Harriet Pullen, one of the ladies who joined a flood of men in their rush for Klondike gold, found her fame and fortune in Skagway, Alaska. She had no need to go on to the Klondike. “I only had seven dollars to my name. I didn’t know a soul in Alaska. I had no place …
Tag Archives: Gold Rush
Heroine of the Klondike–Martha Black
Heroine? The subarctic north had several, but Martha Black stood out even among them. News of Gold on the Klondike reached the ears of Martha Purdy in 1898. Privileged daughter of a Chicago businessman, mother of two, Martha talked her husband, Will, into following their star to Dawson City. Martha the heroine had not married …
Richardson and His Highway
Richardson, Major Wilds Richardson, came to Alaska in 1906 to replace Abercrombie’s trail with an actual highway. Like Abercrombie Richardson started at the Port of Valdez, upgrading Abercrombie’s trail. But by 1906 the Klondike Gold Rush lay in the past. New gold fields lay close to Fairbanks. That and the city’s central location turned Fairbanks …
Luckily only a Few
Luckily few people had any reason to travel from the Port of Valdez into Alaska’s vast interior. Those who did faced a thoroughly daunting challenge. They faced subarctic weather; and, much worse, they faced range after range of virtually impassable glaciers and mountains. But then came the gold strike on the Klondike. Luckily no longer …
Mollie Walsh—Husband Picker
Mollie Walsh, a fixture in the great Klondike Gold Rush, came to Skagway in 1897. Five years later back in Seattle, her husband chased her down an alley and shot her dead. Good businesswoman–terrible husband picker. In Skagway Mollie sized up the situation. Most of the gold rushers coming through moved out of Skagway to …
Soapy Smith
Soapy Smith came to Skagway to get rich—like everybody else in the Gold Rush years. But Jefferson Randolph Smith had no intention of mining gold. Soapy came to mine miners. Link to another story “Fascinating Skagway” A confidence man up from Georgia, dressing and presenting like a southern gentleman, Soapy took his name from one …
Donald Trump’s link to Yukon and the Gold Rush
Donald Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump, came to Bennett, Yukon following the stampede of gold rushers headed for the Klondike. At the end of Lake Bennett a town of the same name had sprung up from nowhere, to serve the needs of prospectors passing through. Link to another story “Bennett Came First” According to Natalie Obiko …
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Buck—and His Creator, Jack London
Buck, a big strong dog who lived in California got stolen, shipped off to the Yukon and pressed into service as a sled dog. You know this story, so you know Buck existed only in the mind of Jack London until London put pen to paper and made Buck a legend in his book Call …
As the Crow Flies
As the crow flies, Lake Bennett lay just a few miles from Skagway. Theoretically Klondike gold rushers could travel those few miles from the Skagway dock to Lake Bennett, build or buy a boat and cruise down Lake Bennett to Carcross and the Yukon River. The Yukon could then float them downstream all the way …
Perpetual Motion in Dawson City
Perpetual motion obsessed Jan Welzl. Most people came to Dawson City to look for gold. Jan came to build a perpetual motion machine. He filled his three cabins with pipe and fittings, axles, counterweights, and even beer bottles. Whirling drive belts ran from the window of one cabin to the door of the next. His …