Did you know that the Boeing company made furniture? Yes, the Boeing airplane company! According to Wikipedia:

When World War I ended in 1918, a large surplus of cheap, used military planes flooded the commercial airplane market, preventing aircraft companies from selling any new airplanes, driving many out of business. Others, including Boeing, started selling other products. Boeing built dressers, counters, and furniture, along with flat-bottom boats called Sea Sleds.

When I visited with the Chelan Valley Genealogy Society last week, my hosts for the night were Jon and Chris Courtright and they have this authenticated Boeing bed, dresser, nightstand and vanity set….. and I got to sleep in this bed!

The “mystery” is that the above teeny tidbit is The Only factoid I could find about this furniture (granted, I didn’t spend too long looking). Did you know that Boeing made furniture back in the day?????

Got a real stumper for you today….. and will just have to give you the answer for nobody will know what/where this is (most likely).

See the sweet doggy face? This appears on the Hwy 25 bridge at the confluence of the Spokane River with the Columbia River…… north from Davenport (off Hwy 2)….

We so enjoy taking our little 18-foot (30 year old) boat out for a day on Lake Roosevelt (which, in case you don’t realize, is the dammed-up Columbia River behind Grand Coulee Dam). Going to and from the boat launch, we pass under this bridge……… and I wonder about the doggie.

Was it a light colored blob and somebody added the features? Was it all deliberately painted?

Looks like a labrador to me. You?

It’s summertime………… too hot for heavy-duty thinking. So here is a light mystery:

This real-true mystery was shared with me by a reader whose name I neglected to note…….. sorry! Please forgive me!!

Another Mystery
The Journal Times Feb. 10, 1921

Infants Body Found Buried In Stone Jar

The body of an infant was found last Thursday by Clarence Linville of Benge. It was contained in an earthen jar which had been sealed with sealing wax and buried in the yard near the residence.

Alcohol had been poured into the jar to fill the void so that body was in nearly a perfect state
of preservation. Its origin is a complete mystery. The body was interred in the potter’s field at Lind.

You realize that both Benge and Lind are in Adams County, Washington. Think this mystery will ever be solved? Didn’t even say if it was a baby boy or baby girl. So sad.

This isn’t really a mystery except if we think so. Ever heard of  making arrowheads out of glass?

This reads: “Knife and projectile points. In some instances, American Indian residents of the Village** used traditional techniques to modify imported objects. This piece of glass had one edge “flakes”…struck with stone or another hard object…to turn it into a sharp-edged knife. This same method is used to make stone tools, like these projectile points.”

** Fort Vancouver Historical Site

Hugs and congrats to Bettie who knew that mystery heart-rock sculpture if to be found in Vancouver, WA. Thanks for reading.

Today’s mystery will have no answer. This is She Who Watches, or Tsagaglalal. She is a pictograph carved high on a basalt bluff off Hwy 14 on the north side of the Columbia. I was lucky enough to be on a group tour 20 years ago where we hiked up to it. Now the ONLY access is by reserved tour groups. Why? Stupid-people-vandalism.

The mystery I learned then is that Lewis & Clark sailed down the Columbia, right under She Who Watches’ watchful eyes but they apparently didn’t see it for no notice appears in their journals. Interesting.

Questions today for you: (1) Have you ever hiked up to see She Who Watches? (2) Know the difference between a pictograph and a petroglyph?

Any guesses where this is? You’ve probably been there………..

I fell quite in love with this public sculpture because I collect heart-shaped-rocks……..but this was too big to lift and wouldn’t have fit into my Toyota anyway.

Why did she do it???

Within the last month, this bit was in our paper:  “Authorities say a 30-year-old woman from Everett died after she drove her Jeep Cherokee through a barrier and off a dock at the Washington State Ferries terminal at Anacortes.  A preliminary investigation found that Nicole Barney arrived at the ferry about 7:50 am, paid the ferry fare, then drove into the vehicle parking area. About 9:45 she drove off quickly and went off the end of the dock.”

Poor, poor dear soul. So sorry for her family. Why did she do it?

SUCH a sad, sad story appeared in the Spokane newspaper back on 22 March 1905:  “Unknown Man Found In River.”

“The body of a man, as yet unidentified, was found in the north channel of the Spokane River, near the Centennial Mill, about 9 o’clock yesterday morning by an employee of the mill who reported the matter to the police.

“Considerable difficulty was experienced in getting the body out of the river, as the place where it had caught against some driftwood is in the swiftest current of the river and the bottom is very treacherous.

Alexander Turnbull, the undertaker who was called by Coroner Witter to take charge of the body, hired a man to wade out into the river and bring in the body.

The man was apparently about 50 years of age and was five feet nine inches tall. The body was in a bad state of decomposition. Absolutely no means of identification could be found on the body. It was buried yesterday afternoon in Fairmount Cemetery.”

What are YOUR thoughts as you read this? Are you missing a male ancestor born about 1855 who went missing in 1905 in Spokane? What about today…… with DNA testing and dental records, don’t you suppose they could have identified the man today??  

Such a sad, sad mystery story.

Today’s “mystery” is really no mystery. It’s a question: Why don’t folks more quickly and more generously step up to the plate to help out when monetary help is needed for a cause in which they already do passionately believe???

I’m talking about the terrible fire that has destroyed the Gray’s Harbor Genealogical Society Library. They put out a call for on-site help but most of us live too far away to help that way. But how about monetarily? Here was a plea from their president:

Anyone wishing to make financial donation is encouraged to use our Go Fund Me campaign or direct to the Grays Harbor Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 916, Aberdeen, WA 98520.

Gary Parfitt, President, Grays Harbor Genealogical Society

Think about this; you can help solve this “mystery.”