Cascade of History

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with explorer/diver Chris McNaughton about the recent discovery of a mystery vessel beneath the waters of the Pend Oreille River in northeast Washington state. A few days ago, a man named Troy Moody discovered the wreck of a vessel in the Pend Oreille River near Usk, Washington. Mr. Moody called the Pend Oreille County Historical Society, and they reached out to Chris McNaughton. In this conversation, recorded early Saturday morning, October 24, 2026, McNaughton describes what happened next, as he went in search of the wreck to take photos and...

On this HAUNTED-BY-RADIO BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we present archival audio from the October 29, 2010 LIVE broadcast from Seattle of the original 1938 Mercury Theatre On The Air version of “Dracula.” The cast includes many well-known broadcasters and performers – including Lee Callahan, Pat Cashman, Tracey Conway, Jim Dever, Chris Topping and Steve Wilson - with full credits in the recording. The announcer is John Maynard, and live sound effects were designed and performed by Curtis Takahashi. Live music was by Rob Jones. The show was produced and directed by Feliks Banel, and performed before a live audience and broadcast live on AM...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we present complete audio from Episode Five of "Unsolved Histories: What Happened to Flight 293?," an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning podcast researched, produced and hosted by Feliks Banel in 2024 for KSL Podcasts. The focus is Northwest Airlines Flight 293, a military charter carrying 102 active duty service members, family members and civilian passengers and crew from McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma, Washington to Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage, Alaska. On October 22, 1962, the DC-7C airliner ran into engine problems, and the pilot successfully ditched in the waters off Biorka Island, Alaska. For this...

On this HAUNTED-BY-RADIO BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we present archival audio from the October 2011 LIVE broadcast from Seattle of an adaptation of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." This version is set in pre-war 1941 Seattle and the Skagit County town of Concrete, Washington. The protagonist, played brilliantly by Jim Dever, is soft-boiled, runny-yolked private detective - and washed up former high school English teacher - Irving Washington. See what we did there? This adaptation was produced, written and directed by CASCADE OF HISTORY host Feliks Banel. It was performed live at Town Hall Seattle before a live...

On this BONUS GIANT PINK TOE TRUCK EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Connie Lincoln of Lincoln Towing and Leonard Garfield of Seattle’s Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) about a special event taking place on Saturday, October 17, 2026 at 1pm at MOHAI. The museum will return to display the Lincoln Towing “Toe” Truck, an advertising vehicle which was the brainchild of Connie’s husband, the late Ed Lincoln. Ed Lincoln passed away in February 2026 at age 84, and this event is being presented in his memory. The Toe Truck has been part of the museum's collection since it arrived...

On this HAUNTED-BY-RADIO BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we present archival audio from the October 27, 2013 LIVE broadcast from Seattle of the original Halloween radio play "Sports Talk Panic." "Sports Talk Panic" was produced, written and directed by CASCADE OF HISTORY host Feliks Banel. Pat Cashman and John Maynard star in this tribute to the "War of the Worlds" panic broadcast of 1938. In "Sports Talk Radio Panic," Cashman plays Vince O'Neill, beleaguered host of "Seattle Sports Sunday Night" on AM 1090 The Fan, and Maynard is the hopelessly anachronistic radio newsman Bryan Lewis. Also starring Chris Cashman as Allan "The Beef"...

On this HAUNTED-BY-RADIO BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we present archival audio from the October 30, 2014 LIVE broadcast from Seattle of the original Halloween radio play "A Walk In The Dark." "A Walk In The Dark" was produced, written and directed by CASCADE OF HISTORY host Feliks Banel. It was performed live at Town Hall Seattle before a live audience, and was broadcast live on Seattle's beloved Pacific Coast Biscuit radio station. The cast includes many well-known broadcasters and performers, including Lee Callahan, Tracey Conway, John Curley, Jim Dever, Tim Haeck, John Maynard, Dan Restione, Dave Ross and Tom Tangney...

