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Diablo Dam incline railway climbing Sourdough Mountain, 1930. Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives, 2306.
Children waving to ferry, 1950. Courtesy Museum of History and Industry.
Loggers in the Northwest woods. Courtesy Washington State Digital Archives.
5/1/2025
Economic Malaise
On May 5, 1893, America's "Gilded Age" came to an agonizing end when the New York stock market tumbled, setting off a four-month spasm of financial hysteria known as the Panic of 1893. Its causes were many. A Republican-led Congress had spent away a $100 million Treasury surplus, mostly on enrichment programs for wealthy industrialists. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act undermined U.S. gold reserves, which led to skyrocketing inflation. And the McKinley Tariff Act of 1890 raised the average duty on imports to almost 50 percent, leading to higher prices on domestic goods.
Washington had achieved statehood just four years earlier, and was already straining under rapid growth and robust investment. The economic downturn was too much to weather, and fortunes were soon lost. Seattle pioneers David Denny and his wife Louisa Boren Denny went into bankruptcy. Peter Kirk's dreams of seeing Kirkland become a steel town that would rival Pittsburgh were dashed. Bank failures throughout the state hurt many working-class families.
In the spring of 1894, hundreds of Northwest residents joined Coxey's Army, which marched toward Washington, D.C., to urge Congress to relieve joblessness. For well more than four years most cities and towns in Washington were at best marooned in economic doldrums, and a few struggled for mere survival. It wasn't until 1897 that fortune smiled once again upon Seattle, when the Klondike Gold Rush began, turning the city into the Gateway to Alaska.
By this time, wheat prices had also started to rebound, helping out farmers in Eastern Washington, but cities like Tacoma struggled for a few more years to straighten out their municipal finances. As with all economic crises, history does tend to repeat itself. Several factors behind the Panic of 1893 were similar to those that triggered the start of the Great Depression in 1929.
Demonstration Days
Over the years, the first week of May has seen its share of pro- and anti-war rallies, beginning with the disruption of an ROTC parade by anti-war protesters at the University of Washington on May 2, 1922. Two decades after that, on May 2, 1942, a more somber gathering was held at Victory Square to honor the fallen heroes of World War II, and on May 5, 1970, more than a thousand people blocked Interstate 5 to protest the killing of four students at Kent State and the invasion of Cambodia.
War and peace aren't the only reasons people have taken to the streets this time of year, as shown by a May 4, 1969, protest against a planned freeway through Seattle's Arboretum. Local riots also erupted following the Rodney King verdict on May 1, 1992. And on May 1, 2006, thousands marched through the streets of Seattle and Yakima in support of immigrants' rights.
Exactly 40 years after the Louisiana Purchase, a few hundred American settlers in Oregon declared a provisional government on May 2, 1843, although the region was under joint occupation by the United States and Great Britain. The latter finally struck its colors in 1846, and two years later Oregon Territory was formally established. In 1853, Washington Territory was formed north of the Columbia River.
Seattle doubled in size with the annexation of nearby communities on May 3, 1891. Exactly 16 years later, the city expanded again with the annexation of South Park and Columbia City on May 3, 1907.
On May 2, 1922, Kathryn Miracle and Bertha Landes became the first women elected to the Seattle City Council, 12 years after Washington women gained the right to vote. In 1926, Landes was elected as the city's first woman mayor.
On May 1, 1963, Jim Whittaker -- an REI sales manager -- became the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
“Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society… I wasn't worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars.”
—Mark Twain, The Gilded Age
