Georgetown is featured in a recently launched podcast focusing on lost and forgotten stories of Seattle’s past.
From collaborators Cari Simson and Elke Hautala, Invisible Histories aims to explore and amplify the voices of marginalized people who have historically not had the chance to tell their stories. The podcast’s first topic: Potter’s Field, a cemetery established in 1876 located in Georgetown next to the County Poor Farm. Over three decades of operation, 3,260 people were buried in Potter’s Field. However, when the Army Corps of Engineers began dredging the Duwamish River in 1912, the bodies in Potter’s Field were exhumed and cremated, and the site was covered with industrial properties. Little information, save for several old maps and stories of ashes being dumped in the river, remains about this lost cemetery.
Simson, a creative mixed media artist and producer of the Georgetown Haunted History Tour, and Hautala, a visual anthropologist, filmmaker and performer, have combined their talents and interest in the Duwamish Valley to creatively and theatrically explore the Potter’s Field story. They also have many ideas for future episodes, including the history of the Hat & Boots in Oxbow Park, the Comet Lodge Cemetery, an affordable housing development between Corson Ave S. and E Marginal Way that was torn down in the 1950s and further afield in the Seattle area.
Interested to listen along? Access the podcast at http://www.foghi.org/pottersfield.
Want to share your own story, participate in a haunted tour, or volunteer?
Contact invisiblehistoriespnw@gmail.com.
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