Minerals seeded the streams and rivers of the isolated far north. If the rugged country offered animals with exquisite pelts, it also offered gold. But for a very long time the tiny, scattered populations of First Nations natives and fur traders knew nothing of minerals or gold. Outsiders Inevitably Came to the Far North …
Category Archives: Klondike Gold Rush
Emma Did it Her Way
Emma Kelly lived in Topeka, wrote for a Chicago newspaper, thirsted, as they say, for adventure. In 1897 word came south from the Klondike that men had struck gold, and young Emma decided to head north to Dawson City. She arranged financing, acquired a list of newspapers that would print stories she sent back, and …
Stampede to the Klondike
A stampede of gold seekers descended on Skagway, Alaska in 1897. As the crow flies, Caribou Crossing and Lake Bennett lay just a few miles from Skagway and from Lake Bennett the Yukon River flowed north to the Gold Fields. No, as they say, big deal. More on Skagway Unfortunately, the stampeders weren’t crows, and …
Towns Sprang from Nothing
Three towns sprang from nothing in 1896, created by Skookum Jim and his partners. They created them from a distance, from Dawson up on the Klondike. But, fittingly, Skagway, Carcross and Whitehorse sprang up in Jim’s old stomping ground. Defending Skagway First the town of Skagway. A boom town of mythic proportions sprouted on …
A Taste for Exotic Furs—And Gold
A taste for exotic furs swept across the civilized world. Exotic furs grew on exotic animals and a lot of them lived at the far northern reaches of the American Continent. More on Furs On that remote portion of the globe, Native Americans, First Nations if you’re in Canada, had developed a tribal civilization …
Are We Filthy Rich Yet?
The first step in getting filthy rich on the Klondike in 1898? Getting to the Klondike in 1898. The “All American Route” came through the North Pacific, the Gulf of Alaska to Valdez, Alaska and then over the Valdez Glacier. Good luck with that. The Valdez Glacier Route But let’s say you survived all with …
Who Got Rich?
Against all odds, thousands of the Stampeders who invaded the North Country in search of gold made it to the Klondike, and some got rich. Dawson City became, for a time, the largest city north of San Francisco. Saloons, dance halls, butchers, clothiers and blacksmiths lined its streets. Down on the Alaska Peninsula, Skagway mushroomed …
Yukon River Route
Our would-be prospectors are headed for the Yukon River route to Dawson City. We’ve followed them by ship to Skagway; watched them climb up Chilkoot Pass to the Canadian border—over and over again until they accumulated a ton of supplies. Now the route led twenty-six miles across Lake Bennett, two and a half miles through …
Chilkoot Pass
The most dramatic, certainly the most romantic, event that ever occurred in the North Country, the great stampede to the gold fields of the Klondike, came down to tens of thousands of men and women facing the timeless challenge—the incredible difficulty of traveling through the subarctic north. Like all their historical predecessors, thousands of rowdy …
Prospectors Already in the North Country Came First
Word of a massive gold strike spread through the North Country and prospectors rushed to the Klondike and Rabbit Creek, now known as Bonanza Creek. But the North Country is a long way from “civilization”. It took nearly a year for word of the events along Bonanza Creek to reach the outside world. On July …
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