Seattle flaps: When hype becomes history
George Carmack launched the gold rush that is credited with putting Seattle on the map, but is that history based on fraud? Was Carmack the "Joe the Plumber" of his time? And can you designate a city landmark based on a lie?
George Washington Carmack is credited with starting the Klondike Gold Rush. He filed the first claim on Bonanza Creek, a tributary of the Yukon's Klondike River. News of the find set into motion a series of events that helped to transform the Pacific Northwest, from Seattle to the Arctic. Some have claimed that the stampede turned Seattle from a depression-wracked frontier settlement into a thriving city, that it brought the city a new era of growth, prosperity and international fame. Without George Carmack, in other words, modern Seattle would not exist.
Carmack became a figure of prominence and folklore even during the Gold Rush, and he moved to bustling Seattle after his gold strike. He became a celebrity businessman who pursued local mining and hotel interests. He used some of his personal fortune and fame to back a patent-medicine cure, and relied on his reputation for having the Midas touch to find investors for schemes like tapping mineral wealth in the Cascades. He liked to live in nice hotels and spent some of his money on fancy toys, including one of Seattle's first motor cars. Carmack liked to chuff around town in a steam-powered Mobile runabout. Perhaps we can blame him for ushering in highway gridlock too.
Carmack's time in Seattle and his role in the Klondike madness is key to the current attempt to save and landmark Carmack's home of a dozen years, a turn-of-the-century Dutch Colonial-style house in the Central District's Squire Park neighborhood near the old Providence Hospital. Carmack lived there from 1910 until his death in 1922; his widow owned the house into the 1940s. The Carmack House has been deemed worth of listing on the National Historic register and its nomination for city landmark status was scheduled to come before the landmarks board on Feb. 18, but that has been postponed.
The house was recently vandalized, some of its original interior architectural elements having been stolen. Few would argue that it is a perfect gem: it's empty and in poor condition, and it wasn't built by a famous architect. Whether the recent damage will impact its landmark-worthiness remains to be seen, but it seems unlikely because condition aside, the house appears to qualify under at least two provisions in the landmark law. First, that it is associated significantly with the "life of a person important in the history of the city, state or nation," and second, that the structure is connected with "a significant aspect of the cultural, political or economic heritage of the community...."
Enter Art Skolnik, historic preservation's bad boy consultant who was one of the city's and state's pioneering preservationists, yet now has a reputation for taking on near-lost causes (the Kalakala, the Alaskan Way Viaduct), or taking the side of property owners in opposing non-owner approved designations that some consider "takings." Skolnik is a free agent, a preservationist renegade who marches to his own drummer. And he's not shy about taking an unpopular point of view. In this case, he is working for the Carmack House's owner, the Irena Jewdoschenko Estate. They want to sell the Carmack house and property. Skolnik does not think it is landmark worthy.
That's partly because Skolnik says he's concluded that George W. Carmack was a fraud. Myths and misinformation surround him, and Skolnik says the Carmack story is part of a larger propaganda campaign — a big sales job — that has given Carmack and the Klondike Gold Rush a status it doesn't rightly deserve. Carmack, he says, was a "charlatan," at best an empty suit like the character in Being There. Think of him, perhaps, as the Joe the Plumber of his time. George Carmack wasn't all he is cracked up to be.
A summary of Skolnik's beefs centers on the old prospector's character: Carmack went to the Yukon after deserting from the U.S. Marines. In his many years trapping and prospecting in the Klondike before his "instant success," Carmack was known among his fellow frontiersman as "Lying George" for his constant exaggerations, one reason few at first believed him when he said he'd found gold in 1896.
Whether he really discovered the Bonanza gold has been disputed since Day One: He was pointed to the gold-bearing creek by another prospector, Nova Scotian Robert Henderson, who was later given co-credit and a pension for the discovery by the Canadian government. Henderson never shared in the wealth, however, because Carmack went back on his word and didn't tell him about the strike. Others who were with Carmack later claimed to be the ones who'd actually discovered the gold: Carmack's estranged common law Indian wife Kate said it was she. Many believe the real discoverer was Carmack's hunting partner and Indian brother-in-law, Skookum Jim Mason. Carmack, they said, got the credit because a white man was needed to file and secure the claims.
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Comments:
Posted Tue, Feb 17, 7:46 a.m. inappropriate
Thanks for the accurate quotes. But some major facts were left out. For example, the 100+ year controversy is still alive and well as an international event between the USA, Canada and the First Nation People of Canada. The Tagish people, who always knew there was gold there, never mined it because they had no need for it in their culture. Skookum Jim should be credited with the discovery even though the first claim was filed by Carmack. This is another in a long line of racist acts which Carmack took part in. By the way, he also abandoned his daughter to merry his white wife. Graf remained in the US and gradually adjusted to urban life and had her own family.
As to the house, it's cute. But it is one of thousands of homes built by carpenters and wood-workers from house plan books marketed by companies like Sears Robuck and Montgomery Ward to name just a couple. There is probably one Dutch Colonial on every block in this period neighborhoods of Seattle. And Dutch Colonial revivals are a major portion of those. It is not an example of "high style" architecture. This is also a good example of examining one's navel.
