Summary Of The Klondike Gold Rush

Historical Article “GOLD! GOLD! GOLD! GOLD!” the headline of July17, 1897 read. “Sixty-Eight Rich Men on the Steamer Portland. STACKS OF YELLOW METAL!” (Klondike Gold Rush Historic Resource Study). This would prove to be one of the most enduring images in Seattle's history, contributing to the city identity. The Klondike gold rush began when two ships docked in San Francisco and Seattle carrying miners returning from the Yukon with bags of gold. The press was alerted and papers carried the story to the masses. The Klondike stampede was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to reach the Klondike goldfields, of whom only around 30,000 to 40,000 eventually did. It formed the height of the Klondike gold rush from the summer of 1897 until the

Little rain caused excessively the dry conditions, creating a giant tinderbox. On the afternoon of June 6, 1889, a young Swede from New York named John Back, an assistant in Victor Clairmont`s woodworking shop at Front Street (now First Avenue) and Madison Avenue, was heating glue over a gasoline fire. The glue boiled over, caught fire, and spread to the floors, which were covered by wood chips and turpentine. He tried to put the fire out with water, but that only served to thin the turpentine and spread the fire further. The pyre quickly engulfed two saloons and a liquor store, fueled by large quantities of alcohol, the entire block from Madison to Marion was ablaze. Due to an inadequate water supply, insufficient equipment, and with hydrants located only on every other block, the fire ravaged Seattle. Fire jumped the firebreak, and began to devour the wharves as well as everything up the hill toward Second Avenue. In less than two hours it was realized that downtown Seattle was lost. Miraculously, no one had died in the

It provided an economic shot in the arm to merchants, especially in Seattle, who supplied the native but determined stampeders. In so doing it helped bring to an end terrible effects of the Panic of 1893, one of America's worst economic depressions. It also enriched many of the men and women who participated in the Klondike Gold Rush and who returned home with scarcely a nugget or ounce of precious dust. Many spoke glowingly long afterwards of the grandest adventure they had ever