Find of the Month

Each month we highlight interesting, important, and odd items from our collection, along with the stories they tell.

Most recent Find of the Month

June 2024 - Goat banquet

"Goats to Munch on Invasive Plants at York Park!" was the headline of a 2005 media advisory from the Department of Parks and Recreation. The text went on to explain that the goats' lunch would help clear ground for a new park on the site of a former City Light substation. The park, located between Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and Rainier Avenue, was in an area that the York Park Task Force referred to as "Chubby and Tubby Heights."

Parks Department communications manager Dewey Potter knew the local media loved stories about goats at work, so when she heard rumors of the planned event, she reached out to the task force to offer help with publicity. (The media advisory described the task force as "an eclectic community support group comprising an architect, a bus driver, a nurse, a librarian, a craftsperson, a Snoqualmie elder, and a senior marketing consultant-dilettante-artist-activist of immense dedication but uncertain temper.")

The goats' feast was to include "the spring temptations presented by invasive plants, especially Himalayan blackberries." Since more than one goat would be needed to clear the site, the group hired Goat Busters to bring in three critters to do the chomping. The initial plan had been to use "our neighborhood pal Wile E. Goat, a most handsome Nubian-Alpine cross," but he preferred to dine without other goats around, so he was relegated to the role of mascot.

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