Fire and Gold Build Seattle

Abstract

The final decade of the 19th century established Seattle as the preeminent city in the Pacific Northwest. Prodigious changes resulting from the Fire of 1889 paved the way for Seattle to take full advantage of the Klondike Gold Rush eight years later. This work details the impact that each of these events had on Seattle and concludes that the compound effects of two events of happenstance created the foundation for the Seattle we know today.