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Elements - Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition
"Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition: Washington’s First World’s Fair,”
a 184-page, hardcover, full color history of the A-Y-P,
was written b y Alan J. Stein, Paula Becker and the HistoryLink staff. The book is now available at all Bartell Drugs locations.
Fair Weather Fun
Say “World’s Fair” in Seattle and most of us think of the Century 21 Exposition of 1962 that gave us our beloved Space Needle. But the fair that first put the Puget Sound region on the world map opened 53 years earlier on what is now the University of Washington campus. Between June 1 and October 16, 1909, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition hosted nearly four million visitors celebrating the region’s people, resources and explosive growth following the Yukon Gold Rush.
Need something fun, educational and local to do this summer? Take yourself and your family on a treasure hunt to learn more about this exposition, celebrating its centennial year. There’s a wealth of information to be found by following the links and participating in activities listed at www.HistoryLink.org and www.aype.org
Here are a few fun facts to whet your appetite:
The A-Y-P Exposition was the first World’s Fair to make a profit. See if you can figure where the proceeds went.
Streetcars bound for the fair ran from downtown along Eastlake every 30 seconds, from Wallingford every minute, and from Madrona and along Broadway every five minutes. Still, it wasn’t enough to handle the crowds at the end of opening day. Scout around to see if you can discover what unexpected event triggered a massive bottleneck that day.
A showcase for the latest technological advances, A-Y-P visitors saw J.C. Mars’ gaspowered dirigible, cars that traveled from New York to Seattle in the first transcontinental auto race, and a salmon cleaning machine that cleaned fish 55 times faster than humans. Any idea what happened to its inventor on the way to the fair?
It’s fair to say you’ll have fun finding out.
100 years ago in health & wellness…
Sarsaparilla was sold as a “patent” medicine to purify the blood and treat syphilis, rheumatism and skin diseases.
George Bartell, Sr. compounded and hand-rolled pills, powders, ointments and suppositories, folding bitter medicines in onion skins to disguise the taste.
Heart disease and stroke were not leading causes of death, but pneumonia, flu, tuberculosis and diarrhea were.
