The Klondike Cattle Drive
While Seattle boomed as a gateway to the north, local ranchers and contractors looked to supply the Alaskan gold rush with fresh meat hauled by steamship.
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.
S. P. Shaw of Victoria, a meat contractor for the White Pass & Yukon Railway company, shipped north last night on the steamer Dirigo 50 head of cattle and 100 sheep. The cattle were bought in Oregon, Mr. Shaw finding it profitable to come to the American side to make his purchases. Hitherto he has bought a large amount of his live stock in the Northwest Territory, Canada.
“Mr. Shaw finding it profitable to come to the American side to make his purchases.”
This reflects the early 20th-century logistical scramble to feed the gold-rush frontier, a precursor to the massive food-supply chains that sustain modern Pacific Northwest urban centers. Seattle's role as a transit hub for goods heading into the north is a legacy that evolved from livestock shipments to today's massive e-commerce and maritime logistics.
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