{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Exploring Washington State","title":"Greasy Fingerprints on a Beam: Inside Fort Flagler and Fort Worden","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3983,"description":"Kelsey Lang looks after the museums at Fort Flagler and Fort Worden, and she lives at one of them.She grew up in central Florida, an hour north of Orlando. Her husband went looking for the rainiest place in the country that also had mountains, Washington came up, and after years of applying they made the move during COVID with a dog who could not fly and a U Haul driven by a hired stranger. Her degree is in marine science with minors in biology and geology, which is not the resume you expect from someone running two history museums.The best story in this episode is a ceiling beam. The Fort Flagler museum sits in the old quartermaster storehouse, and across one beam there is a scatter of greasy fingerprints at different heights. A volunteer anthropologist worked out the likely explanation: bored soldiers, stationed at the end of an island with no bridge and no ferry, greasing their fingertips to see who could jump the highest. Nobody has ever cleaned it off.She also points out something most visitors trip over without noticing. The concrete gun batteries have been aging for a century, rain pulls calcium carbonate out of the cracks, and it is recalcifying inside as stalactites, stalagmites and flowstones. There are caves forming inside the fortifications.Also covered: how she rebuilt both museums around human stories instead of glass cases, the scavenger hunt she designed by following her eight year old around and writing down everything at that eye level, the Junior Ranger program and why adults keep asking for their own version, and the interactive rooms at the Commanding Officer's Quarters where you can write in the commander's log, look over the parade grounds through vintage binoculars, and put on a fake mustache for a photo. Plus a footstool whose legs are literal deer legs, hooves attached, and a rug made from used silk underwear.Her advice, and it is the line worth keeping: the next time you drive past a state park sign, turn down the road. Just do...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/0eY6-pOxiu7Y0bYJVEHtvpyTc1r-qxWqjB1LDd4c1GM/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9hOTI5/ZjliODdhODFlODgy/YzlmYTY5YjlhMTBl/NTVmYy5qcGVn.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}