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In 1968, Dr. Leonard Cobb, along with Seattle fire chief Gordon Vickery, began to implement something new and daring: one of the country's first pre-hospital coronary care systems. Along with Dr. Michael Copass, they started Medic One, an emergency service unlike any other. One year later, the first vehicle equipped with a defibrillator and ten highly trained Seattle firefighters took to the streets. Medic One has since trained hundreds of paramedics, added an emergency air transport service in four neighboring states, helped build a statewide emergency transfer system and saved countless lives. Dr. Richard Rapport delivers an inside look at one of the most influential medical programs in Washington State and the country.

This riverside city was established when a rumor surfaced that a military road would be crossing over the Snohomish River. The road never materialized. By 1866, the "mother city" of the new county was little
more than a clearing in the woods, offering a store and a saloon, and was known up and down the river as Cadyville. Ten years later, the name Snohomish City was established, along with the first newspaper, the first school, and the first literary society in the county. Farms, logging camps, and trading posts throughout the area pivoted around this growing city
and manufacturing center. Even Seattle was not much larger and offered no more amenities. Today 9,000 residents call Snohomish home, and as the area develops farther away from the riverside and its historic roots, this book invites the reader to pause and remember.

Hydroplane racing captured the heart and soul of Seattle in the early 1950s and never let go. No Seahawks, Sonics, or Mariners game has come close to drawing one-quarter of the audience that watches the hydroplanes race. The unmistakable sound of the boats' huge motors was as big an attraction as the racing itself. In the mid-1980s, something began to change. The distinctive roar of the old Thunderboats gave way to the whoosh of the turbine. The old names like Muncey and Chenoweth were replaced by new names like Hanauer and Villwock.

Swedish immigrants began arriving in Seattle in the 1880s, and by 1900 had formed a thriving community of churches, businesses, social clubs, labor organizations, choruses, and dance groups, as well as a Swedish-language press. Their civic accomplishments are exemplified by well-known Seattle institutions founded by Swedish immigrants, including a national department store chain and a world-class medical facility, which began as Swedish Hospital. The story of the Swedish community in Seattle is also a personal history of families and friends building a new life as Americans. Swedish culture is perhaps most publicly visible in annual celebrations such as Midsummer and Lucia. A lively local interest in Swedish music and dance suggests that "Swedish" Seattle is not limited to residents who happen to be of Swedish descent.

Listed on the local Tacoma Register, the Washington Heritage Register, and the National Register of Historic Places, the North Slope is the largest residential historic district in Washington. Perched atop Job Carr's Hill, it is a trapezoid with streets at an angle, or sloped, to the grid designed by city planners. The bulk of the neighborhood was built on a 166-acre farm belonging to the Carr family. Purchased in the 1860s from the federal government, it was sold in the 1880s for residential development. The first homes in the North Slope were built from 1888 to 1893 for tycoons, bankers, and railroad men. Renowned residents included Gov. Ernest Lister, John Q. and Virginia Mason, and Bing Crosby, who was born in the North Slope and baptized at St. Patrick's Church.

By way of introduction the writer desires to state that Seattle and the Orient is published to act as an opening wedge into a country up to this time very little known to people residing upon Puget Sound. It is for the purpose of introducing ourselves to the people doing business in Siberia, China, Japan, the China Archipelago, the Philippines and Hawaii, and to eventually open a way by which closer trade relations may be promoted, that this book has been published. The subjects treated are in no instance overdrawn, but are secured by direct contact with the people interested, and are plain matter of fact statements of affairs as they exist in Seattle and in Western Washington. The illustrations shown are the best procurable, and will afford the reader a fair idea of what can be found in the metropolis of America's great Mediterranean. Such a showing as the following pages make cannot help but impress even the most casual observer that Seattle has a future before it of very great magnitude. Unquestionably it is destined to become the largest city upon the Pacific Coast. It has every material advantage to make it so; it has almost every imaginable resource upon which to draw for support; it is the center of one of the greatest lumbering sections in the world; it 'has inexhaustible coal mines; it is the central point from which the gold fields of Alaska and the British Northwest Territory are reached; it is practically the center of all the mineral wealth of the Northwest; and it is moreover the natural geographical entrepot for the great Oriental markets, a fact which in time will make it the greatest shipping port in the United States. An attempt has been made to enumerate its varied resources in succeeding pages, and a story has been told which will prove both interesting and instructive. It has been the aim of the writer to take up the industrial side of Seattle and portray a condition as near the actual as possible.

The beaches, forests and wildlife of Washington's Camano Island offer a treasure-trove of natural beauty and endless recreational possibilities. English Boom Historical Park was once a bustling center for logging and is now a peaceful spot with its uplands, salt marsh, shoreline and tidelands. Davis Slough is named after Reuben Davis, who lived on Camano Island before 1880 and was the oldest settler in the area. The island has historically been used by Native Americans, loggers, farmers and fishermen alike but today is enjoyed by Camano Islanders, who have worked hard to protect and preserve the island's cherished nature sites. Discover Camano Island with author Val Schroeder as she takes readers on a trek around the location's best-preserved features while uncovering the unique history behind them.

When civic benefactor Clinton P. Ferry donated a graceful, elliptically shaped plot of land in 1883 for the first park in Tacoma, he hoped his adopted hometown would do him proud and become a veritable city of parks. The young community did not disappoint. Landmarks such as Wright Park, Lincoln Park, and Point Defiance Park graced the landscape by 1900, a testament to Tacoma's appreciation for beauty, conservation, and recreation, which continues to this day. In 1907, residents voted to establish the Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma, Washington's first independent parks municipality, to act as steward of these civic treasures. A century later, Metro Parks Tacoma embraces some 57 parks covering 2,700 acres, as well as swimming pools, sports complexes, community centers, and recreational programs for all ages.