The Great Seattle Lottery: A $100,000 Sawmill and a Road to Nowhere
In 1876, the Washington Territory legislature authorized a massive public lottery to fund a road through Snoqualmie Pass. The grand prize? Yelver’s Steam Saw Mill. It was a bold gamble on infrastructure that reveals how early Seattle funded its growth.
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.
A Grand Distribution!
A Chance to Win $100,000 for the small outlay of $5.
Washington Territory Lottery. Legalized by an Act of the Legislature.
In aid of a great road from the city of Seattle through the Cascade mountains via Snoqualmie Pass to Walla Walla approved by His Excellency, Governor Ferry, Nov. 12th, 1875.
$100,000 worth of real estate in the city of Seattle, and in cash, to be distributed. Drawing of Prizes takes place Every Day. Particulars as to Scheme will be fully explained at their place of business.
By authority of an Act of the Legislature Assembly of Washington Territory entitled 'An act to aid in the construction of a wagon road across the Cascade Mountains' approved by His Excellency, Governor Ferry, Nov. 12th, 1875, and by order of the Board of County Commissioners of King County, Washington Territory, made February 4th, 1876.
Val. Wildman and Bernard Gruecau having filed their Declaration and Bond in conformity with said Act, and the said Board of Commissioners having approved said Declaration and Bond, said Val. Wildman and Bernard Gruecau are hereby licensed to carry on their Lottery under the provisions of said Act.
Witness my hand and seal of said County Commissioners Court this 4th day of February, 1876. M. S. BOOTH, Auditor of said County.
The prizes to be drawn and distributed will be as follows: First Prize—The Steam Saw Mill and Mill Property valued at $100,000 (The rents from the mill and mill property equal $700 coin per month.) Second Prize—Hovey & Barker's Corner on Commercial and Mill streets, valued at $14,000. Third Prize—Pacific Brewery Property, valued at $5,000. Together with 1,011 lots in various parts of the city of Seattle and additions thereto, valued from $50 to $1,500 each. Also, 61 Prizes in farming lands in King County.
The drawing will take place at the Pavilion, in the City of Seattle, Washington Territory, and will be made by blind-folded children from two prize wheels. The contents of the wheel can be seen by all present. One wheel will contain 5,575 gifts on printed slips in tubes or envelops; the other wheel will contain tags with numbers corresponding to those on the 60,000 tickets.
Agents should get up clubs at once and remit. Money must accompany the order for tickets. Address L. YESLER, Seattle, Washington Territory.
This 1876 lottery illustrates a time when civic infrastructure was funded by speculative gambling rather than municipal bonds or taxes. The promised 'great road' through Snoqualmie Pass was a lifeline for Eastern Washington trade, yet the lottery itself became a massive side-show of wealth concentration in Seattle's early commercial elite.
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