Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
KLONDIKE GOLD RUSH
Seattle's first real boom came when the shipPortlanddocked at the waterfront in
1897 with its now-famous cargo: two tons of gold newly gleaned from northern
Canadian goldfields. The news spread quickly across the USA; within weeks,
thousands of fortune seekers from all over the world converged on Seattle, the
last stop before heading north. That summer and fall, 74 ships left Seattle bound
for Skagway, AK, and on to the goldfields in Dawson City, Yukon.
In all, more than 40,000 prospectors passed through Seattle. The Canadian
government demanded that prospectors bring a year's worth of supplies, so they
wouldn't freeze or starve to death midway. Outfitting the miners became big
business in Seattle. The town became the banking center for the fortunes made
in the Yukon. Bars, brothels, theaters and honky-tonks in Pioneer Square blos-
somed.
Many of Seattle's shopkeepers, tavern owners and restaurateurs made quick
fortunes in the late 1890s - far more than most of the prospectors. Many who did
make fortunes in Alaska chose to stay in the Northwest, settling in the thriving
port city on Puget Sound.
Seattle grew quickly. The Klondike gold rush provided great wealth, and the
railroads brought in a steady stream of immigrants, mostly from Eastern Europe
and Scandinavia. Seattle controlled most of the shipping trade with Alaska and
increasingly with nations of the Pacific Rim. Company-controlled communities
like Ballard sprang up, populated almost exclusively with Scandinavians who
worked in massive sawmills. A new influx of Asian immigrants, this time from
Japan, began streaming into Seattle, establishing fishing fleets and vegetable
farms.
At the height of the gold rush in 1900, Seattle's population reached 80,000,
double the population figure from the 1890 census. By 1910, Seattle's population
jumped to a quarter million. Seattle had become the preeminent city of the Pacif-
ic Northwest.
Since it was a frontier town, the majority of Seattle's male settlers were bachelors.
One of the town's founders (and sole professor at the newly established university),
Asa Mercer, went back to the East Coast with the express purpose of inducing young,
unmarried women to venture to Seattle. Fifty-seven women made the journey and mar-
ried into the frontier stock.
