Tacoma Curiosities: Geoduck Derbies, the Whistling Well of the North End, Alligators in Snake Lake & More by Karla Stover

Author:Karla Stover [Stover, Karla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, History, Non-Fiction, Photography, Pictorials, Regional, Travel, United States
ISBN: 9781467135535
Google: 3ElIDQAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1467135534
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2016-10-09T23:00:00+00:00

Sketch of Tacoma’s harbor labeled “Gateway to the Klondike.” From Tacoma Times, December 14, 1897.

Close-up of would-be prospectors crowding the wharf. From Tacoma Times, December 14, 1897.

The Yukon Sleigh. From Tacoma Times, December 14, 1897.

Hardee’s three-part rocker broke down into a compact twenty- by thirteen-inch, sixteen-pound, easy-to-carry unit. The first part was the foundation; next came the actual rocker with a “stout cloth apron for catching the gold.” The upper part was the box, which had a perforated sheet-iron separator and a riffle and slide in one end that was lifted to get rid of the washed dirt, leaving the gold to fall into the riffle. “A man rocks it with one hand and dips in the water (for dirt, gravel, and hopefully gold) with the other,” Hardee said. “Good for beginners.”

Sleds, of course, were very important. Tacoma Iron Works contracted with the Yukon International Steam Sled Company to deliver ten twenty-foot-long by seven-feet-wide steam sleds for use on the upper Yukon River, and a steam cable sled for the Chilkoot Pass. The steam sleds had two fifteen-horsepower engines with thirty-five horsepower steam boilers. The power wheel had sharp teeth to grip the terrain. The steam cable sled, which cleared the way for the others, had a snow plow with a circular saw.

HEADLINES

Mad Rush, Halt Called on the Kiondike [sic] Stampede.

–Boston Journal, July 28, 1897

Pirates after Gold. Chinese Freebooters Are Said to Infest the Waters of Bering Sea.

–Sun (Baltimore), July 29, 1897

Skeleton of Miners Who Perished from Cold, Heat, Malaria or Starvation Strew the Mountain Passes.

–Morning Herald (Lexington, KY), July 30, 1897

Freaks. Alaska Carrier Pigeon Mail Service.

–Boston Journal, August 9, 1897

Shot. A Starving Man Was Caught Stealing Bacon from Klondike Prospectors. Black Side Coming into View.

–Kalamazoo Gazette, August 30, 1897

Anxiety in England. Fears Expressed That Americans Will Seize the Klondike.

–St. Louis Republic, August 22, 1897

Experiments to Be Made with Reindeer as a Means of Locomotion.

–Age-Herald (Birmingham, AL), August 24, 1897

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