Knute Berger
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Articles by Knute Berger
Mossback's Northwest: Pirates of the Salish Sea
Mossback's Northwest In the late 19th and early 20th century the Salish Sea from Victoria BC to Olympia was filled with elusive pirates on a decades-long crime spree. Knute Berger aka Mossback We all know what a pirate is. We’ve seen swashbuckling movies, watched Peter Pan, read Treasure Island, and perhaps ventured on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland.
Mossback's Northwest: Historic glacier photos hint at the future
Once upon a time mountain glaciers were associated with the ultimate wilderness experience: Massive ice sheets that moved slowly– grinding down mountainsides, unleashing torrents of wild water to the lowlands, calving into fjords. They were--and are--shapers of landscapes, scenic too. Today, we tend to see them as frozen yardsticks of climate change and planetary health.
Mossback's Northwest: The princess of 19th-century Seattle
Long before the Space Needle, Seattle had a human symbol that graced souvenir postcards, plates, stained-glass windows and silver teaspoons. It was someone who connected the changing city with its roots. She had a face lined with signs of a hard and determined life — but also dignity. It was a face many embraced. Her name was Kikisoblu. Her father was Chief Seattle. Meet the woman who was dubbed: Princess Angeline.
Mossback's Northwest: Taste-testing iconic Seattle foods past & present
In our series-within-a-series Upon Further Review, we update topics from previous episodes of Mossback’s Northwest. One of the most popular Mossback subjects is food — we’ve done episodes about oysters, clams, crab Louie, chicken teriyaki, Dutch babies and Frangos, all foods with strong ties to Seattle. Clam broth was fed to a baby in the Denny Party when they founded Seattle in the 1850s. Dutch babies were a Gold Rush favorite. Chicken teriyaki became a signature fast food in the ’70s.
Mossback's Northwest: Seattle's Skid Road led to a literary city
Today, Seattle is a UNESCO “City of Literature,” known for its authors, bookstores and highly educated population. The road to that accomplishment began in the muck and mire of the frontier city, paved by the folks who built a fortune from the original Skid Road. Just how did that happen? Henry Yesler and his wife Sarah were enormously influential pioneers, key players in shaping frontier Seattle.
Mossback’s Northwest: The case of the World War II doll spy
A place of seeming calm in the middle of a global storm was an upscale establishment on New York’s Madison Avenue. Velvalee Dickinson’s shop specialized in dolls for collectors and sold dolls from all over the world to well-to-do customers all over the country. But unknown to those doll collectors, or to passersby, was that something sinister was going on behind the shop window — something that put the country — and some customers — at risk.
Mossback’s Northwest: The US had a fishy reason for buying Alaska
We take for granted that Seattle is homeport to a large Alaska fishing fleet and a related multimillion-dollar fish and maritime industry. But that industry wouldn’t have happened if not for the purchase of Alaska from Russia — and that transaction might not have occurred without a big nudge from Washington’s pioneers. It is little remembered today, but Seward’s Folly, as the Alaska annexation was called, happened when it did because of a prod from the legislature in Olympia.
Mossback’s Northwest: Seattle’s 1913 Potlatch riot
Seattle has long been known for political upheaval and protest: the Capitol Hill occupation in 2020; the World Trade Organization protests of 1999; anti-Vietnam demonstrations in the 1960s; the Longshoremen’s strike of 1934; the bashing of May Day marchers in 1930; the Seattle General Strike of 1919; the anti-Chinese riot of 1886.
Mossback’s Northwest: The mystery of Washington's Mima Mounds
The Pacific Northwest has its enigmas: Bigfoot, D.B. Cooper, a long history of UFO sightings. But sometimes mysteries are literally underfoot. Just south of Puget Sound is a vast pimpled prairie featuring over 600 acres of earth-sculpted goosebumps. They have been the subject of study, speculation and scientific theorizing for nearly 200 years. Yet we still don’t know what — or who — made them. How hard can it be to figure out a lump of dirt? We’re here to ponder what we call the Mima mounds.
