There’s a saying, often misquoted and misattributed, to the effect that the news, newspapers, or journalism, take your pick, is the “first, rough draft of history.”

Former Washington Post publisher Philip Graham said it in a speech in 1963, shortly before his death, and he generally gets the credit for it, but it’s not a new idea. Since there’s been a yesterday and people to live it, there’s been the news of what happened yesterday. Once that yesterday is far enough in the past, that news becomes old news and eventually, it becomes history.

History is alive and well in the Snoqualmie Valley, where at least four historical societies are active and operating at least six different museums and historical structures, and where we’re lucky enough to still be home to some of the people who lived in those days.

And there’s more coming. This weekend, the Northwest Railway Museum will shine a spotlight on Snoqualmie’s history throughout Railroad Days, but especially on Sunday, with a celebration of the 125th anniversary of the Snoqualmie Depot. At 10:45 a.m., everyone is invited to a short ceremony for the depot’s birthday, followed, naturally —it is a birthday of sorts — by cake and refreshments.

The Fort Nisqually Time Travelers, a group of history re-enactors who also appeared at Railroad Days 2014, will bring their living history demonstrations to the city’s Railroad Park during the day.

Last year, I remember seeing the group get the most attention from two demographics in particular, children under 10 and their grandparents. It made me wonder if people were losing interest in history.

Then I heard from Paul Timmerman and the Washington Civil War Association (www.wcwa.net). He, and his group, covered most of the missing demographics, in a big way. More than a year ago, he began pitching a major historic re-enactment in the Valley, a Civil War scuffle to be called the Battle of Snoqualmie. Think black powder rifles, cavalry units, cannons, cookfires, bugles and uniforms, all at Meadowbrook Farm the weekend of Aug. 29 and 30.

True, there never was a Battle of Snoqualmie during the Civil War, but there couldn’t have been one. Washington didn’t join the United States of America until 1889, a full 24 years after the Civil War ended.

That war was a dark period in the nation’s history, but, like a lot of historic events one that our ancestors emerged from so much the wiser for it.