womanonabicycle .....: Seattle.

Walking tour day today.

You know how I love a walking tour!

Before the tour started I grabbed a pastry from this old (1992) bakery - frankly delicious..

And wondered why all these people were standing in line

its the oldest existing Starbucks I think. The queue was 50 deep at 10 am. Really people, TAKE THE TOUR!

We met between the totem poles in Victor Steinbrueck Park (a poor excuse for a park, but there you go).

Totem poles are apparently not true to the Native Americans of the area because (while almost all Native tribes did carve wood) only three every made totem poles and these were/are all in southern Alaska.

The tour was led by Amalia, a Seattle native and, to my delight, a guide who tackled and expanded upon the Native American history in the area. She did this proudly and passionately and I was impressed.

The city is nestled on the Puget Sound, a body of water the details of which are:


Max. length	100 mi (160 km)
Max. width	10 mi (16 km)
Surface area	1,020 sq mi (2,600 km²)
Average depth	450 ft (140 m)
Max. depth	930 ft (280 m)
Water volume	26.5 cu mi (110 km³)
Settlements	Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Everett, Bremerton

The Puget Sound was mapped and explored by naval explorer Mr Vancouver who, having named two cities and an island after himself, called the Sound after his mate Peter Puget. Puget and Vancouver were in the navy. Following his one tour Puget returned to Suffolk, where he led a seemingly quiet and uneventful life and death. Until in the 1980s, city of Seattle representatives rocked up to his grave and erected a £50000 monument over it.

Since 2007, Seattle has grown at the rate of over 1000 new people A WEEK. 56000 new people a year. It's expanded due to many companies having large businesses here (Amazon, Facebook etc) . As a result construction is an ongoing thing and house prices have rocketed.

I saw many homeless people - depressingly comatose or in a zombielike state. Found a foodbank in a car park.

And homeless advice on walls:

Seattle has a history of settlement:

Men..boats..

Of wealth:

Timber..

Of fire which decimated the town:

1889..

Of a shortage of women:

The dapper Asa Mercer was sent to find some and bring them back at a rate of $100 a head. He went to Detroit for starters and spoke to educated women, telling them that there was a settlement out West where the children didn't have teachers, the townsfolk didn't have seamstresses and the sick didn't have nurses. It worked and he bagged 75 women who returned with him. The majority settled and stayed.

Incidentally, the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was based on his story.

The Seattle Art Museum, which has a collection of over 20,000 Native artefacts (you must book to visit) and is home to the 'hardest working man' in Seattle - this statue whose arm moves up and down four times a minute.

When he was erected earlier this century people hated him.

Common complaints:

1. He's 2D (he cost 2 million) if we'd have paid 3 million, would he be 3D?

2. He moves. Art shouldn't move.

3. He's made of iron. Statues should be made of copper or bronze.

A local radio station received so many complaints that for a year they had an hour in the morning where they just played the recorded whinges of citizens.

Every. Weekday. Morning.

The art director was given a raise.

Now the locals love him and townsfolk knit him socks which he wears between Thanksgiving and New Year.

When the settlers (five families from Minnesota and Ohio called the Denny Party) landed here in 1851 the local tribe, the Duwamish, came over to see them. The chief of the Duwamish was a charismatic man who was a well respected war chief. Specifically because he didn't go to war. Tall (6'6) and a fantastic negotiator, he found other ways to solve problems. Mostly by marrying into the other side - thereby bonding, not killing. He and the other local chiefs, negotiated rent to be paid by the settlers on Native lands. The settlers happily paid and tribes and settlers co-existed. A man in the party, Doc Maynard, was equally charismatic and the two became life long friends.

Cut to the misery. In 1856, the US government sent a battleship and many armed men, who set about violently asserting to the natives that settlers would no longer pay rent to them. They were threatened and coerced/forced to sign treaties which legally signalled they were giving up their lands. They were moved to small pockets of allocated land and were housed with other tribes. The government housed the tribes together with others with whom they didn't share a language or had a history of not getting on. However, this chief refused to sign, believing that there was a better way. The US government retaliated by refusing to recognise the existance of his tribe and to this day, they are not on the federal list of recognised tribes. However, they are recognised by the city of Seattle and the state of Washington.

The chief was a much respected and well liked figure amongst the settlers. Settlers and tribes had co-married and there was a good accord between the two. Therefore, when Doc Maynard suggested using the chief's name as the name of the settlement, there wasn't much push back.

The chief was called Say-a'tchl.

Pronounce it with a sort of little swallow where the apostrophe is.

If you anglicise it, the name is Seattle. Initially, Say-a'tchl pushed back saying, 'why would I want this place named after me? It will just confuse everyone.'

Doc Maynard said, 'But think of the honour for your children and your children's children that this place is named after you.'

Say-a'tchl responded saying that, 'Honour will not feed my children.'

And so they compensated him for the use of his name and here we are.