The Ouija Broads: Tales from the Pacific Northweird

Liz tells Devon about Spokane's two totem poles: the "Hamat´sa Spirit" pole carved for Expo '74 by legendary Nuu-chah-nulth artist Joe David and his apprentice, Frank Charlie (also Nuu-chah-nulth); and a pole carved in 1977 by a non-Native man who went by Wobay Kitpou and Colville craftsman Michael Paul. Both totem poles were originally placed in Riverfront Park on what was then called Canada Island. In 2016, the island was rededic...

Liz tells Devon about Spokane's Garbage Goat, an interactive, trash-eating sculpture from Expo '74 that has transcended its original purpose to welcome folks to the fair and encourage people to pick up trash and become a beloved icon of the city. 

The Garbage Goat--Billy--is a steel sculpture that was created by Sister Mary Turnbull, aka "the welding nun," for Expo '74. Thanks to an internal vacuum system, visitors to Riverfro...

Liz tells Devon about the 1906 murder of Spokane resident James Sloane, and his 17-year-old son, Sidney, who confessed to the killing. 

On August 28, 1906, a body was discovered in a Spokane alley. The victim had been murdered with an axe, and was soon identified as James Sloane, proprietor of the local Sloane, Paine and Richmond grocery store. His older son, Sidney, confessed to the crime and was put on trial. Not only was th...

Devon tells Liz about some of the unique structures settlers in the PNW built out of the massive stumps left behind from logging, with a focus on The Stump House at Guillemot Cove in Washington. Devon also tells Liz about one stump that the fire chief blew up with an old shell left from the Battle for Seattle, and how he almost caught the banker on fire. We also try to track down the origins of a criminal known as "Dirty Thompson" ...

Devon tells Liz about Seattle's current controversy with a feel-good ending: the story of the Hot Rat Summer mosaic in Capitol Hill's Cal Anderson Park.

AKA "Saint Rat", Hot Rat Summer is a mosaic that has won the heart of its community while getting caught in city's larger push for tougher graffiti laws and punishments, as well as continuing the conversation about the importance of trans visibility. With the controversy heating up...

Liz tells Devon about Peter Max, the German-American artist who designed the iconic US Expo '74 stamp, which features the “Cosmic Runner" or "Cosmic Jumper" traveling through a colorful world, and the controversy surrounding his false claim that he also illustrated The Beatles' film, "Yellow Submarine". 

And just in time to close out Gay Wrath Month, Liz throws in a little bonus connection between Expo '74 and José Juli...

Liz tells Devon the meaning behind the mysterious (and vaguely combative) SPOKANE WAS A RAILROAD TOWN billboards recently spotted in Spokane. She shares the cast of characters behind the boards, and ties the story in to Expo '74's legacy: "The best of what Expo was is the best of what Riverfront Park still is, which is a place where every body can come, and you don’t have to have a specific membership or whatever: you just sh...

We discuss the case of William Toomey, a man who ended his journey in a church in Boise, Idaho and left quite a mystery behind.  It's mentioned at the top, but this episode is all about somebody who died from suicide, so skip it if needed. We also touch briefly on the issue of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, but don't go into any particular detail, just acknowledging that it happened and became a part of the public conscious...

We close Skid Road with the man who gave it another one of its many names: Maynardtown. What makes a middle-aged doctor leave his family in Cleveland behind and trek the Oregon Trail? How far can someone go for the chance to marry the woman he loves? Most importantly, what is a magoozle and how does it give us not just Skid Road, but Seattle itself and even the entirety of Washington State? Only one way for you to find out... come ...

Devon takes us down... deep down into the Seattle Underground! Let's learn about Bill Spiedel and the unique world he helped preserve beneath Seattle's streets.  (We kinda allude to this at one point but Spiedel did like a dash of flavor with his history, so let's take it all with a "as told by" grain of salt. I still don't quite buy that anybody lived with reverse toilets as a daily problem.) This episode brought to you by ...

This time we went all in on one block. Yes, one individual singular solitary block of Seattle. But there's quite a bit to say about this block, as it turns out. This is also an episode where the story necessitates talking about the anti-Asian attitudes and policies of late 19th/early 20th century Washington State and the U.S., including the Chinese Exclusion Act and the internment of Japanese Americans during WW2. You know our sty...

In our continuing Skid Road coverage, we explore how the business of pleasure shaped early Seattle.  Content notes: Plenty of mentions of sex work in here, one dude is accused of having an underage mistress, and there's a fatal shootout at the end. The West! Jeez... 

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