SEATTLE, Wash. — People around the region are dismayed at the news the federal government plans to close the Northwest Archives of Seattle and move its more than 1 million boxes of northwest history to Southern California and Kansas City.
The Seattle Times reports a little-known federal agency tasked with trimming federal properties identified the 73-year-old building and its property on Sand Point Way Northwest as an asset to be sold off.
It contains treaty documents for tribes in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska along with extensive military, land, court, census and other documents on much of the region’s history.
Regional historians worry the information will be difficult if not impossible to access at the new locations.
Senators from all four states and eight of Washington’s 10 representatives have appealed to the Office of Management and Budget to reverse the decision.