Several members of the Bellingham Storytellers Guild will discuss the group’s Voices of the Ancestors Oral History Project at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 12, at Whatcom Museum.

The free presentation is part of the monthly meeting of the Whatcom County Historical Society. The public is welcome.

Members of the guild have recorded interviews with Whatcom County elders, and create oral history narratives for public presentation.

Lynden Pioneer Museum is looking for volunteer history writers and editors to create articles on Whatcom County history for the museum’s new “wiki” Web site.

If you are interested, contact museum curator Troy Luginbill at 354-3675 or troy@lyndenpioneermuseum.org.

If you missed last month’s Whatcom Museum showing of Todd Warger’s fine documentary about Bellingham Shipyards, you have two more chances to see the movie.

“Wooden Ships & Fiberglass Boats: A. W. Talbot and the Bellingham Shipyards 1941–1963″ will be shown at 11:30 a.m. this weekend, Feb. 28 and March 1, at The Pickford Cinema, 1416 Cornwall Ave.

The showing at the museum was standing-room-only, a credit to Warger’s quality movie and to the shipyard’s emotional and historical hold on the community.

As the Pickord describes the movie, it “tells the story of Seattle entrepreneur Archibald W. Talbot, a man with no knowledge of boats, or ship construction, yet who built the largest privately owned shipyard in the nation. He was a man of great integrity, much beloved by his employees, invocating the best principals of American ideals during his era.”

For my story about the movie, click here.

If you love local history, especially maritime history, be sure to see the show. Warger and special guests are expected to attend.

Local history writers Wes Gannaway and Kent Holsather will be at Village Books in Fairhaven at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, to discuss their newest book, “Bellingham Then & Now.”

Like their earlier book, “Whatcom Then & Now,” their new book is a fascinating collection of local history articles heavily illustrated with “then and now” photos.

Wes and Kent are funny, likable guys who should present an entertaining program.

To read my article about them and their new book, look here.

A Whatcom County woman researching the life and times of Phoebe Judson, known as the “mother of Lynden,” will discuss her work at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, at Whatcom Museum.

Mary Michaelson, an assistant at Lynden Pioneer Museum, has written about Judson and is leading an effort to have a statue of Judson and her husband, Holden, erected in Lynden.

Michaelson’s talk will be during the monthly meeting of the Whatcom County Historical Society. Admission is free and the public is welcome.

Today is the anniversary of the death of Seattle clam king Ivar Haglund.

I’m old enough to remember seeing Ivar on TV shows and TV ads, and eating at his Ivar’s Acres of of Clams restaurant near the Seattle ferry terminal, back when it was the only Ivar’s around.

I grew up in Bremerton, and a ferry trip to Seattle wasn’t fully satisfying unless we had time to grab some fish ‘n’ chips or clams ‘n’ chips at Ivar’s.

Part of the fun was standing in the lines at the outside order counter, calling out your meal, and hearing the busy clerks recite your order in code to the cooks in the rear.

I knew Ivar was a popular figure in the Seattle area, but I didn’t know how popular, or interesting, a character he was until I read an account of his life at HistoryLink.org, the online encyclopedia of Washington history.

Haglund sang folk music, opened Seattle’s first aquarium and won reluctant election to the Seattle Port Commission.

He was a funny, smart and clever publicity hound, a real clam ham.

Read all about him by clicking here.

HistoryLink.org has just posted a detailed and fascinating article about President Obama’s mother’s connections to the Puget Sound area.

She lived in Seattle and on Mercer Island with her parents, graduating from Mercer Island High School in 1960.

Indeed, her ties to King County seem stronger than her ties to Kansas, which were so much a part of Obama’s campaign speeches.

True, she was born in Kansas, but her formative teen years were right here in our own back yard.

President Obama even lived in Seattle a short time while an infant.

For the rest of the story, click here.

On Jan. 17 in 1933, about 1,000 people marched on the state Legislature demanding aid for hungry and unemployed people.

That was early in the Great Depression.

