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July 20th, 1979

July 20th, 1979


My back of the napkin theory goes like this: These crazy ass “gold rushes” of old were opportunities for hawkers and bankers and businessmen to sell their wares, equipment, refreshment, vittles etc.  They would spout off a lame ass claim such as this and dudes who didn’t have jack shit would buy into the meme/rumors and for the most part, would die looking for some golden nugget.  It is also possible that these claims and rumors were made in order to get men into areas where the far more lucrative industry of logging was concerned.  After they got there and realized there was no gold, they would succumb to the logging camps run by the captains of industry, because they probably spent everything to get to Hoquiam, Nome, you name it and the idea of jobs cutting down trees was “unattractive”.  They attracted our great, great, great grandfathers with promises of free gold.  You plucked it out of the earth as you would pick an apple.  This, of course was a lie.  And as my theory goes, it was to get laborers to spots that basically sucked, by suckering them into instant wealth through gold.  It would have taken probably a week in 1911 to get from Seattle to Hoquiam over land if you had no money but a will to work.  This was printed 100 years ago, to the day. July 29th, 1911

My back of the napkin theory goes like this:

These crazy ass “gold rushes” of old were opportunities for hawkers and bankers and businessmen to sell their wares, equipment, refreshment, vittles etc.  They would spout off a lame ass claim such as this and dudes who didn’t have jack shit would buy into the meme/rumors and for the most part, would die looking for some golden nugget.  It is also possible that these claims and rumors were made in order to get men into areas where the far more lucrative industry of logging was concerned.  After they got there and realized there was no gold, they would succumb to the logging camps run by the captains of industry, because they probably spent everything to get to Hoquiam, Nome, you name it and the idea of jobs cutting down trees was “unattractive”.  They attracted our great, great, great grandfathers with promises of free gold.  You plucked it out of the earth as you would pick an apple.  This, of course was a lie.  And as my theory goes, it was to get laborers to spots that basically sucked, by suckering them into instant wealth through gold.  It would have taken probably a week in 1911 to get from Seattle to Hoquiam over land if you had no money but a will to work. 

This was printed 100 years ago, to the day.

July 29th, 1911