Gold Fever Empties Puget Sound
A schooner captain confirms rich strikes on the Fraser and Thompson rivers—and hundreds of workers are already leaving Victoria and the Sound for the mines.
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.
By the arrival at this port yesterday of the schooner Wild Pigeon, Capt. Jones, we have been put in possession of late and highly interesting intelligence from the gold fields of the upper country.
Capt. Jones reports that the excitement relative to the gold fields lately discovered on Fraser's and Thompson's rivers is very great.
A large number of persons had returned to Victoria, Vancouver's Island, for provisions and implements for mining, bringing large quantities of gold. They report the miners to be making from eight to fifty dollars per day.
The Indians in that section of country, heretofore regarded as unfriendly, have manifested great friendship for the whites, and no acts of hostility have been committed thus far. They are no doubt intimidated by the presence of so large a body of miners.
It is estimated that some three hundred people have left Vancouver's Island and the lower part of the Sound within the last ten days.
The hands employed in the Victoria mill are leaving, and there is a scarcity of help at the present time. It is said that about sixty have already left. Parties are also preparing to leave this place for the mines.
“They report the miners to be making from eight to fifty dollars per day.”
The Fraser River rush turned Puget Sound into a supply base and labor market almost overnight, with workers abandoning mills for the mines. Today's boomtown fights over labor, housing and infrastructure echo that sudden drain of people and resources.
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