The Great Sugar Beet Gamble of 1885
As Seattle prepared to showcase Washington’s agricultural potential at the New Orleans Exposition, a local commissioner embarked on a mission to put Seattle on the map—one sugar beet at a time.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A meeting of the Seattle Board of Trade was held in the Yesler-Leary building yesterday afternoon to confer with a commissioner from the Chamber of Commerce relative to taking some action toward securing a suitable exhibit of the products of this section to be sent to the New Orleans Exposition to be held this fall, at which Ezra Meeker has been appointed Commissioner from Washington Territory. Mr. J. B. Lewis, who was appointed to act for the Chamber of Commerce, appeared before the Board of Trade. He said that Mr. Meeker has been taking over the ground and seeing what can be done in the way of securing a respectable exhibit. He has secured free transportation for one or more carloads of stuff. The Chamber of Commerce had designated him to appear and decide what is best to be done. Mr. Meeker, who was present, was called for. He said: 'I have talked with Mrs. Watson, who said she had spoken to a number of ladies relative to the making of 10,000 little sacks in which to place the beet sugar, which will be on exhibition at New Orleans. The Society has only appropriated $1,000, which must defray all my expenses, and I must appeal to the citizens for the exhibit. I would like one carload of lumber and native woods, half a carload of coal, tea, sugar, and marble, a fine showing of fall fruits, etc. It will cost some money, but I cannot see why we cannot send up a big exhibit. In regard to the sugar matter, I will attend to that. I will send ten tons of sugar beets from Mr. Alvord’s farm on White River to California, where I will have one ton of sugar extracted from those beets. I will fill up to 10,000 neat little sacks, which will be made by the ladies of Seattle. Those packages will be kept on exhibition, or placed where they will do the most good.'
“I cannot see why we cannot send up a big exhibit. It will cost some money, but I cannot see why we cannot send up a big exhibit.”
In 1885, Ezra Meeker was hustling to prove Washington could compete on the national stage through agricultural exports like sugar beets. Today, Seattle’s export focus has shifted to tech and aerospace, but the scramble to brand the city's identity to the outside world remains a constant in local civic life.
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