Corn mazes, Sumner plaques, Royer waterfront, and more updates

On this week’s edition of All Over The Map, a “lightning round” of updates on a number of recent stories about local history covered by KIRO Newsradio and MyNorthwest, including one of the state’s most notable corn mazes.

Opening of the historic corn mazes delayed by dust storm

At Siemers Farm in the Green Bluff area of Mead – the site of what KIRO Newsradio reported is believed to be Washington’s first corn maze in 1993 – operations there were damaged by winds during a dust storm that hit the Spokane area on Wednesday. The fall festival at Siemers was supposed to open Friday, but the opening has been delayed at least until Saturday or Sunday until all the damage can be repaired.

Aftermath of City of Sumner’s head-scratching plaque giveaway

In a follow-up to the City of Sumner’s controversial give-away of plaques with names of long-time Sumner families and donors to a 1990s fountain project, Nick Biermann of the Sumner Historical Society provided an update of the aftermath of the head-scratching event.

“Of the 35 family name tiles,” Biermann wrote in an email, “we ‘think’ 18 were picked up by family members or a friend/representative of the family.”

“Five more plaques were collected that day by other members of the community,” Biermann continued, “though not necessarily on behalf of or related to the family.”

Biermann says details are sketchy, because the City of Sumner did not keep track of who took possession of which plaque. According to Biermann, any record-keeping of the give-away was conducted on an ad-hoc basis by Sumner Historical Society.

However, all is not lost.

“The remaining 12 plaques were collected by the Sumner Historical Society at the end of the giveaway and are currently being held while reunification efforts continue,” Biermann said.

Naming Waterfront Park for Mayor Charley Royer?

At the memorial earlier this week at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) for Charles Royer, three-term mayor of Seattle who passed away in July, one of the speakers mentioned that there are moves afoot to name some significant part of the public spaces along the new Seattle waterfront in Royer’s honor. The former mayor was a critical leader of that project for the past decade, and is widely regarded as an impactful mayor and reliable and accomplished civic presence in the more than three decades since he left office.

KIRO Newsradio reached out to Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office for details about what a process to name the park or other areas for Royer might look like. Spokesperson Karissa Braxton responde via email, writing, “The City is considering ways to honor Mayor Royer’s significant legacy, but it is too early for us to say more about specifics at this time.”

A follow-up question about a possible timeline and what the naming process might look like has not yet been answered.

Demolition imminent for the old Mama’s Mexican Kitchen

As reported  by KIRO Newsradio last week, the Seattle Fire Department in July declared the old building at Second Avenue and Bell Street which once housed Mama’s Mexican Kitchen to be a public nuisance. This allowed Nathan Torgelson, director of the City of Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (DCI), to bypass the fact that the building is a certified City of Seattle Landmark, thus clearing the way for DCI to expedite issuance of a demolition permit.

KIRO Newsradio on Thursday checked with DCI regarding when the demolition permit might be issued, and when actual demolition might begin.

In an email, DCI spokesperson Bryan Stevens wrote, “We conducted an initial review of the demolition permit application and, on (September 10, 2024), sent a list of required corrections (to the owner) which must be made to the application or plan-set to achieve approval and an issued permit.”

“We have not heard an official date from the applicant on when they plan to resubmit,” Stevens wrote.

Consequently, it’s impossible to predict just how soon the 1920s structure might face the wrecking ball. In addition, it’s not clear if efforts by Friends of Historic Belltown to halt the demolition will continue beyond a flurry of correspondence the neighborhood group sent to DCI and to the property owner’s attorney earlier this month.

Around The World Flight Centennial Saturday at Sand Point

Last week, KIRO Newsradio previewed the big public event taking place Saturday at NOAA Sand Point by Magnuson Park to mark the centennial of the end of the 1924 around-the-world flight.

On Thursday, KIRO Newsradio spoke to Anneliese Kruger of California. Kruger is the daughter Henry H. Ogden, one of the eight around-the-world flyers. Kruger will be on hand Saturday for the centennial festivities.

In a phone interview, Kruger told KIRO Newsradio that her father was the flight engineer and half the two-man crew of the plane known as the “Boston” (each of the four planes on the history-making flight was named for an American city: Seattle, Chicago, New Orleans and Boston).

Kruger says the Boston had mechanical trouble over the Atlantic Ocean and had to land at sea between the Faeroe Islands and Iceland.

“He thought he was going to die,” Kruger said. “It was very harrowing because they didn’t know where they were. They didn’t know when rescue would come and if it would be too late, because it was really choppy and dangerous.”

Her father and the pilot, Leigh Wade, were ultimately spotted by a ship. The two men were taken aboard, and a line was hooked to the Boston, which was on pontoons, in order to tow it to the mainland.

Both Ogden and Wade were glad to have been rescued and were looking forward to rejoining the group of other flyers. Kruger says her father was aboard the rescue ship and watching the Boston being towed when, in the wind and heavy Atlantic swells, the towline snapped, and the historic plane sank.

“Dad said he just was sad,” Kruger said, recalling when her father told her the story of his part in the 1924 flight. “He says it was like losing a child – all those miles that they put in, keeping it up in the air and traveling. It was one of the worst days of his life seeing it just going down.”

As far as anyone knows, no one has ever searched for the sunken wreck of the Boston.

Meanwhile, not long after they lost the Boston, Ogden and Wade were given another Douglas World Cruiser, dubbed the “Boston II,” and the pair continued on with the other remaining planes to reach Seattle. A total of three landed at Sand Point on September 28, 1924 – the Chicago, New Orleans and Boston II – and the flyers were given a hero’s welcome.

As for the plane known as the “Seattle,” it had crashed in Alaska in the early days of the six-month long journey and was not replaced. Or, in other words, the Seattle did not make it to Seattle.

You can hear Feliks every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien, read more from him here, and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks here.

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