It was originally planned for 1907 to mark the 10th anniversary of the Klondike Gold Rush, but the organizers learned of the Jamestown Exposition being held that same year and rescheduled.

Chealander was then Grand Secretary of the Arctic Brotherhood, was involved in the Alaska Territory exhibit at the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon.

[2] Edmond S. Meany proposed that the exposition be held on the then largely forested campus of the University of Washington, which in 1905 had exactly three buildings and little deliberate landscaping.

At the time, this was considered rather far from the center of town, but Meany eventually sold the others involved on the idea that the forested campus could, itself, be an attraction for out-of-town visitors and that the trolley ride from downtown would not be an obstacle to attendance.

Because the original Klondike gold strikes had been in Canada, the concept soon evolved to an "Alaska-Yukon Exposition"; later, at the behest of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the "Pacific" theme was also added to emphasize the Oriental trade.

[8] The only foreign countries to erect entire buildings at the fair were Japan and Canada, but their presence was enough to validate the "Pacific" theme along with the US territory of Hawaii and the Philippines, recently ceded to the US by Spain.

The very popular King County exhibit included a scale model of the coal mine at nearby Newcastle, Washington and dioramas of several Seattle scenes, the originals of which were only a trolley ride away.

"[17] By early 1909, the focus turned to who was going to attend, as many local newspapers in distant locations wrote articles about residents of their state who planned to make the trip out to Seattle.

Also helpful was the fact that several major newspaper conventions were scheduled for the west coast, and the editors were said to be very interested in visiting the fair.

[18] The fair's organizers were also able to benefit from advertisements placed in newspapers by the railroads, which encouraged people to travel by rail to Seattle.

One such ad, for the Great Northern Railway, promoted the train as the best way to enjoy a scenic trip: "an attractive route over the Rockies and through the Cascades" before finally arriving at what was sure to be "the World's Most Beautiful Fair.

"[19] The primary physical legacy of the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition is the planning framework from the fair which continues to shape the University of Washington campus.

The Rainier Vista and Geyser Basin, presently known as Drumheller Fountain, were central features of the exposition and now serve as the focal point of the Science Quadrangle within the university's comprehensive plan.

Another example is the Hoo-Hoo-House, designed by architect Ellsworth Storey, a clubhouse with reception spaces constructed for the Hoo-Hoos, a lumbermen's fraternity.

He was drafted into his position with the fair simply as a man who was known to be good at getting things done, but without consideration by the city's elite that they had just made an outsider into something tantamount to royalty for the duration of a social season.

The Seattle Socialist editorialized that the Exposition was, "a great fantastic monument to the brutal avarice of the capitalist class.

[21] Premature babies were also displayed in French physician Alexandre Lion's incubators, decades before such systems were commonplace in hospitals.

In fact there was already a seasonal incubator exhibit at Luna Park in West Seattle, the Infant Electrobator concession.

[citation needed] A documentary was produced by John Forsen called "AYP-Seattle's Forgotten World's Fair" for PBS.

[26] On July 4, 2009, a group of 12 cyclists set off from Santa Rosa, California, on a 1,000 mile bike ride to Seattle, Washington, to support the disease Histiocytosis.

The ride, titled Wheels North, was a centennial of the 1909 adventure of Vic McDaniel and Ray Francisco who traveled on bicycles to the Exposition.