An old episode of Frasier, the television comedy set in Seattle, focuses on an impending strike at the fictional radio station where Frasier works as an on-air psychiatrist. Whether the script writers knew it or not, they were tapping into the radical history of a city that has the dubious or proud distinction of being the location of the first general strike in American history. And that's not all.

In a recent visit to the compact west-coast city about two hours south of Vancouver as the Nexus card let's you fly, er, drive, I uncovered numerous examples of Seattle's connections to the labour movement, indigenous struggles for survival and the haunting licks of Jimi Hendrix's weeping guitar. It was a visit full of eye-opening surprises.