During the spring and summer of 1898, the steamer "Queen," was very busy carrying people between Seattle and southeastern Alaska. The ship passage was only the first part of the long voyage to the Klondike gold fields.

In this photo, a crowd made up almost entirely of men waits at a Seattle pier to board the "Queen" or another Alaska-bound steamer. Many of them sit on their wooden crates of lamp oil. In the foreground, just left of center, a man and a woman sit near bundles of cedar shingles. The shingles will be used for building shelter at the gold fields.

Written on photo: "The Klondike fever" "Queen" leaving Seattle
Photographer's number: 9278