ABSTRACT
the history of a great many towns and cities is closely linked with the arrival of a particular ship. For Seattle, Washington, the vessel was called, somewhat ironically, the Portland. She arrived from St. Michael, Alaska, on July 17,1897. On board were sixty passengers, most of whom had spent the previous year prospecting for gold in the Klondike region of Canada’s remote Yukon Territory, and every one of whom seemed to have struck it rich. 1 The Portland was not the first ship to publicize the news of the Klondike discoveries; two days prior to her arrival in Seattle, the Excelsior had docked in San Francisco with a group of miners from the same region. With the arrival of these vessels virtually the entire world learned about the Klondike, and North America’s last “old-fashioned” gold rush was set in motion.