On this BONUS "FERRY-SYSTEM BLUES" EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents vintage audio from KIRO Radio in Seattle from November 20, 2024. In recognition of the labor issues paralyzing Washington State Ferries today, we dig into the audio archives for this live broadcast by Feliks for KIRO Radio from Colman Dock in downtown Seattle on the post-stormy morning of November 20, 2024. We hear the voice of Dave Ross – introducing the segment and also harmonizing once the live music begins. The live music is from Jon Pontrello on guitar, singing “Roll On, Kalakala.” Also there alongside Elliott Bay that morning was field produc...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Julia Triezenberg, Education Supervisor for the Columbia River Maritime Museum on their new “Treasures Untold” radio program and podcast; Courtney Cooper Neese, owner of the Roslyn Theatre on her new project to restore Cle Elum’s long-dormant Vogue Theatre; and Huy Pham, Executive Director of APIAHiP - Asian & Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation – on a powerful performance called "We, too, Sing America" which he delivered in September for the National Trust for Historic Preservation at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, and which we listened to in its enti...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel digs for a fourth time into the “This NOT Just In” archives for three installments from the occasional history series that aired from 2010 to 2016 on KUOW Public Radio 94.9 FM in Seattle. The premise of “This NOT Just In” was to use archival audio to shed light on forgotten or not fully understood stories from Pacific Northwest history. In this fourth "This NOT Just In" Archival Revival, we remember the distinctive Northwest reaction to the “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast of October 1938; local connections to the Good Friday Alaska Earthquake of March 196...

On this BONUS "LATE 2026 SEASON MARINERS BLUES" EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents vintage audio from KIRO Radio in Seattle from July 20, 2022. During the broadcast heard on this recording, we hear Feliks attempt to prove to Dave Ross and Colleen O'Brien that no matter what might happen to the Mariners in that magical 2022 season (when, at the All Star Break, they were on a 14-game winning streak), it would NOT be as exciting as the 1995 Mariners - further, that no Mariners team, not even one that might win the World Series - would ever be as exciting as...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Kent Sullivan with an update on this past week’s Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association Convention in Toppenish, WA; three-term Republican former Secretary of State Sam Reed on the Supreme Court’s recent decision to halt interference in Washington’s all mail-in ballot; Heather Pihl on recent Seattle City Council actions affecting historic districts; author Todd Warger on his new book from WSU Press “The Mountain Runners: America’s First Adventure Race, 1911–1913”; and Mike Nolan, author of “Hardhat Days: My Re-Education in Seattle’s Shipyards,” also recently published by WSU Press. For mo...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel digs for a third time into the “This NOT Just In” archives for three installments from the occasional history series that aired from 2010 to 2016 on KUOW Public Radio 94.9 FM in Seattle. The premise of “This NOT Just In” was to use archival audio to shed light on forgotten or not fully understood stories from Pacific Northwest history. In this third "This NOT Just In" Archival Revival, we remember the devastating Columbus Day Storm of October 1962; the infamous D.B. Cooper skyjacking of November 1971; and the first time the long-running JP Patches...

Feliks Banel's CAVALCADE OF LIGHTNING-ROUND GUESTS on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY's Fourth Anniversary Show include: Scott Sistek of the Emerald City Weather Blog; Hilarie Pozesky of Chicago Area Archivists; Grant Din of Save Our National Archives (SONA) in San Bruno, CA: Paula Johnson of Willamette CRA; Scott Tanner, co-author of “A Glacier Gallery: True Tales and Hidden History” in Montana; Barbara Swift of the Gas Works Park Alliance; Jake Rehm, Mullan Road scholar at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, WA; Andrea Clift, our eyes and ears for the Spokane River; Skip Berger, Cascade Public Media's Mossback; and Dr...

Feliks Banel's guests on this BONUS ENCORE EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY - presented to herald the new display "The Woolly Dog: A Lost Breed of the Salish Sea" at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, BC - are Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa, Chief Janice George, and Dr. Susan Pavel, co-authors of “The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog.” The book was released in May 2025 by Harbour Publishing in British Columbia, and this conversation was recorded in October 2025. “Mutton” is the name of a dog from the 19th century whose pelt was tucked away in a drawer at the Smithsonian Institut...

