When I was growing up in Spokane Valley in the 70s and 80s, one of the permanent fixtures of the landscape was a run-down billboard along Interstate 90 that said: “Future Site of the Spokane Valley Mall.” For 20 years, I’d see that sign almost daily. After a while, it faded into the background. For…
In 2003, the FCC advertised the availability of a low-power radio station for the Pacific Northwest, operating at 102.9 FM. Lopez Island had no radio station at the time, so Carol Steckler, Iris Graville and Paul Lewis – along with a few others – began the long and tedious process of applying for the right…
On Saturday night, before a crowd of nearly 150 Lopezians at the Lopez Center for Community and the Arts, Scott Steckler told a story from his childhood that changed his life, and the life of countless others, forever. It was 1976. He was nine years old, camping with his family at Odlin Park on the north…
After people have lived on Lopez for a while, they find themselves giving out free advice for how to make the most of life on the island – everything from when to line up for the ferry to where to catch the best Dungeness crab. Well, after my meeting with two amazing women last Friday,…
At its core, Project 468 is about reconnecting story and place. Story and place, they go together. And I can’t think of a better example of that than the library. Today I visited the Lopez Library. I of course checked out a book with my new library card. I also was fortunate enough to hear…
Anybody who has visited Lopez Island knows that the special experience starts before you ever set foot (or tire) there. Unless you have a boat or a plane, the only way to get to Lopez is by taking one of the Washington State Ferries, the largest ferry fleet in the U.S. and third largest in…
Lopez Island represents renewal, experimentation and improvisation. I can’t think of an organization that lives up to those ideals better than the Lopez Solid Waste Disposal District, otherwise known as the dump. My family pays a visit to the dump every few weeks to sort our recycling, pay a visit to the “Take It Or Leave…
Project 468 