The Gold Rush That Never Was
A Tacoma land speculator attempted to claim school property as a 'placer mine,' sparking a massive legal battle and accusations of salted soil.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
John G. McBride of Tacoma filed a mineral claim on land in school section 16, just south of that city. The case, contested by the state, centered on whether the land was truly valuable for mining or merely a prime real estate play for the growing city. McBride was accused of 'salting' the property—planting gold to fake a discovery—to secure the land under federal mining laws. However, Register George G. Mills of the Olympia land office concluded that while the accusations of salting were unfounded, the land was not a viable mine. The decision noted that gold particles could be found in most gravel throughout Western Washington and that the tract was, in reality, far more valuable as city residential property than as a gold mine. The application for a patent was denied, and the land remained with the state.
“The tract, undoubtedly, contains particles of gold in small quantities, but the testimony in this case shows that gold in a greater or less quantity can be found in nearly any gravel formation in Western Washington.”
This 1892 case echoes the recurring tension in Seattle’s history: the conflict between public land use and the private ambition of developers. Long before modern disputes over housing density and land value, speculators were using creative legal loopholes to claim public resources for private profit.
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