Podcast | The beginning and end of the Columbia River
But its origins start humbly: in a gentle lake in the mountains of British Columbia. Subscribe to Mossback on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube or Podbean. Cascade PBS’s resident historian Knute Berger journeyed to these headwaters for a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there’s far more left to explore. In this episode of Mossback, Berger joins co-host Stephen Hegg to share what it was like to make the trek to that peaceful lake in Canada where it all begins.
Podcast | The businessman who traveled the world on Tacoma’s dime
Train is perhaps best known for the alleged relationship between his world travels and the Jules Verne bestseller Around the World in 80 Days, and less well-known for his attempts to beat subsequent travel records through a partnership with a newspaper in Tacoma. Subscribe to Mossback on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube or Podbean.
Ralph Munro’s legacy passed Washington history to future generations
I had a chance to work closely with both men. They were rational, reality-based civil servants who cared deeply. They were also models of stewardship. Ralph, Washington's Secretary of State from 1981 to 2001, can be credited with many things: helping Southeast Asian refugees resettle in Washington, supporting environmental laws, being a moderate “Dan Evans” style Republican who was bipartisan and created a template for the running of fair elections in this state.
Podcast | Shipwrecks & disappointment at the Columbia River’s mouth
That’s earned it the menacing nickname “Graveyard of the Pacific,” although that’s not the only gloomy moniker in the region. Subscribe to Mossback on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or Podbean. Cascade PBS’s resident historian Knute Berger explored some of this history in a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there are more stories left to tell.
Podcast | True crime & strange corpses from the Pacific Northwest
But some of the weirdest things can happen to corpses after death. Did you know that dead bodies can turn into soap? Subscribe to Mossback on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or Podbean. Cascade PBS’s resident historian Knute Berger explored a few lesser-known stories of regional murder and mystery in a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there is much more left to share.
Becoming Bill Gates: A new memoir retraces the road to Microsoft
In Source Code: My Beginnings, the first book in a trilogy, the tech giant co-founder reflects on his Seattle upbringing and what — and who — made him. Bill Gates (foreground) and Paul Allen work with the school’s teletype machine at Lakeside School in Seattle in 1970. (Photo courtesy of Bruce R. Burgess) On the edge of 70, Bill Gates has written his first memoir, Source Code: My Beginnings.
Podcast | How historic racism limits access to the PNW wilderness
But after the video aired, a viewer reached out with some more information: Catherine Montgomery, a “progressive” of her time, expressed extremely racist views. Subscribe to Mossback on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or Podbean. This, unfortunately, isn’t a new story. Many American heroes, including in the context of wilderness access and preservation, perpetuated racism and exclusion.
Podcast | A people’s history of the Columbia River
Long a crucial source of sustenance, culture and trade, the Pacific Northwest’s largest river has continued to be a vital part of human civilization, whether through its salmon or its many hydroelectric dams. Subscribe to Mossback on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or Podbean. Cascade PBS’s resident historian Knute Berger dug into this history in a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there is much more left to discuss.
Podcast | How automobiles first ventured into the Northwest wilds
Within a couple of decades, though, cars were everywhere, and Pacific Northwesterners were using their cars for all kinds of intrepid adventures, from long-haul road trips to mountainside camping. Subscribe to Mossback on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or Podbean. Cascade PBS’s resident historian Knute Berger took a look at early car culture in our region in a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there’s much more left to explore.
Podcast | The epic forces that shaped the Columbia River
Ice, fire and colossal floods: Knute Berger digs into the river’s tumultuous geologic history with lessons from Nick on the Rocks’ Nick Zentner. , / Knute Berger and Nick Zentner walk near the Columbia River in Eastern Washington. (Alley Rutzel for Cascade PBS) The Columbia River has been carved up by more than a dozen dams over the past century. But it’s the colossal floods and lava flows from millions of years ago that truly set it on its winding path.
A history of vaccine skepticism, from 1920s Seattle to RFK Jr.
