Freebie Travel Guide to Western Washington: Historical, Cultural and Sometimes Notorious on the Cheap

By Marques Vickers

The Freebie Tour Guide to Western Washington escorts you to renown but sometimes obscure attractions that are available to savor without the burden of admission fees (unless indicated otherwise). Featured are attractions known to insiders with unconventional tastes that provide legitimate insight into what distinguishes Western Washington. Many of the accompanying stories once made international headline news. Several of the profiles were once known exclusively only to locals.

This guide not only photographs each location, but also provides specific background commentary, addresses and locations where each profile may be accessed. There is no equivalent touring guide that exposes both the aesthetic and gritty in such explicit fashion.

If you are bored by limp and uninspiring travel advice, this guide is ideal for the restless searcher looking for something unique and different. Paranormal activity sometimes accompanies at no extra charge. The Freebie Travel Guide to Western Washington includes:

Scenic, Adventure and Entertainment Sites
Twilight Tree Graveyard of Rialto Beach, Abandoned Cascade Railroad Tunnels, Snoqualmie Falls, Camp Hayden, Ford Ward, Fort Worden, Gas Works Park, Lake Crescent, Sequim, Pike Place Market, Poulsbo, Life and Death Cycle Sites of Salmon, Skagit Valley Tulip Festival and Tumwater Falls, Blakely Harbor Park, Shi Shi Beach and Cape Flattery

Historical Oddities
Watergate Figure John Ehrlichman’s Law Practice, Alfred’s Café Mysterious Sightings, Lester Brothel Plane Crash, The Monastery Disco, Old Town Café, People’s Theatre, Pioneer Square’s Totem Pole, Seattle’s Unlucky Thirteenth Police Precinct, Great Seattle Fire of 1889, Edith Macefield Holdout House, Sycamore Square Haunting and Bellingham’s Waterfront Tavern Killer Clientele

Architectural Wonders and Curiosities
Rainier Square Towers, Amazon Spheres, Arctic Club Building, Cadillac Hotel, Port Townsend, Chamber Bay Monolithic Icons, Space Needle, Smith Tower, Columbia Center Tower, Dexter Horton Building, Flat Iron Building, JM Hotel and Café, LaSalle Hotel, Lou Graham Block, Matilda Winehouse Building, Merchant Café, Seattle Central Library, Seattle Tower, Skagit Hotel, Wayside Chapel and Yesler Hotel

Murder and Crime
Serial Killer Ted Bundy’s Home and Crime Sites, Green River Killer, Floating Cadaver Fleet of Billy Gohl, Brides of Christ Cult Executions, Attorney Fred Cohen Execution. Pang Frozen Food Fire, Deadly Curse of Jake Bird, HI-Joy Bowling Alley Murder, Kenneth Bianchi, Maurice Clemmons Police Coffeehouse Execution, Incestuous Murder of Sylvia Gaines and Wah Mee Gambling Club Massacre

Deceased Celebrity Memorials
Bruce and Brandon Lee Gravesite, Jimi Hendrix Memorial, Kurt Cobain’s Suicide House and Layne Staley’s Overdose Apartment

Storied Bridges
Amgen Helix, Aurora, Deception Pass, East 21st Street, Fremont, Montlake, Rainbow, Tacoma Narrows, Vancouver-Portland, West Seattle and Wishkah River Bridges

Public Artwork
Fremont Troll, Sacred Stone Labyrinth, Tacoma Bridge of Glass, Vessel Installation, Henry Moore’s Vertebrae Sculpture, Olympic Sculpture Park, Rain Forest Gates, Vladimir Lenin’s Statue, Mirall Sculpture, Hat n Boots Statuary, Raymond Iron Cut-Outs and Japanese American Exclusion Memorial

Cuisine Preparation
Din Tai Fung’s Potstickers and Dumplings Assembly Room and Espresso Vivace Coffee Art

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marques Vickers
• Release date: Jun 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005439408

Marques Vickers

Visual Artist, Writer and Photographer Marques Vickers is a California native presently living in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, Washington regions.He was born in 1957 and raised in Vallejo, California. He is a 1979 Business Administration graduate from Azusa Pacific University in the Los Angeles area. Following graduation, he became the Public Relations and ultimately Executive Director of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce between 1979-84. He subsequently became the Vice President of Sales for AsTRA Tours and Travel in Westwood between 1984-86.Following a one-year residence in Dijon, France where he studied at the University of Bourgogne, he began Marquis Enterprises in 1987. His company operations have included sports apparel exporting, travel and tour operations, wine brokering, publishing, rare book and collectibles reselling. He has established numerous e-commerce, barter exchange and art websites including MarquesV.com, ArtsInAmerica.com, InsiderSeriesBooks.com, DiscountVintages.com and WineScalper.com.Between 2005-2009, he relocated to the Languedoc region of southern France. He concentrated on his painting and sculptural work while restoring two 19th century stone village residences. His figurative painting, photography and sculptural works have been sold and exhibited internationally since 1986. He re-established his Pacific Coast residence in 2009 and has focused his creative productivity on writing and photography.His published works span a diverse variety of subjects including true crime, international travel, California wines, architecture, history, Southern France, Pacific Coast attractions, fiction, auctions, fine art marketing, poetry, fiction and photojournalism.He has two daughters, Charline and Caroline who presently reside in Europe.

