On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel tours Metsker Maps at historic Pike Place Market on First Avenue in downtown Seattle, Washington on the eve of the 2025 holiday shopping season.

Guest and "tour guide" is Walker Willingham, longtime Metsker employee and knowledgeable expert on maps and cartography. Mr. Willingham gives a tour of the store, tells about its history, and describes some of the maps, globes and books that make Metsker Maps one of the most distinctive retail establishments in the Pacific Northwest. He also shares his thoughts and philosophies on world map projections and the future of paper maps.

PLEASE BE FOREWARNED: this 30-minute episode features a couple of SERIOUS map nerds.

For more information about Metsker Maps' hours and location (as well as its online store):
https://metskermaps.com/

CASCADE OF HISTORY is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time via SPACE 101.1 FM in Seattle and gallantly streams everywhere via www.space101fm.org. The radio station broadcasts from studios at historic Magnuson Park – located in the former Master-at-Arms’ quarters in the old Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

Subscribe to the CASCADE OF HISTORY podcast via most podcast platforms and never miss regular weekly episodes of Sunday night broadcasts as well as frequent bonus episodes.

BONUS EPISODE: Tour of Metsker Maps at Historic Pike Place Market in Downtown Seattle

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents his archival interview from 2013 with Bryan Johnson, longtime KOMO Radio and TV journalist in Seattle. Johnson describes his early career at KOMO Radio in the late 1950s, and the morning he was on the job - Friday, November 22, 1963 - and had to break the news that President Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas. During the interview, we also listen back to a piece Johnson produced for ABC News' national radio feed about Seattle area reaction to the death of JFK.

CASCADE OF HISTORY is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time via SPACE 101.1 FM in Seattle and gallantly streams everywhere via www.space101fm.org. The radio station broadcasts from studios at historic Magnuson Park – located in the former Master-at-Arms’ quarters in the old Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

Subscribe to the CASCADE OF HISTORY podcast via most podcast platforms and never miss regular weekly episodes of Sunday night broadcasts as well as frequent bonus episodes.

BONUS EPISODE: KOMO Radio in Seattle Breaks the News of JFK Assassination - Archival Interview with Bryan Johnson

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents an archival interview with Danny Swanson, grandson of the founder of historic Swanson's Shoe Repair in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood.

Swanson’s Shoe Repair is the subject of a long feature story in the Seattle Times this weekend. Reporter for the Seattle Times is David Gutman, and the piece is called “How one Seattle cobbler explains a century of economic change":
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/how-one-seattle-cobbler-explains-a-century-of-economic-change/

Swanson's Shoe Repair website:
https://swansonsshoerepair.com/

Our interview with Danny Swanson is from CASCADE OF HISTORY’s “sister program”  – a monthly live broadcast from the Wallingford Farmer’s Market in the summer of 2023 called “The Wallingford Local,” produced as a joint project with the non-profit Historic Wallingford and SPACE 101.1 FM. Danny Swanson was a guest at our July 26, 2023 live broadcast from Meridian Park in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood.

The Wallingford Local Archival Podcast Page:
https://soundcloud.com/thewallingfordlocal

CASCADE OF HISTORY is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time via SPACE 101.1 FM in Seattle and gallantly streams everywhere via www.space101fm.org. The radio station broadcasts from studios at historic Magnuson Park – located in the former Master-at-Arms’ quarters in the old Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

Subscribe to the CASCADE OF HISTORY podcast via most podcast platforms and never miss regular weekly episodes of Sunday night broadcasts as well as frequent bonus episodes.

BONUS EPISODE: Archival Interview with Danny Swanson of Historic Swanson's Shoe Repair in Seattle

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents his 2021 D.B. Cooper skyjacking 50th anniversary special "COOPER FIVE-OH."

"COOPER FIVE-OH" includes an all-star lineup of D.B. Cooper experts and witnesses. We interview the FBI’s Larry Carr, lead agent on the case when it was closed several years ago. We also talk with Cooper skyjacking passenger Larry Finegold, and Seattle Times photographers Greg Gilbert and Bruce McKim, who were both at SeaTac Airport that night as the skyjacking unfolded, and who both took iconic photographs. Also joining us is D.B. Cooper hunter and expert Eric Ulis, and Bryan Ingram – who, as a child, discovered $6,000 of Cooper’s cash along the Columbia River in 1980.

