Gold Fever Hits Grays Harbor
A local rancher unearths nuggets near Cosmopolis, sparking excitement among Aberdeen's mining hopefuls.
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.
George Smith, a rancher who has a claim six or seven miles southeast of Cosmopolis, created considerable excitement by bringing in Tuesday a number of nuggets which he said were found in his vicinity. There were twenty or thirty nuggets, varying in size from a pin head to a French pea. Old miners who saw the nuggets say they are free gold. Mr. Smith has a very good reputation for truth, and does not claim to have any knowledge as a miner.
“Old miners who saw the nuggets say they are free gold.”
Gold prospecting in the Pacific Northwest was often a mix of genuine discovery and hopeful speculation. While this 1891 report reflects the era's frantic search for mineral wealth to fuel the region's economy, it serves as a reminder of how quickly rumors could stir a town's civic imagination.
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