The Blue Sand Beneath Seattle
In September 1876, a crew of Chinese laborers excavating the foundation for a new building at Wellington and Third struck a rare geological treasure: a bed of pure blue sand.
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.
FROM SEATTLE.
A large force of Celestials are now engaged in excavating for the basement and foundation of Wa Chung's new building, at the corner of Wellington and Third streets. After working down about two feet below the surface they struck a bed of very fine blue sand almost entirely clear of gravel. It is probable that there are several feet of this sand above the point which they have not reached.
This brief report highlights the foundational labor of Seattle’s early commercial district, where Chinese workers were instrumental in shaping the city's infrastructure long before the famous exclusion laws. The discovery of 'blue sand'—likely a unique local clay or mineral deposit—serves as a reminder that the ground beneath Seattle's historic Pioneer Square and International District was not just dirt, but a resource being actively mined by the very people who built its economy.
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