In 1891, as Seattle was rebuilding from a catastrophic fire that had destroyed nearly all of its central business district, Frederick Trump arrived looking to find his fortune.
The 22-year-old German immigrant acquired a restaurant, his first foray into the world of hospitality, serving patrons in the seedy but bustling neighborhood now known as Pioneer Square. Later, after prospectors spoke of gold riches in the Yukon, Mr. Trump joined thousands of stampeders heading north.
The legacy of the Klondike gold rush has persisted for generations, shaping Seattle, the rest of the West Coast and the early wealth of the Trump family. These days, along the same streets where Mr. Trump lived and worked, the city’s only national park documents that time period, featuring exhibits about the travails of the gold seekers and a walking tour where guides tell the history of the neighborhood, usually pointing out Mr. Trump’s old haunts.
But the future of that park is now at risk as the presidential administration of Mr. Trump’s grandson, Donald J. Trump, hunts for ways to slash government spending. Spurred by his Department of Government Efficiency, officials have proposed terminating the lease for the building that houses Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.
“If you don’t have the building, you don’t have the park,” said Rob Smith, who leads the Northwest office of the National Parks Conservation Association. When Congress created the park 50 years ago, lawmakers specified that it be sited in the Pioneer Square neighborhood.
The park is situated in the Cadillac Hotel, constructed in 1889, one of the first structures built after what was known as the Great Seattle Fire. Earlier this month, dozens of elementary school children fluttered through the exhibits, expressing surprise at the primitive conditions the risk-taking prospectors endured. They learned how the gold-rush era seeded Seattle’s history of entrepreneurship, spawning what eventually became Filson, the rugged clothing manufacturer; the pharmacy chain Bartell Drugs; and the national department store behemoth Nordstrom — founded by John Nordstrom after he had joined the Klondike rush.
Pioneer Square had a history of less-savory business ventures and became known as a place of gambling houses and brothels. Mr. Trump’s restaurant, the Dairy, touted itself in advertisements as “one of the best-paying restaurants” in Seattle. The previous owner had advertised “private rooms for ladies,” which some have interpreted as a nod to prostitution, but Rob Ketcherside, who writes about Seattle history and researched Mr. Trump’s time in the area, said the same term appears to have been used by many upstanding businesses of the era.
But then came the rumblings about gold. By 1893, Mr. Trump had moved to the mining town of Monte Cristo, north of Seattle, where investors such as John D. Rockefeller foresaw rich veins of minerals to uncover. In a book tracing three generations of Trump family members, Gwenda Blair, an author, wrote that Mr. Trump made a dubious claim on a piece of Monte Cristo property that had already been claimed by another man. Mr. Trump declared plans to hunt for minerals but instead erected a boardinghouse to serve the many prospectors flooding the area.
In 1896, Mr. Trump opened the family’s first foray into U.S. politics. At the time, Ms. Blair wrote, many in Washington State and Monte Cristo were fervent supporters of William Jennings Bryan, a populist Democrat who mounted an unsuccessful campaign for president in which he railed against high tariffs, claiming that they harmed average Americans and propped up special interests. Mr. Trump, who had also been an apparent supporter of Mr. Bryan, mounted a political campaign of his own and was elected justice of the peace in Monte Cristo by a wide margin, 32-5.
An even bigger opportunity for riches soon emerged in the Klondike region of Canada, where gold had been discovered. Seattle promoted itself as a gateway to the flocks of would-be miners heading north. Underneath the boardwalks erected along the unpaved streets, shopkeepers stockpiled tents, bacon and saws to sell to travelers. The city’s population doubled in the span of a decade.
Mr. Trump himself pulled up stakes and headed north, once again with a business plan. Ms. Blair’s book documents Mr. Trump’s grueling trek into Alaska and then Canada and how he established the New Arctic Restaurant and Hotel in 1898, serving luxurious meals of duck and caribou and fresh fruit. But, Ms. Blair wrote, “the bulk of the cash flow came from the sale of liquor and sex,” as the facility offered space for prostitutes. (President Trump has claimed that to be false.)
While many prospectors came home from the Klondike rush empty-handed, Mr. Trump in 1901 departed a wealthy man and eventually settled in New York.
Money is now the central question over the Klondike park’s future. Mr. Trump’s cost-cutting team has ended a wide range of federal leases and pressed agencies to hunt for additional ways to shrink the federal footprint.
Parks advocates and members of Congress have shared a list of more than 150 Interior Department buildings being considered by the General Services Administration for closure, a list that includes administrative buildings near parks and visitor center facilities, such as one at the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area in Minnesota. And it includes the Klondike park in Seattle.
In a statement, the General Services Administration said the agency was reviewing all options to optimize building utilization, including the termination of some leases. “To the extent these terminations affect public-facing facilities and/or existing tenants, we are working with our agency partners to secure suitable alternative space,” the agency said.
Kji Kelly, the executive director of Historic Seattle, which owns the building where the Klondike park is, said the federal government last year signed a lease extension for the park site, through the fall of 2030, which now appears to be under threat. He said he never imagined that he would be having to write to his congressional delegation to enforce a lease with the federal government.
The park, Mr. Kelly said, is a valuable asset to the region, teaching children and visitors not only about Seattle’s history, but also the history that shaped the West.
“When the federal government takes steps to eliminate history and the understanding of the country, it’s just one more canary in a dark coal mine,” Mr. Kelly said.
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