On September 3, 1909, more than 2,000 residents of the Wenatchee Valley in North Central Washington attend Wenatchee Day events at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, the world's fair held on the University of Washington campus in Seattle from June 1 to October 16, 1909. The day's festivities begin with a parade of 2,000 Wenatchee citizens through downtown Seattle. Apples and images of apples adorn every participant, even hanging from the neck and harness of a Shetland pony. After the parade, the crowd travels by streetcar to the Washington State Building at the exposition, where dignitaries make speeches, bands play, and Wenatcheeites distribute a railroad carload of apples to visitors. The Wenatchee boosters hoped to encourage immigration to their region, investment in its development, and increased markets for the area's apples, peaches, pears, melons, and other fruits.
Riding the Big Red Apple Special
The mayor of Wenatchee, John A. Gellatly (1869-1963), declared Friday, September 3, 1909, an official town holiday to encourage local residents to make the trip to Seattle (just $5 roundtrip on the Big Red Apple special) and to help promote the valley. A couple thousand signed on to the effort. One especially enthusiastic participant, Walter B. Jones, walked to Seattle from Wenatchee in about four days, "advertising Wenatchee Day along the way" ("Chelan Citizens Come in Body to Fair").
The population of Wenatchee in 1909 stood at about 5,000, but boosters hoped to attract 20,000 new residents within five years. The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition provided an opportunity to showcase the region's produce, as well as the enthusiasm of its citizenry. On the second point, at least, the effort succeeded. In its coverage of the parade, The Seattle Times admired "the cheeks of the bright-eyed, beautiful women -- they were all beautiful -- who rode in state in all the automobiles that could be pressed into service" ("Wenatchee in Spotlight Today").
We Take the Prizes!
At 10:00 a.m. the Wenatchee celebrants gathered in Pioneer Square. They paraded up 1st Avenue to Pike Street, crossed over to 2nd Avenue, and then returned to Pioneer Square. Many of the women rode in automobiles procured for their use by the Pacific Coast Biscuit Company. Others walked, carrying placards proclaiming the agricultural fecundity of the Wenatchee valley and the superior quality of its apples and other fruit. Some boasted that "Wenatchees Apples Are the Best in the World. Proof: We Take the Prizes." Others admonished, "Don't Chew the Rag; Chew Wenatchee Apples" ("Wenatchee in Spotlight Today"). The parade ended at 3rd Avenue and Yesler Way, where everyone boarded streetcars to the exposition.
Wenatchee Day programs in the Washington State Building included speeches by Dr. Dennis W. King (1861-1921) of the Wenatchee Commercial Club; Judge Thomas Burke (1849-1925), a Seattle resident with property interests in Wenatchee; and A-Y-P President J. E. Chilberg (1867-1954). Between speeches, the Wenatchee Male Quartet and the Wenatchee Military Band played for the audience and in the evening they staged a concert at the Nome Circle Bandstand. All afternoon, residents distributed apples, pears, and melons. As one Seattle Times report raved, "They came, they saw, they conquered. Apples -- big, red, ripe, juicy apples -- were the missiles used to make the conquest, and they were ably assisted by rotund pears and creamy cantaloupes that had found their sweetness 'neath the glorious Wenatchee sun" ("Chelan Citizens Come in Body to Fair").
Growth of the Valley
Agriculture and the arrival of the Great Northern in 1892 spurred the early development of the Wenatchee Valley. Its location on the Wenatchee River, which carried steamships laden with grain from the Okanogan region, also benefited the town's growth. Additionally, when Chelan County formed in 1899, Wenatchee became the county seat. After 1904, irrigation canals opened up more land to farming, and by 1906 Wenatchee's population topped 3,000, with plenty of room for more.
Wenatchee hoped to substantially increase its population in the 1910s. The Wenatchee Daily World advocated for a strong presence at the A-Y-P, both to gain publicity that would draw new citizens and industry to the county, and to attract investment from the East Coast:
"The easterner ... . Here is the man we are particularly anxious to reach, the man for whom we look for additional capital, the man on whom we depend largely to develop those resources today just a little beyond us. If we are able to impress on his mind that the things we claim are possible, Wenatchee could have untold moneys for investment far beyond our most hopeful imagination" ("Chelan Gives Out Plans for the Big Parade").
Apple Country Today
Although the population didn't top 13,000 until the 1950s, Wenatchee has grown steadily during the past 100 years, with nearly 30,000 residents living within the city today and many thousands more in the surrounding areas.
Apples remain central to Wenatchee's identity, but the valley's agricultural produce has diversified significantly. Still, about 9,000 acres in the valley are still cultivated with apples and other fruits, and Wenatchee remains at the center of Washington's "Apple Country," with Chelan County ranking second in the state in acres planted in apple trees, trailing only Yakima County. In 2007, 57 percent of the apples grown in the United States came from Washington. Every year nearly 30 percent of the Washington crop is exported to more than 60 countries around the world.