Book preview

FREEBIE TRAVEL GUIDE TO

WESTERN WASHINGTON

Historical, Cultural and Sometimes Notorious on the Cheap

Published by Marques Vickers at Smashwords

Copyright 2021-2023 Marques Vickers

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abandoned Cascade Railroad Tunnels (Wellington)

Alfred’s Café Building: Accommodating Working Mothers (Tacoma)

Amazon Spheres: A Walk-in Circular Terrarium (Seattle)

Amgen Helix Pedestrian Bridge (Seattle)

Arctic Club Building: Alaska Gold Rush Remnant (Seattle)

Aurora Bridge: Seattle’s Suicide Bridge (Seattle)

The Floating Cadaver Fleet of Billy Gohl (Aberdeen)

Blakely Harbor Park: Reclaimed Nature Amidst an Abandoned Sawmill

Murderous Revenge Spawned By The Brides of Christ Cult (Seattle)

Bruce and Brandon Lee Memorial Burial (Seattle)

Cadillac Hotel: Earthquake Survivor (Seattle)

Camp Hayden: The Obsolesce of Armaments (Port Angeles)

Cape Flattery: Continental America’s Furthest Northwest Extremity

Chambers Bay: Monolithic Icons (University Place)

Columbia Center Tower: Seattle’s Tallest Skyscraper (Seattle)

Deception Pass Bridge: Crossing An Understated Bay (Whidbey Island)

Dexter Horton Building: General Motors Building West Coast (Seattle)

Din Tai Fung: Potsticker and Dumpling Assembly Room (Bellevue)

East Twenty-First Street Bridge: Towers and Cables (Tacoma)

Edith Macefield House: Development Holdout (Seattle)

The Birthplace of Foam Art At Espresso Vivace (Seattle)

Flat Iron Building: Seattle’s Western Union (Seattle)

Fort Ward Park: Weekend Teenager Getaway (Bainbridge Island)

Fort Worden: History, Sands and the Arts (Port Townsend)

The Perfectly Executed Murder of An Attorney With Enemies (Bremerton)

Fremont Bridge: Crossover Between Queen Anne and the Fremont District (Seattle)

Fremont Troll: Protecting of Haunting the Aurora Bridge (Seattle)

Gary Ridgway: The Green River Executioner (Kent)

Gas Works Park: Industrial Ruin to Recreational Gem (Seattle)

Hat n Boots Statuary: Gas Station Remnants (Seattle)

A Surprising Suspect Emerges Amidst the Embers of A Cold Case Murder (Port Orchard)

The Fatal Curse of Serial Killer Jake Bird (Tacoma)

Japanese American Exclusion Memorial: Never Forget (Bainbridge Island)

Jimi Hendrix Memorial: His Final Day (Renton)

JM Hotel and Cafe: Brothel to Band Venue (Seattle)

John Ehrlichman: One of the President’s Men Goes Morally Awry (Seattle)

Kenneth Bianchi: An Unrepentant Killer (Fairhaven)

Kurt Cobain: The Prelude and the Final Act (Seattle)

Sacred Stone Labyrinth and Prayer Wheel (Bainbridge Island)

Lake Crescent: Brilliant Blue and Deep Secrets Below (Piedmont)

LaSalle Hotel: Wartime Fraternizing Prohibition by the US Navy (Seattle)

Sequim Lavender Festival: Violet in Bloom (Sequim)

Layne Staley: The Wasting Away of a Rock Frontman (Seattle)

Lenin Sculpture in Seattle’s Fremont District (Seattle)

Lester Brothels: World’s Largest Brothel Felled by an Errant Flight Path (Seattle)

Lou Graham Block Building: Seattle’s First Lady (Seattle)

Matilda Winehill Building: Brothel to Bread of Life (Seattle)

Maurice Clemmons: A Lifetime of Debauchery Ends in Unnecessary Sacrifice For Four Policemen (Lakewood)

Merchant’s Cafe: Commerce of Multiple Varieties (Seattle)

Mirall Sculpture: Meeting of the Minds (Seattle)

The Monastery: The Party Relocates (Seattle)

Montlake Bridge: Football Crossover (Seattle)

