Seattle, WA - Underground and Aboveground Part 2

Klondike Gold Rush National Park

We’ve all heard of the 49’ers, the gold rushers in 1849 heading to California. But, I haven’t heard as much about the Klondike gold rush in 1889, heading up to the Klondike in northern Canada. Well, now I know much more about that and the part that Seattle played in it because we visited the Klondike National Park after our Underground Tour.

Gold. Is there any other word that can make normal people turn crazy, sell everything they have, leave their families and head off into unknown territory for what they think they might find, if they are incredibly lucky? Well, maybe chocolate, but the pull of gold is much stronger. And that was the word in the air in 1897. Gold had been discovered on the Klondike in northern Canada and the pull was strong. Some miners had arrived in Seattle with 2 TONS of gold with them that they had discovered near Dawson City, CA. ‘Oh, boy, gotta get up there’, said thousands. And off they went. Here they are, lined up for the ship.

There were 4 ways to get there, 1, the water route which cost too much and the 3 land routes which were treacherous, long, cold and extremely difficult. But that did not deter many. Because many were arriving without enough supplies to last more than a few weeks, the Canadian Mounties required that each person making the trip into Canada to the Klondike had to have a years worth of supplies which weighed close to 2 tons. Here is a list. Note that there is a lot of flour, bacon, beans, potatoes, salt and fat. Yummy. Short on veggies and fruit although there is a listing for dried fruit.

One of the land routes is pictured here. A boat could get you to a small village called Dyea (Die - ee’) but you would have to unload your 2 tons of supplies, haul them up this pass and down the trail on the other side. At the top of the 35% grade pass were 1500 steps, the Golden Stairs, your own personal ‘Stairway to Heaven’. Before making this climb, at the bottom of the hill, the miners repacked their 2 tons into 65-lb packs and made between 30 and 40 trips up the Golden Stairs with their goods, stacked them up, slid down the other side of the mountain and picked up another 65-lb bundle for another round trip. And, by the way, after they had made their 30-40 trips, they were still not at Dawson City. That was many more miles and about 3 months ahead.

The trail on the other side of the Golden Stairs used to be a good trail. But thousands of prospective miners had worn it down so that now it was a muddy, slushy, rocky mire. So many horses had died on the trail that it was called Dead Horse Trail.

In Dawson City, prices were high, bunks were few, bars were on every block, brothels lined the side streets and there were con men just waiting to take a prospective miner to the cleaners. One egg cost $5, one onion $2, whiskey $40 a gallon. And, guess what? Most of these men reached the gold fields after they had all been claimed and most played out. Most just sold their gear for steamboat fare back home.

The natives in the Klondike area suffered terribly: traditional homelands, fishing area and hunting areas were destroyed, the miners brought diseases they had no defenses against and, even though some found jobs as packers, they were paid very little and were unused to a cash economy.

HOWEVER, and here’s the point - Seattle made bundles of money outfitting the miners. Some of the outfitting stores in Seattle had so many supplies for sale that they had to pile them 10’ high outside their stores. By 1898, $30,000,000 (or about $600,000,000 in today’s dollars) in supplies had been sold. This ensured Seattle’s place as a regional trade center.

Remember those sidewalks that the city couldn’t build after the fire? Well, here’s when the money began to pour in. Taxes on supplies, taxes on whiskey, taxes on prostitution and Seattle had enough to build their sidewalks.

Smith Tower

We then visited the Smith Tower built by Lyman Cornelius Smith and his son in 1914. You might not know of Lyman C Smith, but I’ll bet you’ve heard of Smith Corona typewriters. Yep, that Smith. And with that fortune he built the tallest office building in the world out side of New York City, 39 stories and 489’, (this is what Wikipedia says - the Smith literature says 42 stories and 422’ - who am I to believe? I do know we got out at the highest story at the 35th. Above is was only the triangular top - where there is a pretty exclusive penthouse. Who would have thought counting stories in a building was so difficult.) At least, it was the tallest in 1914.

Here is an older picture of it. The building in front has been torn down and replaced with what the locals call the Sinking Ship Parking Garage. One look at it will tell you how it got that nickname.

It began a few years earlier when he visited Seattle in 1909 and returned home wanting to build a 14-story office building in the boondocks of Seattle. His son, Burns Lyman Smith, had seen how much publicity other companies had gotten when they had built skyscrapers and had much loftier plans - 39 stories. That’s going make us famous and help sales of our typewriter, he reasoned. It was designed to be a 21 story tower rising from a 21 story structure and an architectural firm that had never designed anything higher than a few stories was chosen. Hey, you’ve got to start somewhere.

I loved the pictures on the bathroom doors. Pretty classy.

The building still has real live human elevator operators. When was the last time you saw that?

But they built an iconic structure that has lasted for a century and is a centerpiece for the Pioneer District of Seattle. Unfortunately Mr. Smith did not live to see the $1,000,000 building completed but his son was there when 4000 Seattle-ites came to ride up to the 35th story to gape at the city they lived in. Their views were 360 degrees and ranged from the waterfront to the mountains. Our views today are quite different. Firstly, we can’t see as far since there are now taller structures. Secondly, there is so much more city now than there was then. But they are still marvelous views.

Time for lunch and we found a quiet park with a waterfall running through it.

Hey, would you guess that a soccer game was going on? Here’s the alley in back of a bar with the TV set us and people crowded around it.

Remember in the movie Mozart when the king told Mozart that he had one note too many? That his Symphony would be perfect if he removed one note? Well, I’m not comparing this blog to Mozart’s symphony by any means but the king might say it is also too long. Now, since it is so long, I’ve added a third section.