Welcome to Issaquah.

Tucked neatly behind the yellow train is an old conve.. that is now the Issaquah History Museum.

Let's go check it out.

And even though it's filled with amazing historical artifacts, th..

It's a museum for stories.

Let's meet the storyteller in chief; Paul.

Hi, Paul.

Hi, Angela.

Welcome.

Welcome to the historic Issaquah train depot.

I'd sell you a ticket, but the train's already left.

Hey, so you're standing in the original men's waiting room, and they separated them from the women and children.

But this is where the men could smoke their cigars and spit in their spittoons.

Would you like to go see more of the museum?

Yes, absolutely.

Let's go.

Okay, Paul, tell me one of your favorite stories about Issaquah’s history.

I'd love to.

Angela, I have here what's called a message hoop.

A telegraph could have come in.

The station agent would have captured that and typed it out on a note here and clipped it to this.

So as the train was passing the station, the station agent would go stand out on the deck and hold it...

Here, I tell you what.

Go ahead and grab that.

And imagine.

Imagine you're the station agent and I'm the train engineer coming by.

You would hold it up high.

I would grab it in my arm as we went by.

As the train went by, you would let go.

And I got my message.

I got your message.

Yeah.

This is ca..

Text message of the yesteryear.

Exactly.

Let me introduce you to Page.

Page, can you tell me a little bit more about where we're at?

Sure.

You're in the freight room of the depot.

The depot was built in 1889.

And what you see here, the floors and these side walls are all original wood from when it was first built.

So the floorboards were made from some of the old growth timber that was cleared here.

And if you follow down here, I can show you where there's some actual corporate graffiti from the lumber yard that brought it in.

Let's check it out.

As you can see, it says George W T.. which was the name of Issaquah before it became Issaquah.

W.T.

for Washington Territory.

Washington wouldn't become a state until November of that same year.

Page, Paul, thank you so much ..

If you would like to hear more stories, you are invited to visit the Issaquah History Museum.

I'm Angela.

Thank you for exploring.

I'll see you.