On this BONUS ENCORE EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we listen back to Feliks Banel’s September 2025 interview with three-term Republican former Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed about the origins and history of voting by mail in Washington state. Secretary Reed was in office from 2001 to 2013, and previously served as the elected auditor of Thurston County. In this earlier role, he was one of the first public officials to support efforts to adopt voting by mail in the Evergreen State back in the early 1980s. Washington became the second all-vote-by-mail state in 2011; Oregon was first a decade earlier. With mo...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel marks the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States by sharing vintage audio from KIRO Radio from the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. In this 45-minute recording (one side of an analog tape, made by Feliks at home that morning 25 years ago), we hear Newsradio 710 KIRO deep in its "peak news & talk" years - when a big newsroom was in operation around the clock to gather and report the facts, and wise and eloquent talk show hosts (including Dave Ross) calmly analyzed and interpreted what was going on...

This special LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY originated from the public memorial for beloved historian Paul Dorpat at the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) in Seattle on Sunday, August 30, 2026. Paul's dear friends Clay Eals and Jean Sherrard organized the event and served as emcees (ems-cee?). Speakers/performers included Ken Workman, Chief Seattle descendant, of the Duwamish Tribe; Mayor Katie Wilson of Seattle; Marie McCaffrey of HistoryLink; Ann Ferguson, retired Seattle Public Library "Seattle Room" Librarian; Washington Governor Bob Ferguson; folk musician Al Hirsch (performing “The Old Settler” - aka “Acres of Clams”); Bob Donegan, CEO of Ivar’s; Greg Nicke...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is author David B. Williams. His new book, "In The Range of Fire and Ice: A Human and Natural History of Washington's Cascades" is available now from booksellers around the Pacific Northwest, and he's about to embark on a series of author appearances and book talks throughout the late summer and into the late autumn around Western Washington. Williams has written a number of popular books, including "Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound" (UW Press, 2021), and often leads walking tours and writes and speaks about Northwest...

On this special BONUS NOW & THEN EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Clay Eals and Jean Sherrard of Seattle Now & Then and with Devlin Donnelly of the Port of Seattle about a rare photo from The Beatles’ 1966 Seattle visit. The image was recently re-discovered by Devlin Donnelly in the port’s archives, Clay and Jean chose it as the “Then” focus of their Now & Then column for The Seattle Times . . . and many more of them live next door. The column appears in print in the Sunday, August 30, 2026 edition of the newspaper; the online version was posted on Thursday...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents complete audio from a grassroots media event held at the National Archives in San Bruno, CA on Monday, August 24, 2026. CASCADE OF HISTORY has been covering this story since late June 2026, when word was leaked that the National Archives and Records Administration – or NARA – was taking steps behind the scenes and with no stakeholder cosultation to shut down National Archives locations in the Bay Area and Chicago. Opposition to the closures has been considerable, and is growing. The main speaker for the event is Representative Kevin Mullin (CA-15). Representative Mullin is j...

Feliks Banel's guests on this ENCORE PRESENTATION of a LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY from the June 26, 2025 farewell event for Seattle High School Memorial Stadium include Clay Eals and Jean Sherrard of the Seattle Times' Seattle Now & Then; Northwest sports historian and collector David Eskenazi; and music historian Eric Magnuson. The beloved 1947 stadium, deemed unworthy of landmark status by the City of Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board, has since been demolished and a shiny new stadium is being built in its place. The original structure, designed by noted architect George Stoddard, was dedicated in 1947 to the memory of 800+ Seattle...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Rachel Cushman, Secretary-Treasurer of the Chinook Indian Nation, in a conversation marking 175 years since the negotiation of treaties at Tansy Point near the mouth of the Columbia River and looking ahead to what comes next. According to their website, “The Chinook Indian Nation is made up of the five western-most Chinookan speaking tribes at the mouth of the Columbia River. Our nearly 70-year-old constitution codifies who we are and identifies our five constituent tribes – the Clatsop and Cathlamet (Kathlamet) of present-day Oregon and the Lower Chinook, Wahkiakum (Waukikum) and...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Bill Yeend, longtime Seattle-area broadcaster who moved back to his native Spokane several years ago, and Spokane historian Liz Wood. In separate interviews, each describes their experiences on the periphery of wildfires that hit the Spokane area on August 1, 2026. Ms. Wood also describes a recent history project to debunk a particularly persistent Spokane history myth. We also listen to vintage audio of the late, great Spokane-born broadcaster (and radio historian) Bill Brubaker, describing the role that local radio played in Roseburg, Oregon after the August 1958 dynamite blast that...

