Gold Rush Fever in Spokane
A skeptical visitor reports on the harsh realities and 'fizzled' prospects for miners in the Coeur d'Alene goldfields.
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.
For the edification of the would-be ambitious Coeur d'Alene gold miner and others of the Puget Sound country, I submit these facts gleaned while sojourning in Spokane Falls. Men are flocking here in such numbers that unless they have blankets, they will find themselves minus a bed. I see men here every day just in from the mines who say there is nothing to do, and there is from two to six feet of snow from Eagle City to the mines. In the mines and at Eagle City, meals are $1 each. The stage arrived last evening with Clem King and a party of capitalists. One 'Doctor' in the party was heard saying, 'The placer mines are a fizzle, but the quartz mines are immense.' I also met a blower who claimed $1,100 was taken out of the 'Widow's Claim' this week, but when questioned, he could not identify the claim and admitted he had never seen the gold. The fact is, the snow is so deep that nobody can tell what is there. Hotel keepers are reaping a big harvest, but I advise nobody to come to Spokane Falls with the expectation of getting work until the snow leaves the mountains.
“The fact is, the snow is so deep that nobody can tell how much gold there is there, and the conclusion I have come to is that the mines in a great measure are like the Skagit mines. The hotel keepers and furnishers of supplies are reaping a big harvest.”
The 1884 Coeur d'Alene gold rush was a precursor to the Klondike fever, showing how cities like Spokane positioned themselves as 'gateways' to extract wealth from transient workers and dreamers. The economic pattern of boom-town exploitation—high board, lack of jobs, and speculative hype—mirrors the perpetual cycle of growth and bust that defined Pacific Northwest urban development.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.