If you find yourself on the west side of Washington state, heading up the I-5 Corridor toward your intended destination of one of Washington’s three national parks, you should consider stopping for a day, or even just a half day, at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site to soak in a little history and a look back into Washington’s fur trading and aviation pasts.
I never met my grandfather. He died from injuries sustained while working in the woods we now know as the Tillamook State Forest. He was a hard-working man, one with
A tree won World War I the Sitka spruce. It formed airplane bodies and wings since aviation’s early days because its wood possessed the unique qualities of durability, strength, flexibility and lightness. Early airplane builders, including the Wright Brothers, had difficulty getting spruce. The red spruce found in the Northeastern forests didn’t grow to the heights needed.
Clark County History: Vancouver Barracks and Spanish flu By Martin Middlewood for The Columbian
Published: February 21, 2021, 6:00am
Share: From its appearance in September 1918 until the WWI Armistice, Spanish flu infected about 40 percent of U.S. Army and Navy personnel. When influenza hit Vancouver Barracks, Col. R. G. Ebert was one of several doctors working for the Army s Spruce Production Division. A surgeon, Ebert solicited the last report on the disease from all Spruce Production Division doctors on Nov. 11, 1918, the day WWI ended. Armistice Day ended one world war in Europe, but doctors fought another world war against Spanish flu until 1920. The highly communicable disease proved unpreventable and untreatable. (Contributed by Clark County Historical Museum)