Those days, and the government’s response, are different from today, yet I wonder if the current recession will last long and hard enough that people again gather in large numbers to demand help from their governments.

For a short story on the 1933 rally, see click here, courtesy of HistoryLink.org.

If you look at my blog from time to time, you’ve noticed that I often link to local and state history articles posted at HistoryLink.org.

It’s a free, online encyclopedia of Washington history, and it’s a wonderful site.

If you haven’t done so already, check it out by clicking here.

If you like it, and I suspect that you will, register for their free online notice service.

HistoryLink.org debuted with demonstration content on May 1, 1998, and its original Seattle-King County database became functional Jan. 15, 1999.

The site proved so successful that in 2003 HistoryLink expanded its coverage statewide, making it the nation’s first original online encyclopedia of state history.

HistoryLink has prepared and posted more than 5,100 original database essays and Web features detailing the history of Washington state, and new essays are added almost daily.

All HistoryLink essays list detailed sources, and are often updated with new information.

HistoryLink has registered more than 200 million “hits” since its launch, with about a third of the traffic generated by teachers and students.

May it see many more decades of success.

It’s snowing steadily today, Dec. 17, 2008.

On this date in 1871, it started snowing in Washington Territory, and snowed off and on for three weeks.

For a short description of that hefty dose of winter weather, click here, courtesy of HistoryLink.org, the online encyclopedia of Washington history.

The Whatcom County Historical Society’s major project to restore the old Territorial Courthouse in Old Town needs your help.

At the society’s December meeting on Thursday, project leader Rick Tremaine said the society needs $15,000 more to finish restoration of the building’s exterior.

The society already has raised more than $100,000 for the work, not counting in-kind support.

Once the exterior work is done, work can then proceed restoring the interior.

Built in 1858 as a commercial structure, it’s the oldest brick building in Washington state and possibly the oldest functional brick building north of San Francisco.

For information on how you can support its restoration, contact Rick Tremaine at 734-7381 or rjtremaine@q.com.

For details about the society, and the project, click here.

Henry Roeder and Russell V. Peabody started their Whatcom Mill at Whatcom Creek in December 1852, one of the early white settlements that, in time, grew and merged into the city of Bellingham.

As is so often the case, timing was everything for the entrepreneurs.

They hoped to benefit from high lumber prices after San Francisco was devastated by fire, but early problems put them behind schedule and they missed the boom times.

For a synopsis, click here for a story at HistoryLink.org, the online encyclodepia of Washington state history.

Before the rise of Bellis Fair mall, the block of Cornwall Avenue between Holly and Magnolia streets was a golden block of downtown retail stores.

Go back further in time and the area was home to Bellingham’s finest entertainment venue, the Beck Theater, which opened its doors Dec. 13, 1902.

For a glimpse of that golden era, click here for a story courtesy of HistoryLink.org, the online encyclopedia of Washington state history.

The Whatcom County Historical Society will hold its annual “history holiday” meeting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11, in the Rotunda Room at Whatcom Museum.

It’s free and open to the public.

Members and other history buffs share information about their projects and research, enjoy holiday refreshments, and buy copies of society publications.

Scheduled speakers include Marilyn Boysen on fashions of the 1800s, Lynne Masland on the history of Whatcom women and the Bellingham YWCA, and Wes Gannaway on his new “then and now” book with Kent Holsather.

It’s a fun way to hear about the depth and variety of historical interests in our area.

There’s a lot of sports angst in the Northwest these days because the Seattle Mariners had a bad season, the UW and WSU football teams are terrible, and the Sonics were bad before they left Seattle and remain bad in Oklahoma City.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks have fallen from their upper perch in the NFL.

As bad as it can get?

Nope, at least not when compared to the game the Seahawks played Nov. 4, 1979, against the Los Angeles Rams (remember when LA had an NFL team?).

The Seahawks set the standard for futility by netting minus yards on offense – not just for one or a few quarters, but for the entire game.

Click here for the ugly details, courtesy of HistoryLink.org, the online encyclopedia of Washington state history.