50 years ago in Expo history: Fair data showed some half of visitors were from Washington, while an unexpected state took second place

A new analysis of Expo ’74 visitors showed that almost 50% of the fairgoers were from – no surprise – Washington.

Yet the second-place state was a bit of a surprise: California.

That state accounted for about 20% of the summer’s visitors, far outpacing Washington’s neighboring states of Oregon and Idaho, which were in the single digits.

About 7% were from British Columbia and Alberta. Only 6% were from U.S. states east of the Mississippi River.

In other Expo news, general manager Petr Spurney said that the fair’s finances continued to be sound, despite a dip in attendance after the start of the school year.

He said the fair needed to take in $43,000 a day to break even, and it was running about $900 a day ahead of that. He predicted that the bonds, including interest, would be paid off by the middle of October, well before the fair closed.

From 100 years ago: Deputies went to the Hillyard home of Bert J. Walker to serve a felony warrant out of Michigan.

After a search of the premises, they finally discovered him in the attic, “emulating Aphrodite.”

In other words, he was naked.

Walker had apparently been taking a bath, and when he heard the officers searching for him, he jumped out of the tub and wriggled his way though a trap door into the attic.

Officers noticed the trap door and “found Walker shivering and damp, just as he had stepped from his interrupted bath.”

He was arrested on charges of nonsupport of three children by a previous wife in Michigan.