Feliks Banel's guests on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Naomi Ostwald Kawamura, Executive Director of Densho and Skyla Sachiko Tomine, National Organizing Fellow of Tsuru for Solidarity. Densho and Tsuru for Solidarity have paired up to lead a grassroots effort to halt the closure of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) branch in San Bruno, California. Densho and Tsuru for Solidarity convened a webinar earlier this week with nearly 100 participants. In this conversation for CASCADE OF HISTORY, recorded on the evening of Thursday, August 6, 2026, Ms. Kawamura and Ms. Tomine describe why their respective organizations are collaborating...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel digs for a second time into the “This NOT Just In” archives for three installments from the occasional history series that aired from 2010 to 2016 on KUOW 94.9 FM in Seattle. The premise of “This NOT Just In” was to use archival audio to shed light on forgotten or not fully understood stories from Pacific Northwest history. In this second "This NOT Just In" Archival Revival, we hear about when President Harry Truman killed time at Mount Rainier in 1945 while waiting for the first meeting United Nations to get underway in San Francisc...

On this BONUS "LIL’ THUNDERBOAT" ENCORE EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel once again presents vintage audio from KIRO Radio from 2018 with the history of "street hydros" - those miniature plywood hydroplanes that Seattle area kids made from scratch and towed behind their bikes from the 1950s to the 1980s. Included in the story are observations and memories of street hydros from John Keister, Dave Dederer, Bill Wixey, Chip Hanauer and the late, great Pat O'Day (who also performs the play-by-play for an imaginary street hydro race). Street Hydro Story and Photo Gallery: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Jj...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel digs into the “This NOT Just In” archives for three installments from the occasional history series that aired from 2010 to 2016 on KUOW 94.9 FM in Seattle. The premise of “This NOT Just In” was to use archival audio to shed light on forgotten or not fully understood stories from Pacific Northwest history. In this first of what will likely be many episodes sharing “This NOT Just In” installments in the months and years ahead, we hear about when President Harding gave a speech in Seattle in July 1923 that turned out to be his final...

On the BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we present an ENCORE of our LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST from the ruins of the Ryan House in Sumner, Washington in July 2025. Feliks Banel’s guests include Nick Biermann of Save Ryan House, Nancy Ryan Dressel (descendant of the builder of the Ryan House), Tina Patton Burnett, and other grassroots historic preservationists and lovers of local history who had been working for nearly two years to try to save one of the oldest structures in the Evergreen State. It was part vigil, part wake, part celebration of life, and an attempt to process a...

Feliks Banel's guests on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Gretchen Neidhardt and Hilarie Pozesky of the group Chicago Area Archivists. They are part of a grassroots effort to mobilize and halt the quietly announced closure of the Chicago branch of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). CASCADE OF HISTORY has been covering this story since an internal NARA memo was leaked in late June with details that have still not yet been shared publicly by NARA. That memo describes the closure of NARA regional archival facilities in Chicago, Illinois and San Bruno, California, and imminent removal...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Lloyd Lytle, a leader of the grassroots group that had been fighting over the past year to save the historic Masonic Home of Washington in Des Moines, Washington. On Thursday, July 23, 2026, the group announced an end to their legal battle. Lytle posted a message on social media earlier Thursday. In this interview, he shares the group's thinking and what might come next as far as a possible timeline for demolition of the Masonic Home. CASCADE OF HISTORY spoke with Lloyd Lytle on the evening of Thursday, July 23, 2026. GoFundMe...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Paula Johnson, Senior Archaeologist and Director-at-Large based in the Seattle office of WillametteCRA (CRA stands for “Cultural Resources Associates”). In this conversation, recorded on July 23, 2026, Johnson describes how the federal historic preservation regulations known as Section 106 work, and then outlines the threat facing 60 years of precedent in how the federal government treats historically significant resources. She also describes how the historic preservation community is mobilizing to push back against what amounts to a gutting of the rules - including elimination of public notice and input and tribal consultation - an...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel pays tribute to the late Chris Wedes, who played J.P. Patches on KIRO TV in Seattle from 1958 to 1981, and who remains one of the most beloved performers and broadcasters in the history of the Pacific Northwest. In this interview from 2010, Wedes looks back on what it meant to play J.P. for all those years, and how he continued to connect with “Patches Pals” even after his show left the air. This audio was originally produced by Feliks Banel and Casey McNerthney for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's local history podcast "Seat...

