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NORTHWEST HISTORIAN HEARD ON SEATTLE'S MORNING NEWS

Feliks Banel

The steamship PORTLAND, in a 1905 photo, brought a ton of gold to Seattle on July 17, 1897 and signaled the start of the Klondike Gold Rush. (Courtesy MOHAI)

The former federal Assay Office on First Hill was an important feather in Seattle's cap; gold converted here to currency helped fuel local economic growth. (Feliks Banel/KIRO Newsradio)

The statue of William Seward in Volunteer Park commemorates the Secretary of State who led the charge to buy Alaska from the Russians in 1867. (Feliks Banel/KIRO Newsradio)

Charles Beall is superintendent of Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park in Seattle. (Feliks Banel/KIRO Newsradio)

The PORTLAND arrived with a ton of gold on July 17, 1897 at what's now Miner's Landing on the Seattle waterfront. (Feliks Banel/KIRO Newsradio)

The Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition celebrated, in part, Seattle's role in the Klondike Gold Rush, and was held on the UW campus in 1909. (Feliks Banel/KIRO Newsradio)

Klondike Gold Rush anniversary is complicated, but worth commemorating