On our class field trip to the Klondike Gold Rush Museum in downtown Seattle, i found it quite interesting how one of Seattle's biggest retail chains came to be. the museum had nice displays of individual accounts of men who had made the journey to strike it rich in gold.
It is said at the Museum that John Nordstrom arrived in Seattle in 1899 after the grueling adventure to Alaska and back to be a lucky one who brought back gold in his possession. It is said that he had amounts to 13,000 dollars in gold and with that bought 10 acres of land in the Rainier Valley and a decent size lot downtown. John Nordstrom with another fella, Carl Wallin, opened a shoe store together and the rest is histroy. The shoe store eventually grew into what the Nordstrom retail chain is today!
It is crazy to believe that the historic chain of Nordstroms was created from wealth that Mr. Norstrom obtained from the gold found in Klondike Alaska. The Gold Rush helped boost the economy of seattle at the time and impacted the future of Seattle's economy as well!
Source: National historic park of the Klondike Gold Rush Museum in Seattle Washington!
Sorry no pictures, my camera won't load to my computer!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It's pretty remarkable how insanely hard people used to work for their money and success. I couldn't believe when we visited how bad the odds were of striking it rich, yet so many people flocked to the NW to try anyway. It helps me remember how fortunate I am to have to do so little for my money!
ReplyDeleteGreat story. Obviously, there were enough stories like this to keep moving men into the most inhospitable places on Earth.
ReplyDeleteDid the museum give any statistics of how many men made money hrough their adventures?
Nice piece of research, Cole. I like the way that it builds on our visit to the Klonkike Museum.
ReplyDelete