True confession: I’m a National Park Geek. I even have a National Parks Passport, and nothing makes me happier than adding a stamp to it. There, I said it.
So when I discovered that there was a National Historical Park right in the heart of downtown Seattle, I was transported to a level of ecstasy rarely seen in the non-geek universe. I had to go check it out. Had to.
If you’ve been in the Pioneer Square area of downtown Seattle, you’ve most likely been in parts of this park without even realizing it. It comprises most of that historic district, with its beautiful brick buildings that sprung up around 1898. You see, the Klondike Gold Rush pulled Seattle out of an economic depression, and made it the city it is today. More money was made from selling supplies to the hopeful prospectors headed north than those same prospectors made from gold. (I’m convinced that Seattleites are still savvy and opportunistic to this very day.)
According to the National Park Service, before Canada would let the prospectors in, they had to have a ton of goods with them, which included 350 pounds of flour, 150 pounds of bacon, and 100 each of beans and sugar. Add to that all your shovels and frying pans and various implements of destruction, and maybe a change of clothes, and… who needs fresh produce? Scurvy is your friend!
This is why I would have made a lousy prospector. I can’t imagine hauling a ton of anything anywhere, let alone over mountain passes, through mud and over jagged rocks and down raging rivers, in the bitter cold. I have never had that level of greed or desperation.
Or stubbornness. Depending on the route, many of them had to take 40 trips to shuttle their goods over the pass. It could take years to reach their destination, and by then, the rush was over. That’s why it was so much smarter to stay in Seattle and sell those fools the flour and bacon. And the whiskey. And the prostitutes.
So, if you’re ever in downtown Seattle, stop by the park’s visitor center, on the corner of 2nd and Jackson, and get oriented. Take a moment to be grateful that scurvy is most likely not in your future. Check out their interesting displays, and maybe buy something from the gift shop, because the National Park Service really needs our support right now.
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The View from a Drawbridge 
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