Anti-vaccination attitudes flaring in Seattle is just one example that followed the worst of the flu pandemic. During a smallpox outbreak on the West Coast, many parents refused to have their school-age children vaxxed. Smallpox reached Seattle schools in 1920 when 900 children came down with the disease despite vaccine requirements and quarantine for the unvaccinated. The city’s health officer, Dr. Hiram Read, estimated 95% of those kids who caught the disease were unvaccinated.
Mossback's Northwest: The Columbia River's elusive origins
The Sinixt [pronounced sin-eye-ext] people’s traditional lands extend from Kettle Falls and the Colville Reservation in the U.S. to the Columbia’s hairpin turn at Mica in the north. Sinixt storyteller Marilyn James tells of the river’s origins: Coyote once met and fell in love with Rain. Rain fell for Coyote and ripped out her heart for him, and where her heart landed became the headwaters of the Columbia and the blood that flowed from it was the river. The river is indeed the region’s lifeblood.
Mossback's Northwest: The 1800s influencer obsessed with Tacoma
George Francis Train was an American success story. He made a fortune in shipping in the days of the clipper ships, but when steam came along, true to his surname, he shifted to railroads. He was a major supporter of the Union Pacific and helped secure new methods of building and financing new lines. The Union Pacific route made Omaha a major city, and Train made even more money through real estate investments there. He also traveled the world extensively, first on business, then to prove a point.
Mossback’s Northwest: The Columbia’s graveyard
Explorers looked for a great River of the West that could be a shortcut across the continent. They never found it. Perhaps that fueled a sense of frustration. In 1775 a Spanish explorer, Bruno Heceta, thought he saw the mouth of the Columbia, or maybe it was only a bay. So did a British trader named John Meares, who named a cape for his disappointment in not finding the river. Captain James Cook, perhaps the greatest explorer of his age, sailed right passed it.
Mossback's Northwest: 'The Graveyard of the Pacific'
Explorers looked for a great River of the West that could be a shortcut across the continent. They never found it. Perhaps that fueled a sense of frustration. In 1775 a Spanish explorer, Bruno Heceta, thought he saw the mouth of the Columbia, or maybe it was only a bay. So did a British trader named John Meares, who named a cape for his disappointment in not finding the river. Captain James Cook, perhaps the greatest explorer of his age, sailed right passed it.
Mossback's Northwest: Dead people tell no tales. Or do they?
The Case of the Petrified Madame Our first strange case involves one of Seattle’s first real characters, Mary Ann Conklin, better known to early settlers and travelers as Mother or Madame Damnable. Conklin was said to have washed up on Seattle’s shores in the 1850s. She had married a sea captain who abandoned her in Port Townsend. In Seattle she took over running the city’s first hotel, the Felker House, a two-story prefab affair shipped around the horn from back East.
Mossback's Northwest: How racism pervades PNW outdoors culture
“Montgomery was a pioneer educator,” Berger explains. “She helped fund a state park along with the Washington Women’s Federation, and she sparked the idea of a Pacific hiking trail running from Canada to Mexico through the Cascades and the Sierras. She was an early and avid outdoorswoman.” Right after the show aired, Berger received an email from a viewer, Ron Judd, who had written about Montgomery and college politics at Western Washington University in Bellingham.
Mossback's Northwest: Human bones illuminate Columbia River history
Let’s fast-forward to what we know. Native peoples claimed K-man as an ancestor, and they were right. In 2017 DNA testing revealed that the remains of the Ancient One were some 8,500 years old, and he had a direct ancestral connection to Indigenous people of the Columbia, specifically to the United Tribes of the Colville, who had supplied DNA samples for comparison. His human remains are thought to be among the oldest yet found in North America. He has since been buried in a secret location.
Mossback’s Northwest: The automobile’s arrival in the PNW
One of the first to test the limits was the guy who set off the Klondike gold rush, George Carmack. He famously brought in gold from Bonanza Creek in the Yukon in 1896 and filed claims before other stampeders got there. In 1900 he moved to Seattle with his fortune and invested in mines, real estate and recreation. In 1902, Carmack bought a state-of-the-art car: a Mobile Model 13 Long Distance steam touring wagon. It set him back more than $70,000 in today’s dollars.
