Billie Barb Featured In Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomer

Our own Nearby History - Writer Friend, Billie Barb, has been featured in the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomer newspaper in an article about the amazing research she has done on the Vashon Chautauquas. The article is entitled, " Citizen historian unearths stories about Vashon’s Chautauquas."

It is a well written article with a great quote from Lorraine about the work that Billie has accomplished in the acclaimed Nearby History Program. The Citizen historian article can be read in the online edition of the newspaper.

Congratulations Billie, your Nearby History Writer Friends are so proud of you!

Citizen historian unearths stories about Vashon’s Chautauquas

Jan 30 2008

By ELIZABETH SHEPHERD

For The Beachcomber

Billie Barb has the look of a master gardener: a short, no-nonsense crop of white hair, comfortable clothes, strong hands and gentle blue-green eyes. And since retiring to Whidbey Island in 1999, Barb has, in fact, spent a lot of time in her garden, nurturing plants and pulling weeds.

Lately, however, she’s been doing a different kind of digging. She’s been on a treasure hunt to uncover facts about a fascinating chapter in Vashon Island’s history: the turn-of-the-century settlement of a large summer colony and cultural center, called Chautauqua, situated on the shores of Tramp Harbor.

Continue reading the article >>

Submitted by Linda-Rae Palmer