Steve is a retired Forester, having spent most of his career with the U.S. Forest Service. He has been a member of the Jefferson County Historical Society for over 25 years serving as President, Board Member, and Education Committee Member. He has also been a volunteer with the Fort Nisqually Living History Museum in Tacoma doing living history interpretation. He recently coordinated the Port Townsend Victorian Festival Cemetery Tour and interpreted Judge Swan on that tour. This program is a more in-depth living history interpretation of Judge James G. Swan.
Life and Times on the Early Northwest Coast
Judge James G. Swan was a pioneer and promoter. He came to the Washington coast in the 1850s and carved out a life of many adventures, during which he kept forty years of daily journals. Judge Swan was interested in the Indians and documented them through language dictionaries, journals, and artifacts sent to the Smithsonian. During this program he tells the story of his time on the Northwest Coast in the late nineteenth century. This isn't about a "Judge" or legal system; it's about a man who became a judge, struggling against the odds in the early Washington frontier.
