March is Women’s History Month in the U.S., Germany and Australia. The commemoration is meaningful in Washington state, home to many remarkable women.
The Ferndale smelter was the next to last to open — in 1966 — and the last to shut down. Its forerunners spread out in Washington from Vancouver to Longview, Tacoma, Wenatchee and Spokane, and in Troutdale, Oregon, and Columbia Falls, Montana, as well as others. The massive plants churned out rods and ingots which would go on to be shaped into everything from soda cans to Boeing airplanes.
The pro-housing bill’s passage in 2025 was a rare setback for the maritime community in a long history of legislative battles of protecting industrial lands against commercial and residential encroachment.
It was 1962. Boeing was hiring thousands of people to fill their burgeoning orders for their 707 passenger jet -- almost yanking people off the street into Boeing's own employment office on Second Avenue in downtown Seattle.