1867, OR: Twenty-five cent diggings
Untranslated Chinuk Wawa was normal in Pacific Northwest newspapers in frontier times.
Something else you might find in the ruins of a Van Schuyver building (image: Those Pre-Pro Whiskey Men)
Today’s exhibit, though, does refer to a locally famous Chinook Jargon dictionary:
TWENTY-FIVE CENT DIGGINGS — Yesterday the little wooden building on First street, standing on the property recently purchased by Messrs. Millard and Van Schuyver was torn down to give place to a larger structure to be used as a warehouse. After the rubbish had been removed from the ground, an Indian, not by any means one of ye noble red men, commenced prodding around in the dirt with a stick in search of stray coins which might have slipped from careless fingers and gone through the cracks of the floor in the days of auld lang syne. An hour’s closh nan-itch (see McCormick’s Chinook Dictionary), was rewarded by the discovery of a slick quarter, whereat the eyes of the aboriginal settler stood out “about a feet,” and chuckling an emphatic “hy-as closh,” he went on with his prospecting, the happiest siwash in the city.
