Every Street a Sled Trail: Seattle Breaks in Dog Teams for the Klondike
In the winter of 1898 the thoroughfares of the Sound cities turned into training grounds — sleds, go-devils and sail-carts everywhere, companies buying and selling sled dogs at $25 to $100 a team, and one man solemnly breaking in a team of billy goats.
The streets of the Sound cities are filled with all sorts of transportation devices. Sleds, go-devils, and combinations of sleds and carts, sailboats, etc., can be seen on every hand. All day long the main thoroughfares are used for training dogs to pull sledges. There are several companies operating with large capital who make a specialty of buying up, training and selling dogs for the Klondike. Then there are dozens who are making up their own dog teams, and they all get out and practice diligently. The very seriousness with which they enter into this work makes the spectator smile broadly. One man is breaking in billy goats, and he, too, forms a part of the procession on Seattle's streets with his team. It is a fact that the dogs are as good as so much gold if they are possessed of size and endurance, and there is no question but that there will be a big demand for teams at all the way from $25 to $100 per team.
“It is a fact that the dogs are as good as so much gold if they are possessed of size and endurance.”
When gold was struck in the Klondike, Seattle did not mine it — it sold the shovels, the outfits and the dogs, and the whole city rearranged itself around that trade. This little dispatch catches the boom at street level: amateurs hitching themselves to sledges on their lunch hours, and one optimist betting on goats. Every resource rush since — timber, aircraft, software — has produced the same improvised street theatre of people retooling for the next fortune.
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