Mossback’s Northwest: How the Columbia River got its curves
For many people, the “King” Columbia River begins and ends with the Grand Coulee Dam, the iconic 1930s project that produces cheap hydroelectric power to fuel homes, heavy industry and harnesses water to irrigate Washington’s crops. The dam is the icon of the river even to those who never visit it. It also damaged the world’s greatest salmon runs and disrupted cultures along the river that had existed there for millennia.
Remembering popular progressive WA Republican Gov. Dan Evans
Serving three terms from 1965 to 1977 and one as U.S. Senator, Evans personified the “just right” middle. The politician died at 98. Sen. Dan Evans sits and chats with journalist Knute Berger in his office in the mid-1980s. (from Knute Berger's archives) In many ways, three-term Washington governor and U.S. Senator Dan Evans, who died at age 98 this past week, was the Goldilocks politician.
Elections 2024
The Cascade PBS/Elway poll found younger voters are more optimistic about the election, though they are less likely to vote than other age groups.
50 years later, WA still feels the cultural reverberations of 1974
That spring, a few months before Nixon’s resignation, Ford had visited Olympia to speak and I went to see him with my college press credentials. I was deeply and naively disappointed that his speech was a vigorous defense of his boss. In Washington state, Attorney General Slade Gorton had been the first high GOP official to call on Nixon to resign.
Remembering Charley Royer, Seattle’s only three-term mayor
For those unfamiliar with Seattle’s politics, Royer’s staying power is extraordinary and a testament to his performance. In recent years our mayors seem to come into office with a “one-term-or-less” expiration date stamped on their foreheads. Our most recent two-term mayor was Greg Nickels, who was voted out in 2010. Royer was a well-known face in Seattle as a KING-TV commentator and journalist. He was elected to office in the late 1970s, on the heels of the Boeing recession.
Podcast | How a Seattle teacher taught a generation to love birds
Ultimately, though, Pollock was interested in more than just the birds themselves. For her, studying birds was a way to encourage both environmental preservation and civic participation. Subscribe to Mossback on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or Podbean. Cascade PBS’s resident historian Knute Berger profiled Pollock and her legacy in a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there’s more left to explore.
Mossback’s Northwest | The “Bird Woman” and an ode to ornithology
Today she would be an influencer, and one with serious credentials. Pollock was a pioneer educator in Seattle. She taught in one-room schools in the 1880s, and by the turn of the century she was appointed principal of Queen Anne grade school, the first female principal in a graded Seattle public school. Pollock was well-educated herself — in addition to her teacher’s certificate, she was a graduate of Stanford University (Phi Beta Kappa) and got her master’s from the University of Washington.
Podcast | How war created demand for NW spruce - and “lumberjills”
The American military set up what was called the “Spruce Division” and brought in soldiers to Washington forests to help manage a growing industry. Over time, as the demand for spruce continued into World War II, women began to fill tens of thousands of timber jobs traditionally held by men. Subscribe to Mossback on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or Podbean.
Mossback’s Northwest: Lumberjacks, meet the Lumberjills
You’ve heard of Rosie the Riveter, but how about Rosie the Logger? During both world wars, the Northwest brought working women to the woods. Twice in the 20th century, a Northwest wood came to the rescue in wartime. At the same time, the cutting of that wood triggered advances that changed not only how loggers worked, but also who worked in the logging business. One war brought the eight-hour workday, cut from 12 or more — and another saw a cadre of working women move into the woods.
Podcast | The Seattle native who brought serenity to skyscrapers
Yamasaki aimed to do something that few were doing at the time. He subverted the bare, minimalist and sometimes brutalist trends of mid-century modern buildings with fine details that evoked elegance and beauty. Subscribe to Mossback on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or Podbean. Cascade PBS’s resident historian Knute Berger explored Yamasaki’s career and legacy in a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there’s much more left to discuss.
Mossback's Northwest: How architect Minoru Yamasaki designed the future
Minoru Yamasaki, born in 1912, grew up in a family struggling economically in Seattle’s Japantown on Yesler Hill. He attended local schools, including the University of Washington, where he studied architecture. To put himself through and support his family he spent summers working in the misery of Alaska’s salmon canneries. His fellow students nicknamed him “Sockeye.” In Alaska he faced racism, brutal hours, and dirty working conditions.
