The wet side of the mountains, or, Prowling western Washington

by William Speidel

Great book for visitors and even better for residents of Western Washington. Nettle Creek Publishing Company, Seattle, WA, 1974 First Edition. 6.25" x 9.25" tall; ix, 450pp. Indexed.

Genres: History

452 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Bill Speidel, founder of the Underground Tour, is remembered as one of the last of a few genuine old-time Seattle characters.
Although Speidel started the world-famous Underground Tour, spearheaded the campaign to preserve Pioneer Square, wrote a best-selling Seattle history (“Sons of the Profits”), and rediscovered one of Seattle’s early heroes (Doc Maynard), he is remembered most for his wit—an irreverent sense of humor—and an unflagging enthusiasm for promoting Seattle’s lusty past.
Speidel graduated from the University of Washington in 1936, during the throws of the depression, with a degree in literature. Out of school, he landed a job as a reporter for The Seattle Times and also wrote a column for the defunct Seattle Star.
In 1946, he quit newspapering and opened his own public relations business, eventually located in Pioneer Square, the city’s birthplace.
Speidel became an ardent preservationist as the bandwagon gained traction in the 1950s and 1960s. He is one of a group of visionaries who saved Pioneer Square by mounting a citizen campaign to convince the city to designate downtown’s oldest neighborhood an historic district, thus sparing from the wrecking ball the largest collection of Victorian-Romanesque buildings in the United States. The Underground Tour, which Speidel founded in 1965, is a by-product of that campaign.

In 1988, Speidel succumbed to a stroke and died at 76. “He was a man of courtliness, grace and good manners,” recalled Emmett Watson, a onetime colleague and eminent columnist. Writing about Speidel in The Seattle Times, Watson (himself now deceased) said, “He was many things in this city: preservationist, promoter, writer, historian, entrepreneur, press agent, political operator, adman, lecturer and publisher.

“Few if any of the Seattle Pioneers, the movers and shakers that he wrote about in a half-dozen historical books, gave as much to this city as the author.”

Reviews

[The other John]

First published in 1974 as a travel guide (of sorts) to Western Washington, this used tome has now become a double history book. The first history is the background information and historical anecdotes that Mr. Speidel originally penned for each region and community. The second is the description of the places and recommendations of things to see and do that were current in the 1970s. If I had all the time in the world, I'd be tempted to hop in the car and find out how much of that second history remains after almost fifty years. Still, it was fun to read a witty celebration of this region of the world.

[Toesnorth's mom]

excellent!