Once upon a time, before Seafair, there was the Golden Potlatch.
A modest, but fascinating prism into Seattle’s nearly forgotten summer festival is on display in the foyer of the Magnolia Public Library, 2801 34th Ave. W. through July.
Magnolia resident Dan Kerlee, with a little help from history-minded friends, is the hands and heart behind the display. You might have seen the group at last year’s Magnolia Summerfest parade as they marched by singing a 1911 Potlatch song and handing out informational flyers. They’ll be doing it again at this year’s parade on August 4.
“I first read about the Golden Potlatch in the 1970s,” the 57-year-old Kerlee said. Kerlee, an amateur historian and member of the Magnolia Historical Society, started collecting historical ephemera as a youth. Something about the Golden Potlatch struck him. “We have this tremendous heritage,” he said. “The craftsmanship, the variety, the artwork were all stunning.
Potlatch’s classic years, riding the wake of the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, were 1911-14. The first festival cued off the Klondike Gold Rush and featured dancing girls, parades, concerts, boat races, car races up Queen Anne and an airborne visit by the legendary Navy flyer, Lt. Eugene Ely, the first man to take off and land on a ship at sea.
Appropriation of Native American iconography came the next year; some of those images make Kerlee wince. On the other hand, he noted: “Everything that was done in 1911 reflects the culture of 1911. To ask the people of 1911 to behave like it was 2012 is curious.”
“My desire is to educate, to allow people to see for themselves,” he continued. “There was all this community involvement with small businesses and civic organizations.”
Kerlee’s display — Potlatch parade photographs and Potlatch artifacts — testifies to a large and diverse civic buy-in.
The festival was suspended in 1914 because of World War I and revived in 1934. The curtain came down for good in 1941, when the world was once again at war.