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Inspired by the renovation of Union Station, the Washington State Historical Society built this museum facility adjacent to it on the former depot grounds. Opened in 1996, the museum is notable for its ground-level Great Hall of Washington History, a comprehensive look at the state's past, from the pre-contact Native American period through the current computer age. The Great Hall's nine thematic exhibit areas include: Encounters, life-size dioramic settings where mannequins and voice-overs dramatize early interactions between Euro-Americans and local Native Americans; a re-created Southern Coast Salish plank house, with life-size figures poised in everyday tasks; Natural Setting, detailing the state's geography; Native Heritage, featuring a Petroglyph Theater and recorded Native American storytellers; Railroads and Frontier Towns, focusing on 19C settlement and development; Wageworkers Frontier, Logging and Lumber, detailing major state industries over the last century; Modern Washington, a leap ahead to the state's high-tech present, complete with a 42ft transmission tower and the Columbia River Theater, with changing films; Homefront and Hard Times, recapturing the Depression and war eras, and related government projects, such as the Hanford nuclear site, Grand Coulee Dam and the rise of Boeing; and, finally, Inviting the Spirit, changing exhibits of works by state artists.Upper-level galleries are devoted to temporary regional history exhibits.