On May 23, 1933, H. C. Barber, a depression-era entrepreneur, approached the Kirkland Service Club with an offer for helping out local businesses. Mr. Barber was the owner of Tusko, an elephant being housed at Woodland Park in Seattle. His idea was to bring Tusko to Kirkland for advertising purposes.

Unfortunately for Mr. Barber (and for Tusko) the elephant died of a blood clot on the heart less than two weeks later. But Kirkland's connection with this pachyderm does not end with his demise. Barber apparently didn't need a living elephant as a way of trying to make money.

Immediately following Tusko's death, Barber announced that he now had "two elephants instead of one." By stuffing the hide and having the skeleton mounted, he would then have two separate attractions. As Barber then put it, "He will be restored just as he was in life - even to the heavy chains on his tusks and legs. In this way, Tusko will live forever."

Jacob Kaper, a local man, assisted in skinning and boning Tusko at Woodland Park. The East Side Journal, the local newspaper at that time, carried a graphic description of the process including descriptions of the meat's color and consistency, and the weights of the lungs, heart and skin. The bones were brought to Hobson's ranch, near Kirkland, for the final preservation process. Members of the University of Washington anatomy class helped with the preservation.

Two months later, Barber was in the news again. He was filing a claim against the city of Seattle for $25000 based on money Tusko might have made, both in Kirkland and the Century of Progress exhibition in Chicago, had the city not placed the elephant in the zoo.

Mayor John F. Dore of Seattle, who the Journal described as "being a lawyer, as well as mayor," painted a different picture. Dore claimed that Tusko was 'adopted' by the city as an act of humanity, because Tusko was "starving to death on a downtown lot." Tusko's death, he claimed, was not through negligence of the city of Seattle.

A week later Tusko's bones and skin were put under lien, both by John Lammerman and the Community Packing Company, for labor and materials used for the dissection. At that time, the bones were in a traveling museum for a dime a look, and the hide was still being prepared.

Beyond that, the papers are silent. No mention is made of the final resting place of Tusko's remains, nor the results of the claims and liens surrounding this hapless elephant.

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