The Olympia Gold Rush Rumor
A local prospector claims to have found a high-value gold ledge just two miles from the state capital, sparking intense local excitement.
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.
Olympia, May 3. Eugene Monroe, an old prospector, has occasioned endless excitement and interest by displaying samples of gold ore of an unusually high value discovered within two miles of Olympia. He says he has been prospecting in the vicinity for three years and has found a ledge of burnt quartz, through which a thread of gold runs in large quantities and unusual purity. He exhibits one piece of free gold half an inch long and one-sixteenth of an inch thick picked from the ledge, and says that assays show that the ore will run from $75,000 to $80,000 per ton.
“Eugene Monroe... has occasioned endless excitement and interest by displaying samples of gold ore.”
Prospecting fever was a recurring boom-bust phenomenon in the Northwest, often driven by singular figures claiming massive discoveries. While this particular ledge never birthed a mining empire in Olympia, it captures the 'get-rich-quick' culture that defined Seattle's expansion period.
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