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William C Speidel (1912–1988), known as Bill Speidel, was a columnist for ''The Seattle Times'' and a self-made historian who wrote the books ''Sons of the Profits'' and ''Doc Maynard, The Man Who Invented Seattle'' about the people who settled and built Seattle, Washington. Speidel is also credited with being one of the leaders of the movement to preserve and restore Pioneer Square, one of Seattle's oldest neighborhoods. By the 1960s, this area was run down and in disrepair, in danger of being demolished and rebuilt. Through the efforts of many people, Pioneer Square is once again a bustling center of activity and tourism with dozens of original buildings that have been restored to their original luster. In 1964, Speidel received and printed a letter from a reader asking about the underground areas of Pioneer Square. He replied via the paper that he did not know much about it, but that he would research it and get back to her. Once he did the research, he printed a response telling her to meet him at 3 p.m. the next Saturday in Pioneer Square, and he would take her on a tour of the underground and what he had found. The reader did show up, along with 500 other people.〔 Speidel quickly took up a collection of $1 from each of the visitors and proceeded on the first tour of the Seattle Underground. Since Memorial Day weekend 1965, the Underground Tour has given several tours a day every day except holidays and is one of the city's best known tourist attractions. As a Seattle historian, Speidel was something of a revisionist and the narration of the Underground Tour reflects that.〔Melanie Mcfarland, (Festival, Tour Prove: History's Hot ), ''Seattle Times'', June 4, 1998. Accessed online 2009-10-06.〕〔Catherine Tse, (Seattle's catacombs tunnel into a fiery past ), Straight.com / ''Vancouver Free Press'' (Vancouver, BC), May 25, 2006. Accessed online 2009-10-06.〕 Doc Maynard, whom Speidel called "The Man Who Invented Seattle", was given short shrift in what Speidel characterized as the "Party Line" on the city's history, in part because the longer-lived Arthur Denny was so influential on the writing of that history.〔, p. 261–262. There, and again in ''Through the Eye of the Needle'', p. 133, Speidel credits Murray Morgan and his 1951 book ''Skid Road'' for beginning the process of, as he puts it in the latter book, "writing our rascals back into our history".〕 Jacob Furth, whom Speidel wrote "may even have been the most important citizen Seattle ever had"〔, p. 39.〕 was highly lauded at the time of his death in 1914, but later became, in Speidel's words, "a neglected giant", with "scant mention in our history books" and "no streets, statues, parks or public buildings to honor him."〔Speidel, ''Through the Eye of the Needle'', p. 43.〕 Speidel also made claims for brothel-owner Lou Graham as a key figure in the growth of the city.〔Speidel, ''Through the Eye of the Needle'', p. 49 ''et. seq.''〕 ==Bibliography== * * * * * * * * * 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bill Speidel」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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