Pioneer Square Park

Lonely Planet review

The original Pioneer Square is a cobblestone plaza where Henry Yesler's sawmill cut the giant trees that marked Seattle's first industry. Known officially as Pioneer Square Park, the plaza features a bust of Chief Seattle (Sealth, in the original language), an ornate pergola and a totem pole.

The decorative pergola was built in the early 1900s to serve as an entryway to an underground lavatory and to shelter those waiting for the cable car.

As for the totem pole, the story goes that some wayward early Seattleites stole it from the Tlingit natives in southeastern Alaska in 1890. Years later in 1938, an arsonist lit the pole aflame, burning it to the ground. When asked if they could carve a replacement pole, the Tlingit took the money offered, thanking the city for payment of the first totem, and explaining that a second one would cost a further US$5000 . The city coughed up the money and the Tlingit obliged with the pole you see today.