Podcast | The protest hike that stopped an Olympic coast highway
The three-day hike, co-organized by environmental advocate Polly Dyer, was designed to protest a proposed coastal highway that would have transformed the region forever. A filmmaker tagged along with the roughly 70 participants, and thanks in part to the efforts of the Oregon Historical Society, the film is now restored, digitized and available for anyone to watch on YouTube. Subscribe to Mossback on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or Podbean.
Mossback's Northwest: Early WA eco-advocacy captured in color
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments.
Mossback's Northwest: Early WA eco-advocacy captured in color
A lost film from the '50s details a beach hike devised by a U.S. Supreme Court Justice to save a pristine stretch of the Olympic Peninsula coast. In “Upon Further Review,” Mossback’s Northwest’s series within a series, host Knute Berger and producer Stephen Hegg reflect on and update an older episode after viewer feedback.
Podcast | How Buffalo Bill shaped the West - and the Western
Although he’s now larger than life, Buffalo Bill was, in fact, a real person who hunted buffalo, scouted for the U.S. Army and developed a wildly popular traveling show of sharpshooters, cowboys and other “rough riders.” It was a beloved pageant that catapulted him into global fame. In 1908, Buffalo Bill’s show arrived in Seattle. Subscribe to Mossback on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or Podbean.
Mossback’s Northwest: Seattle loved Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show
The frontiersman’s act, a blend of the sensational and the authentic, helped construct the myth of the West in the country’s collective imagination. Back before Taylor Swift filled stadiums on multiple nights, another touring show drew huge crowds. It was pure spectacle, part circus, rodeo, melodrama and pageant. It was the Wild West Show. The mold was set by William F. Cody — the frontier Barnum known as Buffalo Bill.
Podcast | Meet the clam, the PNW’s most beloved bivalve
Cascade PBS’ resident historian Knute Berger dug up some of these stories in a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there’s more left to uncover. Subscribe to Mossback on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, Google Podcasts, or Podbean.
Mossback’s Northwest: Keep Clam and Carry On
The receding of the glaciers left behind a pleasant homeland for shellfish. Clams were accessible on sandy beaches. On Haida Gwaii, the Haida’s island homeland, people were living sustainably on game and shellfish as early as nearly 11,000 years ago, not long after the ice retreated and Raven coaxed humanity into the daylight. Indigenous people throughout the Northwest coast dug for clams, carrying special clam baskets and using digger sticks to chase them down.
Podcast | Boeing's WWII camouflage stunt that fooled the world
Fearing the consequences of a military attack on the facility, the U.S. Army hired a Hollywood set designer to help make its roof look – at least from the air – like just another suburban neighborhood. Subscribe to Mossback on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, Google Podcasts, or Podbean. Cascade PBS’ resident historian Knute Berger explored this historic feat of camouflage in a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there’s much more to the story.
Mossback’s Northwest: How Hollywood helped produce a Boeing cover-up
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments.
Mossback’s Northwest: How Hollywood helped produce a Boeing cover-up
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Seattleites expected the unexpected. The city was a potential target, and near the bullseye of that target was the Boeing Company. Since the mid-1930s, Boeing’s Plant 2 on the Duwamish River had been manufacturing B-17 “Flying Fortresses,” planes that soon became key to the Allied bombing campaign in Europe. During the war, production stepped up: Over 360 B-17s per month rolled out, some 7,000 aircraft for the war effort in all.
Podcast | Deadly avalanches that made Pacific Northwest history
Back-to-back disasters in Washington and B.C. killed more than 150 people in 1910. Knute Berger digs into the traumatic circumstances and their fallout. , / Men recovering bodies from the train wreck near Wellington, Washington. (Washington State Historical Society) In the stormy winter of 1910, an avalanche struck two stalled trains in Wellington, a railroad outpost in Washington’s Central Cascades. Three days later, another one blanketed dozens of rail workers in the Canadian Selkirks.
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