By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

If you want to learn more about this quirky neighborhood, the best place to start: the Fremont Neighborhood HomePage. It offers links to neighborhood organizations and businesses, local bus-route information, and even a University of Washington study on some of the community's public-service efforts.

The Fremont Public Association is a neighborhood human-service agency founded in 1974. Its Web site provides information on its programs -- including housing, food and assistance for elderly and disabled residents -- and how to volunteer.

One of Fremont's best-known businesses, novelty store Archie McPhee, also has its own Web site through which you can order ... well, items too weird to describe.

Fremont sits on Seattle's Ship Canal, a manmade passage linking Puget Sound with Lake Washington. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has information about building the canal on its Web site.