Gold Dust at the Foot of Mount Baker
A steamer passenger's letter reports that Whatcom merchants have bought gold from Indigenous prospectors—and that plenty more may lie near Bellingham Bay.
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 politeness of Purser Lathrop, of the steamer Constitution, we are permitted to copy the following letter relative to a new gold discovery at the base of Mount Baker. The intelligence is important, if true:—
New Gold Mine Discovered on a tributary near Bellingham Bay.
Bellingham Bay, March 30, '59.
I am informed by Messrs. Richards & Hyatt, at Whatcom, that they have purchased a few ounces of gold from the Indians, brought down from the streams near the base of Mount Baker, and they say there is plenty of it there. The Indians picked it out on a boulder near the foot of Mount Baker. The letter estimates the gold at $18 to the ounce.
“I am informed by Messrs. Richards & Hyatt, at Whatcom, that they have purchased a few ounces of gold from the Indians ... and they say there is plenty of it there.”
The 1859 letter is a reminder that Washington's resource booms often began with Indigenous knowledge and prospecting, while the profits flowed to merchants and outside capital. The rumor of Mount Baker gold anticipated the mineral rushes that would reshape the territory—and the dispossession that came with them.
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