re: On the Klondike Gold Rush and Seattle
During the Klondike Gold Rush some business men in Seattle decide to advertise that the port of Seattle was the best jumping off point for the gold fields. In fact they spend many hundreds of thousands of dollars putting ads in every major newspaper in the USA. Till that time Seattle had been a minor port town Port Gamble was much larger and Olympia was about the same size. With the sale of tickets and provisions the city grew exceptionally. Shipyards sprung up, stores grew and many of those planning to go to the gold fields never left Seattle.
Few people who made it to the gold fields made any money there.