The Gum Wall

I was excited to hear on the news that Seattle's 'Gum Wall' has made the pages of National Geographic. We're famous for the most wonderful stuff: the grunge musice scene, the 1960s era Space Needle and now the Gum Wall. And since I thought I had posted a picture of it, from one of our walks a few months ago, I also thought I should put the news on my blog as an 'update' of sorts.

Turns out I didn't actually post a picture of it. I was going to. Thought about it... and then decided it wasn't that newsworthy. What did I know? If the editorial board at National Geographic thinks it is a world monument, who am I to shortchange it?

Now I didn't know about the gum wall myself until some young relations came from the mid-west to visit my co-worker - who reported that the gum wall was their number one sightseeing goal in the area. It was news to me. But of course, as we go wandering through our city all the time on various explorations, we just HAD to go find it one day.

It is located under the belly of Pike's Place Market at the head of Post Alley right in there among the garbage bins and bar back doors and, evidently, a theater in which the owner was tired of scraping gum off the backs and undersides of his theater seats. People have been contributing great gobs of old already-been-chewed gum to it for years. There is even a vendor in the market upstairs who advertises gum for sale "for the Gum Wall."

So there you have it - picture attached - Seattle's famous Gum Wall. The only mystery left is why National Geographic cares...