This special LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY originated from a community bluegrass jam inside the historic Mikkelsen Barn in Walla Walla County near Waitsburg, Washington. Along with a lot of live music, interview guests include HERITAGE BARN HERO Kristin Darrow, who restored the circa 1920 barn and an adjoining grain elevator with support from the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation’s Heritage Barn Grant Program, which is administered by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation; and Touchet Valley Acoustic Music Project (TVAMP) founder Kate Hockersmith, a longtime Waitsburg resident (and musician) who began organizing community bluegrass pe...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Ken Hong, who grew up in San Mateo, California. Mr. Hong now lives in Pennsylvania, where he serves as executive director of Make Us Visible Pennsylvania, a group that, according to its website, supports a "nationwide initiative to update school curricula with accurate information about Asian American & Pacific Islander history and culture." Mr. Hong visited the National Archives in San Bruno, California - one of the two branches, along with Chicago, which was abruptly targeted for closure by the National Archives and Records Administration - with his father 25...

For this SUMMER ENCORE EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents a tribute to late Pacific Northwest radio DJ and pop culture renaissance man - and longtime hydro race announcer - Pat O’Day. With a vintage aircheck and two long excerpts from an oral history recorded by WSU Professor Hugh Rundell in the late 1970s, we hear directly from Pat O’Day about his early influences and his peripatetic radio career around the Evergreen State (and a corner of the Beaver State). O’Day, born Paul Berg, made his Seattle debut on radio station KAYO – and officially introduced his “Pat...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Harry Mok, assistant editor, columnist and editorial board member for the Opinion section of The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. Mr. Mok published a piece earlier this week criticizing the imminent closure of the San Francisco (San Bruno) branch of the National Archives. The closure was quietly announced on June 26, 2026 on the NARA website; NARA leadership and public affairs officials have still not responded to CASCADE OF HISTORY's multiple inquiries seeking more information. Mr. Mok's piece is called "Trump is trying to bury Bay Area window into Chinese American...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Grant Din of Oakland, California. Mr. Din is a member of a grassroots group called SAVE OUR NATIONAL ARCHIVES (SONA) which is mobilizing to fight the planned closure of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) facility in San Bruno, California. The closure was quietly announced on June 26, 2026 on the NARA website; NARA leadership and public affairs officials have not returned CASCADE OF HISTORY's multiple messages. CASCADE OF HISTORY spoke with Grant Din on the evening of Wednesday, July 1, 2026. Save Our National Archives (SONA) Website: https://www.saveournationalarchives...

Feliks Banel's guests on this special LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY from the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Seattle's Pioneer Square include folksinger Al Hirsch; Charles Beall, Superintendent of Seattle Area National Park Sites; Seattle City Councilmember Rob Saka (District 1); Dan Evans, Jr.; filmmaker and documentarian B.J. Bullert and her husband Ken Workman, Chief Seattle descendant; Jon Scholes, CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association; Lisa Howard, Executive Director of the Alliance for Pioneer Square; NPS Trails & Rails volunteer Rob Carr; retired NPS Park Ranger Sean O'Meara; NPS Trails & Rails Coordinator Steve Lovell; Historic Seattle Executive...

Feliks Banel's guests on this ENCORE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY are longtime local journalist Essex Porter reflecting on his television career at KIRO 7 News (recorded not long after he retired in late 2021), and meteorologist Scott Sistek, in a conversation recorded just after the devastating June 2021 Pacific Northwest "heatdome." Both interviews are from the archives of COLUMBIA CONVERSATIONS, for which Feliks was the founding producer and host. This SUMMERTIME EDITION broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY was presented at 8pm Pacific Time on Sunday, June 28, 2026. Scott Sistek’s Emerald City Weather Blog: https://emeraldcityweather.com/ Links to more information as well as...