FINAL BILL REPORT

                  SCR 8410

                     As Passed Legislature

Brief Description:  Proclaiming the year commencing July 1997, as Klondike Gold Rush Centennial Year.

Sponsors:  Senators Horn, Rossi, Johnson, McDonald, Winsley, Rasmussen and Swecker.

House Committee on Government Administration

Background:  When the S.S. Portland docked in Seattle on the morning of July 17, 1897, transporting more than one ton of gold from the Klondike, it ushered a flurry of economic activity in the Puget Sound area as tens of thousands of gold hungry miners flooded through Seattle and Tacoma on their way to the fabled gold fields of the Klondike.

The primary route to the Yukon was by steamer from Puget Sound to Skagway or Dyea, Alaska, and then by land to the fabled gold fields.

The flurry of economic activity in outfitting and transporting gold hungry miners to the Yukon transformed Seattle from a sleepy frontier town on Puget Sound to the robust gateway to the Klondike and ended the great 1890s depression.  This transforming event was celebrated by the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exhibition in 1909 on the newly opened campus of the University of Washington at its present site north of Portage Bay.

On July 19, 1997, the Spirit of >98 will reenact the arrival of the S.S. Portland 100 years and two days after the original landing.  Planning for this event began two years ago by the board of directors of the Klondike Centennial Committee of Washington, the Klondike Centennial Committee of Alaska, the Washington State Office of the Secretary of State, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and private businesses.

Summary:  The Senate and House of Representatives of the state of Washington resolve that AThe Rush is On@ and proclaim the AKlondike Gold Rush Centennial Year@ to commence in July of 1997.

Votes on Final Passage:

Senate Adopted

House     97 0