Squire Park should have been a candidate for the creation of an Historic District, including the 1522 E Jefferson St. house. But with so much attention to one home, the city has let the quality of that neighborhood continue to erode and lose it's integrity caused by densification and replacement by fake old buildings. A jewel lost!
Calling this house the "Carmack" house is a good example of NEW HISTORY. It is arbitrary and tangential. It was first owned by Frank Goodhue, built by Severt Schultz. The Carmacks moved in 7 years after ir was constructed. Carmack lived it for 13 of the 111 year it has existed. His wife Margarite lived in it 3 years after Carmack died and then sold it and moved to Auburn. A total of 16 years. They did nothing to the house to show their "Mark" In fact, Carmack did not like city life (that was true for all his life)and for most of the time they owned the house, he lived up in the Cascades "Playing" with his mining activities which never Panned out. Pardon the pun!
If one were to prioritize the significant landmarks of the Gold rush, Pioneer Square (old downtown) is the place. One could even say that Carmack lived in the Maud Hotel (in Pioneer Square), The Sorrento Hotel, and another house, now gone, on Denny. Perhaps we should name them the Carmack residences as well.
Let's get real.
By ALL landmark criteria, this is a real stretch and fabrication. This "Washington slept here" approach to documanting history is a real disservice to the general public and their pondering the real facts of history.
But now we have a dilemma. Historic Seattle wants to move the house to another site within the neighborhood in order to save it. Squire Park Community Council asked for and got a postponement for the nomination hearing to give time for HS to put together an economical deal that will move the house. They have asked the owning Estate for money to help, which is not their charge in administering the Estate.
By postponing the hearing, we do not know what/if any criteria the LPB will tag this property with. What if HS moves the house only to find out that the LPB wants it to stay on the original property? Will HS be responsible for putting it back? For paying damages?
And what if the LPB doesn't designate it? Will HS relocated a non-landmark house, perpetuating the weak relationship this house has to history?
Who knows? I for one am trying to bring facts to the table and not folklore. The Native Americans and First Nation people of Canada deserve to be heard on this historical event since they were being discriminated by the whites who took great advantage of them and left them in their golddust all the way to the bank.
I say STOP this charade and let the house die a natural and unfortunalely vandalized death. Or move it off the property for future plans It is beyond repair and to restore it is really a total reconstruction project, which will create a look-a-like structure for all to admire as the real thing. Hogwash!
Let's get on with nominating what are clear and defencable Landmarks.
By the way, go to the City" web page, to Historic preservation, resources and beam up dutch colonial and revival. The list of identified sites from city surveys is quite long. How many of these will be up for nomination?
Thanks for your ear.
Arthur M. Skolnik FAIA
Posted Tue, Feb 17, 9:56 a.m. inappropriate
I'm trying to make the connection between Sellers' Chauncy Gardener character and Joe the Plumber. This must be some sort of inside joke amongst the Queen City intelligentsia.
Posted Tue, Feb 17, 4:04 p.m. inappropriate
Sorry Knute, couldn't get past "Joe the plumber" disparagement.
Joe the plumber is a private citizen who had the knowledge and guts to ask Barack the Great some rather inconvienent taxation questions, which the Messiah answered poorly.
He was then subjected to a media scrutiny unheard of when 'favorites' come into the limelight for whatever reason. He wasn't licensed (he was working for another and hoped to buy the business) He had tax liens (less than 2000., big deal, who hasn't who is in business?)
I think Joe the plumber is a model citizen who represents the future of the country more than not. From what I have heard, that includes hard worker, hope for the future, civic interest and honesty.
Your attack on his character was unfortunate.
Posted Tue, Feb 17, 4:09 p.m. inappropriate
By the way, speaking of local history, I have a client who is a member of the Ford family (not the car company, Ford's prairie outside of Centralia) whose mother was an eyewitness to the Centralia Massacre and who says the history (which is controversial) is incorrectly recorded. She is elderly and any account should be sooner rather than later.
Interested? (Warning: Conservative redneck lair)
Posted Tue, Feb 17, 10:01 p.m. inappropriate
Carmack's story reminds me of Henry Comstock, for whom the Comstock Lode in Nevada was named. Comstock was also a unrepentant braggart and self-promoter, but as a miner didn't have much skill. One day he stumbled across a couple of prospectors that had just started digging in some rich ground. He was able to convince them that he had already claimed the ground they were working, but in exchange for a partnership in the mine all would be forgiven. They agreed, even though none of the men knew that they were standing on the tip of an iceberg that would yield $400 million in gold and silver.
Comstock sold out a few months later for $11,000, but by then he had spread the word all over town that he was the one who had discovered the mine. And to this day it's still called the "Comstock Lode", even though Comstock's only contribution was being able to bully a couple of Irishmen.
Posted Thu, Feb 19, 5:07 p.m. inappropriate
This is gold mining. Is anyone surprised that Carmack would be characterized as an egotistical liar? In fact if he wasn't, I would question the accuracy of the story!
Skolnik's comments about Carmack's character only buttress his historical relevance. His other points? We'll let the LPB deliberate on those.