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| Here's Jim at Railroad Bridge Park, and there's a new bike trail to conquer! |
Between getting ready to move, moving across the country, and settling in to our new home, I've been out of the loop for about a month. Before I left Pennsylvania, I completed researching the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment at the AHEC and NARA. That of course is my next writing project, as a companion to The Boldest Plan is the Best, about the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion. I wanted to complete the story of the first airborne units to deploy in WWII, before the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions went overseas. However, as I learn more about my new surroundings I'll be passing on some information here. For instance, did you know that back in the 1970s, some mastodon bones were found in the area? They contained a spear point that dates the inhabitants of the area to pre-Clovis period, which means that travelers have been coming to the Sequim for more than 14,000 years!
As the two or three regular readers of this blog know, my interests are mainly in the twentieth century. Luckily we've arrived in time for the 117th Irrigation Festival. Sequim, and the Dungeness Valley, are in a rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains. So unlike the rest of Puget Sound, the area gets only approximately 15 inches of rain a year, which is about the same as southern California. In 1895 the local farmers began an irrigation project that brought economic prosperity to the area. The annual celebration of that agricultural endeavor is the oldest in Washington state. More to follow as I head down to join my local historical society. ;-)
