Floyd Schmoe, Writer for Peace
Dr. Floyd Schmoe (1895-2001) wrote hundreds of articles and published ten books, including Our Greatest Mountain, A Year in Paradise and For Love of Some Islands, according to historylink.org. Peace Park in Seattle, Washington, is a lasting symbol of his work.
He embraced nature and taught forestry at the University of Washington in Seattle. As a young man, he and his wife, Ruth, were caretakers of Paradise Inn at Mount Rainier. Sadly, this was also where they lost the life of their newborn girl during a terrible winter storm that prevented them from obtaining medical help.
The loss of a child impacted him in numerous ways. A lifelong champion of peace who believed in cultivating youth for a more peaceful world, Schmoe’s Peace Scholarship program awarded more than $25,000 in scholarships to high school students until 2012, according to peacescholarship.org.
Peace Park
At the age of 95, Schmoe used Hiroshima Peace Prize winnings to create Peace Park, at the north end of Lake Union (800 Eastlake Avenue NE). It features the “Sadako and the Thousand Cranes” sculpture by Daryl Smith. (Sadako was a 12-year-old Japanese girl who died of cancer.) Children in the Seattle community regularly decorate the statue and its neighboring tree with brightly-colored origami “peace cranes.”
Peace Park is on a thin stretch of land near the corner of a busy intersection with an adjacent sidewalk and benches, near the University of Washington. Steps to a nature trail below can be found a short distance behind the “Sadako” display.
Idea
Click here to see how to make a paper crane: https://www.monkey.org/~aidan/origami/crane.
Given the small size of this stop, Peace Park can easily fit into travelers’ schedules before or after a visit to Hugo House, making it the first or second stop on the Washington Author Adventures Trail.
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