Seattle - Washington, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest - page 135

Pioneer Square Park SQUARE
(cnr Cherry St & 1st Ave S) The original Pioneer Square is a cobbled triangular plaza where
Henry Yesler's sawmill cut the giant trees that marked Seattle's first industry. Known of-
ficially as Pioneer Square Park, the plaza features a bust of Chief Seattle (Sealth, in the
original language), an ornate pergola and a totem pole .
Some wayward early Seattleites, so the story goes, stole the totem pole from the
Tlingit natives in southeastern Alaska in 1890. An arsonist lit the pole aflame in 1938,
burning it to the ground. When asked if they could carve a replacement pole, the Tlingit
took the money offered, thanking the city for payment for the first totem, and said it
would cost $5000 to carve another one. The city coughed up, and the Tlingit obliged
with the pole you see today.
The decorative pergola was built in the early 1900s to serve as an entryway to an un-
derground lavatory and to shelter those waiting for the cable car that went up and down
Yesler Way. The reportedly elaborate restroom eventually closed due to serious plumbing
problems at high tide. In January 2001 the pergola was leveled by a wayward truck, but it
was restored and put back where it belonged the following year, looking as good as new.
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park MUSEUM
( www.nps.gov/klse ; 117 S Main St; 9am-5pm; International District/Chinatown) This
is a shockingly good museum eloquently run by the US National Park Service with ex-
hibits, photos and news clippings from the 1897 Klondike gold rush, when a Seattle-on-
steroids acted as a fueling depot for prospectors bound for the Yukon in Canada. It would
cost $10 anywhere else; in Seattle it's free!
The best aspect of the museum is its clever use of storytelling. At the outset you are in-
troduced to five local characters who became stampeders (Klondike prospectors) in the
1890s and you are invited to follow their varying fortunes and experiences periodically
throughout the rest of the museum. Sound effects and interactive exhibits are used to
good effect.
Smith Tower LANDMARK
(cnr 2nd Ave S & Yesler Way; observation deck adult/child $7.50/5; 10am-dusk) A mere dwarf
amid Seattle's impressive modern stash of skyscrapers, the 42-storey neoclassical Smith
Tower was, for half a century after its construction in 1914, the tallest building west of
Chicago. The beaux-arts-inspired lobby is onyx- and marble-paneled, while the brass-
and-copper elevator is still manually operated by a uniformed attendant. The public can
access the 35th-floor Chinese Room decorated with a hand-carved ceiling and similarly
sculpted Chinese furniture.