Local Lost Cause

[Minister of Truth]

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2007/05/free_ballard.php

One of these days I want to get myself a "Free Ballard" bumpersticker, because it cracks me up whenever I see one on the road. My mom first lived in Ballard when she moved up from California. I just think its hillarious.

Y'know those bumper stickers and t-shirts that say "Free Ballard" on them. Weird, right? I've got one, yet am often at a loss to explain what the slogan means -- namely because it's pretty complicated. Today, a group of Ballardites who understand its full meaning (it has something to do with annexation and water rights in the early 1900's) will gather at Bell Tower Park at 22nd Ave. NW and Ballard Ave. NW for its annual "protest" of the City of Seattle's 1907 annexation of Ballard. Neighborhood lore has it that Ballardites used to raise the Ballard Bridge for the day in commemoration of this fatal maneuver. Today, at 3 p.m., they're just going to ring a really loud bell 22 times. A comprehensive explanation as to why can be found after the jump.