Ballard

This guide to Ballard in Seattle opens on its World War Two shipyards, where welders and riggers, mostly descendants of Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish immigrants, built minesweepers for the Navy along Salmon Bay. You'll hear how those same families first arrived chasing cedar, when Ballard's shingle mills earned it the nickname Shingletown, and how Ballard High School's mascot changed once the mills faded. From there the guide traces the shift from timber to shipbuilding, including a shipyard that has run since 1871.