"COOPER FIVE-OH” was produced and hosted live by Feliks Banel on a commercial radio station in Seattle, Washington on Thanksgiving Eve, November 24, 2021 - 50 years to the night of the infamous skyjacking.

CASCADE OF HISTORY is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time via SPACE 101.1 FM in Seattle and gallantly streams everywhere via www.space101fm.org. The radio station broadcasts from studios at historic Magnuson Park – located in the former Master-at-Arms’ quarters in the old Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

Subscribe to the CASCADE OF HISTORY podcast via most podcast platforms and never miss regular weekly episodes of Sunday night broadcasts as well as frequent bonus episodes.


BONUS EPISODE: D.B. Cooper 50th Anniversary Radio Special "COOPER FIVE-OH" from November 2021

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Paul McClintock of Whidbey Island, who created many 18th century documents for Ken Burns' "American Revolution" documentary series currently airing on PBS; Mitsy Hunter of Spokane Preservation Advocates on the recent successful grassroots campaign to defeat a city ordinance which would have created a moratorium on historic districts; highlights from a 2021 interview with seasoned journalist (and "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" announcer) Bill Kurtis on his 1971 coverage of the D.B. Cooper skyjacking; and Julie Green Lombardo -whose father Del Green was a member of long-ago Seattle barbershop quartet the Four-Do-Matics - for whom we play a vintage recording by the group on an old LP that she'd never heard before. We also shared sad news from Jean Sherrard about the passing of longtime Seattle historian and author Junius Rochester - to whom we will pay tribute in an upcoming broadcast.

Links to information about all of these stories are available at the CASCADE OF HISTORY Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/groups/cascadeofhistory

This LIVE broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY was originally presented at 8pm Pacific Time on Sunday, November 23, 2025 via SPACE 101.1 FM and gallantly streaming live via www.space101fm.org from historic Magnuson Park - formerly Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

Subscribe to the CASCADE OF HISTORY podcast via most podcast platforms and never miss regular weekly episodes of Sunday night broadcasts as well as frequent bonus episodes.

Ep. 127: Whidbey Maker of Vintage Documents for Ken Burns, Spokane Historic District Update, Bill Kurtis on D.B. Cooper, and long-ago Seattle Barbershop Quartet the Four-Do-Matics

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Eleanor Boba, a public historian based in Seattle who recently discovered that the large bronze commemorative plaque for the Interstate 90 Homer Hadley Bridge across Lake Washington is missing.

Homer Hadley is the Seattle-based engineer credited with the idea for a concrete floating bridge, and for the design of the original 1940 Lacey V. Murrow Lake Washington Floating Bridge (which sank on November 25, 1990 while undergoing renovation). The bridge named for Hadley was opened to vehicle traffic circa 1990, though it was not officially dedicated to him until July 17, 1993.

We've shared photos of the plaque - which the Washington State Department of Transportation tells CASCADE OF HISTORY they are not able to locate - and the now empty plinth to which it was attached for many years, at the CASCADE OF HISTORY Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cascadeofhistory

For more information, please see Eleanor Boba's Blog Post:
https://remnantsofourpast.blogspot.com/2025/11/on-beaten-path-tracing-i-90-trail-in.html

CASCADE OF HISTORY has reached out to Homer Hadley's descendants to gather their reaction to news of the missing plaque, but as of Monday, November 24, 2025, we have not yet heard back.

CASCADE OF HISTORY is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time via SPACE 101.1 FM in Seattle and gallantly streams everywhere via www.space101fm.org. The radio station broadcasts from studios at historic Magnuson Park – located in the former Master-at-Arms’ quarters in the old Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

Subscribe to the CASCADE OF HISTORY podcast via most podcast platforms and never miss regular weekly episodes of Sunday night broadcasts as well as frequent bonus episodes.

BONUS EPISODE: On 35th Anniversary of I-90 Murrow Bridge Sinking, Plaque for adjacent Homer Hadley I-90 Bridge is Missing

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents an archival episode from the local history podcast "Seattle Rewind" from the holiday season of 2010. "Seattle Rewind" was a series produced by Feliks Banel and Casey McNerthney for the old Seattle-PI news website.

