The Klondike Hangover: When Thousands of Prospectors Got Stuck in Seattle
Fresh off the gold fields, prospectors and tourists have flooded Seattle’s hotels and lodging houses, leading to a seasonal 'nuisance' of revelry and joblessness in the city center.
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.
Not since the first Klondike rush of 1897 has Seattle had such a large floating population as at present. Nearly every hotel and many of the lodging houses in the city are full of transient guests, for the most part recently returned Klondikers. The steamers Alliance, Roanoke, Laurada, Humboldt, and others have brought to the city within the past six days, it is estimated, over 1,000 people. In addition to this influx, many tourists have arrived here during the week. 'It is hard to clear the Klondikers out of Seattle,' said a railway official. 'They swarm in the city, and after cleaning up, they generally have a good time for several days or a week. If a railway man urges them to go East, they are told: 'Oh, there is plenty of time, old chap. Let me have a rest for a few days.'
“It is hard to clear the Klondikers out of Seattle. They swarm in the city, and after cleaning up, they generally have a good time for several days or a week.”
In 1899, Seattle struggled with the social friction of thousands of transients waiting out the seasons or spending their gold. Today, Seattle faces a different kind of housing crunch, but the tension between the city's role as a transient hub and its capacity to shelter residents remains a central, recurring challenge.
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