I tend to agree with your spidey sense, but even the Washington state Secretary of State thinks that business was created in 2001. (The board is unambiguously from the 70s.) I'll keep looking. It seems unlikely but maybe the same business relocated across state lines at that time.Seems too much of a 'fluke' that this link is exactly the right sort of business.
Maybe one or other of the dates you refer to is way out?
I'd have the same first instinct, but there are a lot of reasons why a corporate entity might change. Bankruptcy, reorganizing (LLC vs. "C" corp), spinning off something or being spun off, etc. I don't know how likely those are to have happened in this case, and I don't know if any of them would leave an indicator in the public records in a way that would show up on the Sect'y of State's website, assuming that's how you looked them up.... even the Washington state Secretary of State thinks that business was created in 2001. ... It seems unlikely but maybe the same business relocated across state lines at that time.