Gig Harbor Now and Then | The lost machinist
Jun 30, 2025Albert Fleuss, a machinist whose work was critical to Gig Harbor’s early fishing fleet, deserves the same recognition as his successor.
Albert Fleuss, a machinist whose work was critical to Gig Harbor’s early fishing fleet, deserves the same recognition as his successor.
Greg Spadoni compares scenes from “Hit,” the movie filmed in Gig Harbor, with current-day photos of the same locations.
Our previous Gig Harbor Now and Then column featured two questions of local history, both concerning Gig Harbor’s commercial fishing fleet. They are: Of all the men and women who worked on Gig Harbor commercial fishing boats, from 1868 to the present day, who was the best known during their time on a boat? Of all
He or she played the part of The Wind in their elementary school’s production of the play Rumpelstiltskin, which should make the answer obvious.
Chuck Sharman and Bob Mitchell graduated from high school together, joined the Navy together and were reported dead together in Pearl Harbor. They lived remarkable lives after that.
Benjamin Pardee, whose many swindles included selliong fish oil on Fox Island, was a real snake-oil salesman.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Frank C. Ross had several grandiose plans to build a freight railroad through Gig Harbor. None of them came especially close to fruition.
None of the stories Greg Spadoni wrote about the photos he found in a second-hand store are true. But they are funny.
Even if it’s literally carved in stone, sometimes a homestead is not a homestead.
The previous Gig Harbor Now and Then column gave the answers to four questions concerning early local telephones. One question that was not asked or answered last time concerns how to cope with one of today’s internet providers on the Gig Harbor and Key peninsulas, CenturyLink. Having had multiple extensive, unwanted, unsatisfying, and unfathomably bad experiences
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