John Charles Olmsted arrived by train in Seattle on April 25,
1903. A principal in the Olmstead Brothers Landscape Architecture
firm, John Charles was quite possibly the most talented and
prolific landscape designer of his era. The City of Seattle had
hired him to design a comprehensive park plan for the city, paying
him the princely sum of $750 (which today wouldn’t cover printing
costs for the Environmental Impact Statement). Olmsted thought his
site survey would take him 2 weeks, but it actually took him more
like a month. Of course, he did work up park plans for Portland and
Spokane in his “spare” time.
Fine plan that it was, the People of Seattle started on it
immediately, voted funds for it repeatedly, and have worked on it
continually during the past 100 years. Today, Seattle has one of
the most fully realized Olmsted park plans in the country and is
still adding pieces. John Charles refined his plan and drew up
individual park plans for about 30 years after his first visit.
In recognition of the Centennial of Seattle’s Olmsted Park Plan,
the National Association for Olmsted Parks is holding their
National Conference in Seattle April 30th - May 4th, 2003. The
conference and many other commemorative events throughout the year
are being hosted by the
Friends
of Seattle’s Olmsted Parks. To anyone interested in this
subject, I would recommend the City of Seattle’s
Olmsted Page. They have links to two outstanding videos, one
short
one from Walt Crowley’s historylink.org, and a
longer
one produced by Seattle’s TV production unit.
The best way to experience Seattle’s Olmsted legacy is to get
out and enjoy the parks and landscapes. To that end, this series of
geocaches is meant to get us out there doing just that. This cache
is the first of five that I have planned, but if other Geocachers
would like to contribute caches to this series (like the “I hate
I-5” series), that would be fine with me.
This cache will involve a hike of between one and three miles
depending on your route. If you haven’t visited
GC4EA, which is one of the oldest caches in Seattle, you can
work that one in at the same time but you cannot ride your bicycle
in this part of the park. The cache is about 60 feet off of the
trail, which is not my usual preference, but I had my reasons in
this case. Does not involve significant bushwhacking, so if you’re
GPSR points off 250 feet into the puckerbrush, do not follow the
arrow! I gave this cache three stars because of poor reception and
the maze of trails, but if you are patient, you can get a good fix
in the area. The trails can be a bit confusing, but being the big
softie that I am, I will point out
this map.
While hunting for a location, I ran into this
cache
watcher. He looks like an evil Mr. Potatohead, is sitting in
plain sight, and is looking right at the cache. I left him where I
found him, and I hope he stays right there.
