would look up to see this enormous abandoned building and say “What the Sam Hill?” 

Or so the story is told. 

Today the mansion is part of Maryhill State Park and there is lots to see and do at the park. Do stop on your next trip to Portland. While you’re there, on the Washington side, take a snap of time to visit Stonehenge just three miles east of Maryhill….

Also built by Sam Hill, this replica of England’s famous Stonehenge was begun in 1918 to honor the heroism of Klickitat County’s soldiers in that Great War. Finished in 1929, it’s both a monument to heroic dead but a monument dedicated to peace. 

There is no need to put your genealogy on hold during the summer months! Mixed in with outdoors and family fun, here are some suggestions for summertime genealogy things to do:

• Start writing those stories…. yours or those of your ancestors.
• Zero in on a dead-end line using all the new tips and tricks you’ve learned.
• View How-To videos: Ancestry Academy, YouTube, plus dozens mor.
• Catch up on your genealogy book/magazine reading (take down that stack!)
• Identify the folks in the photos in that old box of musty photos.
• Take a grandchild to a cemetery.
• Take a grandchild to lunch to “celebrate” an ancestor’s birthday.
• Use Google to find places important in your ancestors’ lives: homes, church, work.
• Work a bit harder to understand your DNA matches (there are plenty of helps!).
• Clean up your email back log and email address list. 
• Read a good historical fiction novel or genealogy mystery (like the Deserter’s Tale).
• Take a whole day and spend 30″ studying the advantages to your research of what’s available from the Big Four: FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast.
• Take a second day to explore Fold3 and Cyndi’sList and any other genealogy websites that you’ve been wanting to explore.

Summer sometimes means lazy, slow, down days. Great. When you’ve finished your drink and watched the sun come up, plan a genealogy to-do day!!

Fans of Morton Farrier, the English forensic genealogist created by author Nathan Dylan Goodwin, rejoice! Goodwin’s newest book is here!! This is the tenth in the Morton Farrier genealogical crime mystery series and they just keep getting better and better.  In this book, Morton journeys to Salt Lake City to give presentations at RootsTech and while he’s “in the neighborhood,” does some research in Las Vegas on his wife’s great-grandfather…….. who deserted his English family after WWI and ended up leading quite a colorful life in Las Vegas. And of course, Morton’s RootsTech presentations figure into the plot. 

This is The Perfect summer read; the book is available from Amazon. I do 1000% recommend it to you……….. I could not put it down and read it in two days!!

Now for a truly funny tombstone story:

“While writing the history o his village some years ago, the Vicar of the Parish of Eye in England decided to include thumbnail sketches on the “pillars of society” over the centuries…. parishioners who had been “famous” in either the church or community. 

The Rev. Philip Randall was particularly impressed by a tombstone just inside St. Matthew’s Church which bore the initials, “HWP.” Because of its prominent position, he concluded that this  must be the grave of some extremely important local dignitary. 

He poured over old, dusty parish records for nine long years in the hope of finding a Henry Wimbourne Potter, or a Herbert Wattle Pittstock, or even a Happy Washwater O’Pudding. Almost a decade of research yielded not one prominent person with those initials. He was about ready to give up but had the idea of one last try by placing a final appeal for information in the parish newsletter.

Two days later, a parishioner telephones to say that he remembered the story of how his father had helped to lay the the stone that marked the Hot Water Pipe.”

True story? I have no idea. Provenance? I cannot remember how long ago I came upon this bit nor where I found it. Just read it, enjoy and laugh. 

An arson-set fire in the summer of 2023 at the Seattle Betsuin Buddhist Temple near the Chinatown International District in Seattle destroyed historical archives going back more than 120 years.

This is a disaster which should affect all genealogists  and not just Buddhists. 

The article in our Spokane paper was from Greg Kim of the Seattle Times. Kim wrote: “Just outside the room where the fire began were the temple’s physical archives dating back to 1901 when the temple was founded by first-generation Japanese Americans. The current location was built during World War II in 1943. The destroyed archives contained documents from when temple members were detained in incarceration camps.”

Alex Sakamoto, a temple board member, said “By losing this, we’re losing knowledge and history. Even if people in the community don’t belong to our church, or even if they’re not Buddhist, this has really been a gathering spot in the community…because it has stayed in the same place and remained unchanged for so long.” 

Could a similar disaster happen to “your” archives…… the place where historical records pertaining to your ancestors’ lives are housed? Yes, it surely could.