School’s facility born out of the Cold War
By KATE MARTIN
Skagit Valley Herald staff writer
MOUNT VERNON — The Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik in 1957 spurred homegrown science programs across the country, including at Mount Vernon High School.
The school built a planetarium at a high point in the Cold War — but before the Apollo moon landing in 1969.
Richard Dixon was the school’s first planetarian when the planetarium was opened in 1962. The planetarium was housed in a cylindrical building just off the main campus.
Dixon, now 77, taught astronomy and geology with the planetarium. He taught one of the only celestial astronomy classes in the state but found that teaching astronomy at night was “impossible.”
“If you want to see a sky in the Pacific Northwest, the odds are really remote,” he said.
The planetarium was built with a National Science Foundation grant, Dixon said. But a few people poked fun at the building.
“They thought it was a real frivolous thing to do,” Dixon said. “Maybe it was. They called it the silo. … They would ask ‘How many tons of silage can you store in that?’”
Despite the early ribbing, the planetarium slowly grew a following, especially among the students who used it.
John House, a 1967 Mount Vernon graduate, doesn’t use his planetarium education much in his current job for the state liquor board, but he said it might help questioning students find a career path where they otherwise might not have.
“I think (the planetarium) helped people to imagine the astronomical world,” he said. “In an area that isn’t known for its natural stargazing because of the weather, being able to have a concrete teaching tool like that certainly captured my imagination.”
It captured his imagination so much when he was a student that he climbed to the top of the building and cut out a skyline to place inside the planetarium.
Dixon also allowed his top achievers to present classes to elementary students like House and 1965 graduate Mike Dinkins.
By the time he reached high school, Dinkins gave presentations of the heavens at they appeared during the time of Jesus’ birth, where the Star of Bethlehem is astronomically explained as a triple conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn. A triple conjunction is caused when two planets appear to approach each other in the sky. Due to the earth orbiting the sun, the planets can appear to reverse direction in the sky, which causes them to approach each other three times in a short period of time.
Dixon said Dinkins, who is now a librarian in Lake County, Florida, was a shy student and wouldn’t start talking to the students until the lights dimmed.
“I think it’s just terrific nowadays that Mount Vernon High School still realizes the importance of something that’s nontraditional in education,” Dinkins said. “It could make a big difference in students’ lives who might not be exposed to astronomy or develop an interest in it.”
Originally published April 1, 2008.