This Day in Yukon History

Some had more gold dust than they could carry

July 18, 1897 

   “SEATTLE, Wash., July 17 – When the North American Trading and Transportation Company’s gold laden ship Portland, from St. Michael, Alaska, steamed into the harbor of Seattle this morning at 7 o’clock, it had besides sixty-eight souls in the nature of human freight, a yellow metal cargo conservatively estimated at $800,000.

   All save five or six of the passengers were miners who had from $5000 to $135,000 each. They had taken these snug sums from the famous Klondyke.

    The dust and nuggets were scraped together and dug out since last August, in which month the widely heralded district was discovered. It is safe, therefore, to say that no one of the number worked to exceed nine months in the actual acquirement of his golden possessions. In truth, most of the wealth was taken out during the three or four winter months.Scarcely any of it was dug from the ground later than May 1.

   It was taken in the main from claims known as the deep diggings. They are prospects that can be worked to the best advantage during the winter. Winter mining, at least on the Klondyke, is more profitable than summer mining.

   It was a sight well worth seeing to watch the hardy miners come down the Portland’s gangplank. Some actually had more gold dust than they could carry. 

    It was in valises, bags, boxes, tin cans and every other conceivable receptacle. From the boat it was actually carted away in drays and express wagons.Fully three-fourths of the dust was shipped out of the City to-day by the express companies.”

(The San Francisco Call – San Francisco, California)

Murray Lundberg

Travelling, writing, and photographing for articles and blog posts at ExploreNorth.

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