A Café Building For All Seasons and Spirits (Bellingham)

Olympic Sculpture Park: Seattle Outdoor Museum (Seattle)

Pang Frozen Food Fire (Seattle)

People’s Theatre: The Legacy of Seattle’s Private (Seattle)

Pike Place Market: Salmon Tossing and Starbucks (Seattle)

Pioneer Square’s Totem Pole and The Ignored Shame Behind its Acquisition (Seattle)

Port Townsend: Victorian Architecture Frozen In Contemporary Elegance (Port Townsend)

Poulsbo: Kitsch Norway Along Liberty Bay (Poulsbo)

The Lonely Citadel of Seattle’s Unlucky Thirteenth Precinct (Seattle)

Rainbow Bridge: Soaring Above the Swinomish Channel (La Conner)

Rain Forest Gates: Simplistic Beauty Amidst The Chaos (Seattle)

The Swirling Embrace of the Rainier Square Towers (Seattle)

Raymond, Washington: Iron Sculptural Cut-Outs (Raymond)

The Twilight Tree Graveyard of Rialto Beach (Rialto Beach)

Life and Death Cycles of Salmon (Issaquah and Sultan)

The Infamous Seattle Fire of 1889 and Follow-Up City Redesign (Seattle)

Seattle Central Library: Contemporary Steel Netting (Seattle)

Seattle Tower: Art Deco Elegance (Seattle)

Sequim: Lavender and Coastal Opulence

Shi Shi Beach and The Point of Arches: The Sands That Time Forgot

Skagit Hotel: A Dumbwaiter Passing Down Secrets (Seattle)

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival: April in Bloom (Mount Vernon)

Smith Tower: Towering History (Seattle)

Snoqualmie Falls: The Surging Force of Raging Waters (Snoqualmie)

Seattle Space Needle: Spaceship or Abstract Design? (Seattle)

The Storied Haunting of Fairhaven (Fairhaven)

Sylvia Gaines: The Final Vestiges of Scandal Has Been Removed (Seattle)

Tacoma Bridge of Glass: Chihuly Walkway (Tacoma)

Tacoma Narrows Bridge: Galloping Gertie (Tacoma)

Ted Bundy: The Man Who Lived To Kill Women (Tacoma, Burien, Taylor Mountain and Seattle)

Tumwater Falls: Swirling Waters Inspiring Olympic Beer (Tumwater)

Vertebrae Sculpture by Artist Henry Moore (Seattle)

Vancouver-Portland Bridge: Crossing States (Vancouver)

Vessel Sculpture: Contemporary Dreamcatcher (Seattle)

Wah Mee Gambling Club Massacre (Seattle)

Waterfront Tavern: A Clientele To Die From (Bellingham)

Wayside Chapel: Tiny Tiny Worship (Sultan)

West Seattle Bridge: A Collision With An Unanticipated Destiny (West Seattle)

Wishkah River and Heron Street Bridge (Aberdeen)

Yesler Hotel: The Final Remaining Gold Rush Flophouse (Seattle)

My appreciation to the following media outlets providing critical research details:

From the Internet archives of The Seattle Times, The Renton Reporter, The News Tribune, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Stranger, Murderpedia.org, Wikipedia.org, FindACase.com, StalkingSeattle.Blogspot.com, HistoryLink.org, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wikiwand.com, University of Washington Library, TacomaPublicLibrary.org, Forejustice.org, WashingtonHistoryOnline.org, Everett Public Library, Newstalkit.com, TheNorthwest.com, NWSource.com, CrimeWiseUSA.com, TheEscapist.com, Highbeam.com, BlinkOnCrime.com, Sandpoint.com, Vietnamwar.OurWarHeroes.org, FBI.gov, MyNorthwest.com, SeattleMet.com, FreeRepublic.com, CapitolHill.com, HeraldNet.com, KPLU.org, Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation, TheInvisibleJuror.com, Highbeam.com, StalkingVictims.com, SeattlePoliceGuild.org, Heavy.com, Modernnotion.com, Topix.com, StarvationHeights.com, CrimeWiseUSA.com, CrimeMuseum.org, Facebook.com, PureIntimacy.com, Nwestnomad.com, Crosscut.com, City of Seattle, CentralSaloon.com, San Francisco Chronicle,  SandraWagnerWright.com, Seattle Magazine, Washington Inmate Search, Ross Anderson’s 2008 article in Seattle Metropolitan Magazine, Casetext.com,  HistoryLink.org, Puget Sound Business Journal, KOMOnews.com, Heraldnet.com, Rain Forest Gates artist statement,  Seattle in Progress and Seattle historian Bill Speidel’s writings.

Photography shot between 2015-2022. Some of the locations may have altered with time and ownership changes. Many of the locations are still privately inhabited. Please don’t disturb the residents.

