Opinion
Yes, there were black slaves in the Pacific Northwest. Historians are making our region confront it
An Oregon author is exploring little-known chapters of the region's ugly, racist roots.
Knute Berger
Knute “Mossback” Berger is an editor-at-large and host of "Mossback’s Northwest" at Cascade PBS. He writes about politics and regional heritage.
Latest work
Culture
Everything about the Pacific Northwest is on display at the new Burke Museum. Even the scientists.
The museum's new home brings its researchers out of the basement, and delivers a love letter of fossils and artifacts to our region.
Focus
Finding hints of our future in the epic blazes of the Northwest's past
A visit to the site of the Norse Peak fire — the worst in Western Washington since the Yacolt Burn of 1902 — reveals both the promise and limits of human forest management.
Focus
Wildfires are burned into Washington's history — and our headlines
We might think of smoky summers as a new plague. But for centuries, wildfire smoke has been confounding Northwesterners, blocking sunsets and even sinking ships.
Focus
How Washington's 'summer of fire' nearly destroyed Seattle, Spokane and Ellensburg
On the cusp of becoming a state, the Washington territory suffered three major fires that would change the course of history.