The Skykomish Gold Rush
A reported discovery of river-bed gold near Snohomish sparks a local frenzy, leading prominent citizens to abandon their businesses to stake a claim.
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 some months past, parties have been prospecting along and near the Skykomish river, believing that there were valuable diggings somewhere in that locality. At one time, diggings paying two or three dollars per day were discovered, and some of the prospectors were content to work there several months, but others were not so easily satisfied and continued their search for hidden treasures. Now, the report comes from Snohomish City that these fortune-seekers have been rewarded in finding diggings about 30 miles from Snohomish City, in the river bed, that pay $20 per day to the man, using only pans in cleaning. The discoverers, Messrs. Barrett & Co., went to Snohomish City and recorded their claims. The citizens of that little city were so electrified by the news of the discovery that report says many of the prominent men of the city left their business and proceeded at once to the diggings to locate claims. If the report is not exaggerated, and the miners are actually taking out $20 per day to the man with no mining machinery, this will doubtless prove one of the best paying mines on the coast.
“The citizens of that little city were so electrified by the news of the discoverers, that report says many of the prominent men of the city left their business and proceeded at once to the diggings to locate claims.”
The gold fever of 1878 mirrors the modern speculative cycles of the Pacific Northwest, where rumors of 'hidden treasure'—now often in tech or real estate—frequently trigger a sudden, frantic migration of capital and human energy. Then as now, the promise of a quick fortune in the riverbeds transformed the quiet civic rhythm of Snohomish into a chaotic rush of opportunists.
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