Washington

Boating on Lake Sammamish was a necessity for transport of logs to mills and later was a favorite pastime for those who loved the water. Water skiing became popular on the lake in the 1950s.

Resort life boomed in the 1920s on Lake Sammamish, and by the 1930s, nine resorts crowded the lake, five on the northwest shore alone.

Today, though most traces of milling have disappeared, Lake Sammamish still provides recreation opportunities for tens of thousands of people a year. The resort landscapes have changed, but children and adults alike still enjoy the lake waters by boating, swimming, and fishing.

Washington may be known as the Evergreen State but hidden amongst the evergreen trees are true crime stories spanning the past century. Come and explore the Ghoul of Gray's Harbor and discover the Floater's Fleet. Read about the Fly-In-Killer and the Longview Mystery. Learn about the "architect of crime" and the "phantom of Palouse." Find out how a chemist was able to lift a fingerprint from a shred of paper wrapped around a pipe bomb that killed a judge. Discover why foreign dignitaries traveled half way around the globe to assist with a murder trial in 1950. Join author Margaret LaPlante and explore many long-forgotten murders, mysteries, and misdemeanors that shook the otherwise idyllic state of Washington.

Have you ever seen a memorial plaque at a national park? Do you ever see old structures with broken windows and carved out lovers' initials? Probably not. It's hard for some to realize, but abandoned structures hold an important role in our history. They show how our ancestors were brought up, how our industries grew, and how we've overcome things that may be overlooked today.

The Northern Cascades National Park area was once a booming area for migrations and supported those on the quest for gold and trading furs. Industries were built amongst the beauty of the Cascade mountains for convenience as well as the effect on the human brain. Early 1900s America was changing fast--cities were popping up left and right, but America's mental health was just reaching the surface. Developers picked the area right outside of the North Cascades, which had a beautiful view of Mount Baker's snow cap mountain, with hopes that nature's effect would play a positive role on the human brain for the Northern State Institute.

Come with us on this journey to watch the rise and fall of cities that were built overnight and laid the groundwork that made America what it is today.

Will and Irene Lawton followed a string of settlers from Wisconsin, where the pine forests were playing out after a quarter century of logging. They established homes and businesses in Spokane, then left in 1906 and settled a few miles west in the scablands of the Columbia Plateau, where they bought land, took up a homestead, and commenced farming and storekeeping. The dream worked until misfortune and flawed assumptions eventually led to the loss of all they had built. The family had been multi-generational and closely knit. But by 1920 the family had scattered because of untimely deaths and the collapse of homesteading. As a fatherless boy, Walter Lawton, Will's son, spent years in Idaho's mountains herding sheep to get by.