Random Day Off Work

Happy Arbor Day Seattle! Actually, that day would probably make a bigger splash here than the true holiday, President's Day. "President" is a borderline dirty word in Seattle currently--no one wants to be the one who introduces the term to a conversation.

It is a day celebrating PAST presidents, though, and some of those were ok guys, right? The endlessly entertaining HistoryLink.org website has some President's Day material up that is definitely worth your attention:

In honor of President's Day, we note a few local visits by former Commanders in Chief, beginning with Ulysses S. Grant, who was stationed at Vancouver Barracks in 1852 when he was just an Army Captain. Rutherford B. Hayes was the first president to travel west of the Rockies while in office and visited Washington in 1880. Grover Cleveland may not have traveled here while in office, but he did proclaim the Olympic Forest Reserve on February 22, 1897. In 1891, Benjamin Harrison stopped by Tacoma and Seattle, and in 1903, Theodore Roosevelt made a grand entrance in Elliott Bay aboard the steamship Spokane

If you're looking for Abe Lincoln sightings in Seattle, well, there aren't any, altough we're sure he could have built a log cabin like you wouldn't believe here. You'll have to settle for a HistoryLink.org article on Seattle's reception of the news of Lincoln's death.

Image courtesy of HistoryLink.org/UW Special Collections