Abandoned Cascade Railroad Tunnels

Goats Head Trail, Skykomish

Wellington (Adjacent to Stevens Pass)

In 1910, Wellington, Washington was a minuscule mountain town that existed exclusively due to the Great Northern Railway. Constructed in 1893, the town was the operational headquarters for tunnel construction, tunnel electrification and general maintenance along the line. It was also an important coal, water and rest stop for trains on route to Everett, Seattle and Tacoma.

The infamous avalanche happened on March 1, 1910. Due to the ferocity of the storms, two trains were delayed for a week. The trains, #25 and #27, carried approximately 100 passengers bound for Seattle, had originated from the St. Paul, Minnesota depot. The pace had lurched forward until travel became impossible at the Wellington station on Thursday, February 24th. Their ominous fate seemed predestined when one of the previous dining shacks, at which they’d eaten on February 22nd, collapsed from accumulated snows and killed the cook and his helper.

The journey mirrored a literary voyage of the damned. Hillsides of snow, trees and rocks frequently slid over the tracks around Windy Point, near Scenic a few miles in advance.

The late February 1910 snowstorm was relentless and persisting.

Rotary snowplows attempted to clear tracks, but the task proved impossible for emergency crews due to diminishing coal supplies and the intensity of the storm. Equipment regularly broke and workers were losing a calculated race against time to clear the passage. The rotary plows eventually were depleted of coal and the demoralized shovelers quit working. By Saturday, February 26th, passengers remained stranded in Wellington, rationing food and completely cut off from outside communications.

There were forewarnings of disaster. The echoes of avalanches originating from surrounding mountains were audible. Passengers were restless and concerned that their train was at risk in the exposed Wellington rail yard. They demanded their train be moved back into a protective tunnel.

Disregarding their request, the Train Superintendent James O’Neil assured them of their safety. He refused to authorize the move.

He had confidence that his work crews could break through with a sustained effort and knew of no precedence for landslides in the flatlands of Wellington. He resisted the decision to relocate the trains into the protective confines of the tunnel due to his fear of smoke asphyxiation of the passengers.

Still, O’Neill was not oblivious to the risk. During his two and a half year tenure, he would relocate his private coach during winter into the Stevens Pass region and reside there. He personally supervised operations during storms and snow slides and claimed that before February 23, 1910, he had put more than 4000 trains through the mountain route with none being delayed in excess of 24 hours.

On Monday, February 28th, seven disgruntled male passengers followed a treacherous path down an avalanche chute to Scenic, One returned back to Wellington due to the severity of the conditions. Other passengers had planned to follow their example the next day.

The storm shifted. Rain, lightning and thunder replaced snowdrifts.

A direct lightning hit in the early morning of Tuesday, March 1st, triggered an avalanche. Abruptly colossal layers of snow slid down the mountainside. There was no warning for Trains #25 and #27. The force was devastating and excessive.

The two trains were hurled into a gulch and the frozen waters of the Tye River far below. The train depot, fifteen train cars, coaches, a half dozen locomotives, engines and sheds were buried and tossed indiscriminately.

Wellington residents and surviving train personnel immediately began digging for survivors.

One railroad employee hiked first to Windy Point and then Scenic to report the disaster. A relief train of fifty doctors, nurses, sheriffs and coroners departed from Everett arriving at Scenic. The emergency band struggled uphill through deep snows to arrive at the morgue that was once Wellington.

Amidst the continuance of the storm, victims were lifted from the gulch and wreckage. Seven days of grueling search yielded 95 cadavers. The railroad tracks were finally cleared for passage on March 12th. The dead were transported to Everett. The trains resumed their regular service. The spring snowmelt revealed a final body bringing the confirmed death total to 96.

The notoriety of the disaster prompted the town of Wellington to be renamed Tye. The change mattered little. The annual danger posed by the passage route would ultimately make the continuation of the town unfeasible. Nature was victorious.

Several of the protective weather tunnels remain abandoned on the slopes above the former Wellington site. The train tracks were relocated to the opposite side ensuring a similar disaster would never re-occur. The tunnels can be accessed but remain dangerous, particularly during spring snowmelt season.

Wellington remains listed on Google Maps but nothing remains of the former settlement.

Alfred’s Café Building: Formerly Accommodating Working Mothers

Alfred’s Café:

402 Puyallup Avenue, Tacoma

Alfred’s Café is a renowned no frills Tacoma dining establishment with a three-storied past as a renowned Victorian era hotel and brothel. A massive grand staircase once connected the three levels, but access to the ground level has since been removed. The two upper floors are currently used for miscellaneous storage and are inaccessible to the public.

Brothels historically are dark and violent destinations with beatings and murders of the working girls