This episode of "Seattle Rewind" was originally released at Thanksgiving 2010. It focuses on two downtown Seattle holiday traditions at local department stores that traditionally began each year in late November: elaborate displays in the windows of Frederick & Nelson, and the giant star on the Bon Marché.

CASCADE OF HISTORY is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time via SPACE 101.1 FM in Seattle and gallantly streams everywhere via www.space101fm.org. The radio station broadcasts from studios at historic Magnuson Park – located in the former Master-at-Arms’ quarters in the old Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

Subscribe to the CASCADE OF HISTORY podcast via most podcast platforms and never miss regular weekly episodes of Sunday night broadcasts as well as frequent bonus episodes.

BONUS EPISODE: Vintage Local History Podcast "Seattle Rewind" Downtown Seattle Holiday Traditions from 2010

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents archival sound from two radio stories he produced in search of the "Magic Radio Santa" of Centralia, Washington. The Magic Radio Santa appeared for decades on radio station KELA in the southwest part of the Evergreen State from the late 1940s until the 1970s, reading Christmas letters and wish lists of presents from local children.

The first part of this episode is from December 2018, when Banel produced a story for a Seattle radio station about a piece of vintage sound from 1950 – a giant, 16-inch diameter recording of a broadcast by Centralia’s “Magic Radio Santa.” The second part is from December 2022, when Banel presented an update to a search - described in part one - for the kids mentioned in the 1950 recording. The other voice alongside Feliks from the 2018 and 2022 audio is Dave Ross. The original 1950 recording came from John Jenkins at SPARK Museum in Bellingham, Washington.

CASCADE OF HISTORY is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time via SPACE 101.1 FM in Seattle and gallantly streams everywhere via www.space101fm.org. The radio station broadcasts from studios at historic Magnuson Park – located in the former Master-at-Arms’ quarters in the old Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

Subscribe to the CASCADE OF HISTORY podcast via most podcast platforms and never miss regular weekly episodes of Sunday night broadcasts as well as frequent bonus episodes.

BONUS EPISODE: Lost & Found Sound of the "Magic Radio Santa" of Centralia, Washington

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Todd Scott, Preservation Architect and Planner with King County.

In a BONUS EPISODE conversation earlier this year with Todd Scott (about the Masonic Home in Des Moines, Washington) he spoke briefly about rising property values creating additional historic preservation challenges in a few specific communities in King County – and plans were made to circle back and go a little deeper on the topic. One particular area where Todd Scott has noticed this trend is on the east side of Lake Washington in a few specific neighborhoods in the City of Kirkland.

More information about the King County Historic Preservation Program:
https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/dnrp/buildings-property/historic-preservation-program

CASCADE OF HISTORY is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time via SPACE 101.1 FM in Seattle and gallantly streams everywhere via www.space101fm.org. The radio station broadcasts from studios at historic Magnuson Park – located in the former Master-at-Arms’ quarters in the old Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

Subscribe to the CASCADE OF HISTORY podcast via most podcast platforms and never miss regular weekly episodes of Sunday night broadcasts as well as frequent bonus episodes.

BONUS EPISODE: Challenges of Residential Historic Preservation When Property Values Rise

CASCADE OF HISTORY is the only LIVE radio show presenting news and stories about people doing cool things with and for history in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia. We talk about people, artifacts, books, maps, photos, places, landmarks, public lands, state and national parks, trails, highways, and the historic events that can bring us all together.

The show is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time on SPACE 101.1 FM (and streaming via http://www.space101fm.org ) from studios located on the shores of Lake Washington in historic Magnuson Park in Seattle, former site of Sand Point Naval Air Station (though sometimes CASCADE OF HISTORY originates from remote locations around the region). The podcast feed consists of the weekly broadcast, plus frequent bonus episodes with timely and topical interviews, vintage local audio or other Pacific Northwest history-related content - and sometimes even BREAKING NEWS.

Producer and host Feliks Banel is an Emmy-winning and Edward R. Murrow Award-winning broadcaster, and former deputy director of Seattle's Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI).

Send your questions, comments, guest suggestions, news tips and other correspondence to cascadeofhistory@gmail.com.

BONUS EPISODE: Challenges of Residential Historic Preservation When Property Values Rise

Cascade of History

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