For three weeks in late July and early August of 2013 my wife and I went on a tour/cruise of the Yukon
and Alaska. In many respects our tour started in the summer of 2011 when we visited Seattle and saw the photographs of
the thousands of people leaving Seattle for Alaska and the Yukon during the 1897 Klondike gold rush.
As we learned more about Seattle's early economic development the more interested we became about what
happened up north. We started our 2013 trip in Vancouver, British Columbia and flew to Whitehorse, Yukon.
After learning about the history of Whitehorse and learning more details about the gold rush, our tour bus took us to
Dawson City, Yukon, the most famous town of the gold rush era. In Dawson City we spent a day walking around the
city soaking up as much of the gold rush era history as possible. Our tour took us next to Fairbanks, Alaska, a city
established as a result of the Alaska gold rush. In Fairbanks I had the opportunity to get a real understanding of the
early gold panning and placer mining processes implemented by individuals and small teams of miners as well as corporate
dredge mining, implemented with massive machines and large groups of mining company employees. After boarding our cruise
ship in Seward, Alaska we had the opportunity to visit Skagway, Alaska, a legendary town at the center of the history
of the Klondike gold rush, and Juneau, Alaska, where the Alaska phase of the gold rush began.
Early during our trip one of our traveling companions purchased some
books about the Alaska/Yukon gold rush. As I learned more about the history of the gold rush I decided to purchase two
of the books as well. I am very glad I did. Pierre Berton, a famous Canadian author born in the Yukon, originally
published Klondike - The Last Great Gold Rush 1896 - 1899 in 1958. I read the revised version of
the book that was published in 1972. Lael Morgan published Good Time Girls of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush in
1998. Morgan's book covers the broader Alaska/Yukon gold rush and provides tremendous insight on the lives
of many women of the demimonde that participated in the gold rush. This article is a combination
of information from the books and my tour experiences and observations about the era as we look back at The Gold Rush.
The story of the Alaska/Yukon gold rush is not simply the story
of what happened in Dawson City or any other location. It is the story of a series of gold finds that excited people
all over the world and created a number of stampedes. Gold is the most valuable resource that anyone can remove from
the earth. All over the world gold was (and is today) money and could be spent in its mineral form or exchanged
for paper currency backed by gold. The story begins in the Stikine River area of British Columbia in the 1860s
and the Cassiar district of British Columbia in the 1870s. The southeast Alaska town of Wrangell, the gateway to
the Stikine and Cassiar, was the first northwest gold rush boom town. The next boom town was Juneau, Alaska,
named after one of the miners that discovered the next major gold find very close to the town site in 1880. In addition
to general supplies needed to survive in the wilderness the key businesses in a gold rush boomtown were saloons/hotels,
dance halls, gambling rooms and brothels. Every gold rush town during this period had these businesses operating no matter
how crude the buildings or remote the location.
Individual
prospectors were exploring potential gold bearing areas throughout the Alaska/Yukon region. They survived alone
or in small groups by trading with Native Americans, obtaining supplies with small isolated trading posts,
living off the land and using supplies they carried from Outside over the mountain passes and transported on the
creeks and rivers. The next area to report significant gold finds was the Fortymile River area (a tributary of the Yukon
River) in the Yukon in 1886. Circle City, Alaska, was established in 1893 after gold was found in a creek near the
Yukon River north of Fortymile. Supplies were transported up the Yukon River to trading posts at these locations
by ship from the Bering Sea after the spring ice break-up and before the river froze again at the beginning
of the long winter.
In the summer of 1896
Robert Henderson discovered gold in the feeder creek system near the mouth of the Klondike River, where it
intersects with the Yukon River, upstream (south) of Fortymile. George Carmack and his Native American relatives
staked their claims on Rabbit (Bonanza) Creek on August 17, 1896 and the Klondike gold rush stampede was ignited
within the prospector community in Alaska and the Yukon. Immediately after Carmack stacked his claim, Joe Ladue
founded Dawson City. The news of the Klondike stampede finally reached the rest of the world in July of 1897 when ships
carrying prospectors and their gold haul arrived in San Francisco and Seattle. In the midst of a major depression
unbelievable wealth was being created by Dawson City area miners. The stampede to Dawson City was underway
within a few days. The towns of Skagway and Dyea were established on the southeast Alaska coast virtually
overnight in the summer of 1897 as launching points for those stampeders that wanted to pursue the most direct route from west
coast ports over the coastal mountains to the lakes that feed the Yukon River, the path to Dawson City. The
stampeders had to climb over the mountain passes and navigate a series of lakes, rivers and rapids to reach Dawson City
500 plus miles downstream. Other groups of stampeders made their way to Dawson City from other launch points along the
Alaska coast. Edmonton, Alberta was also a launch point for hundreds of stampeders.
Discovery claims were staked at Anvil Creek (Nome), Alaska on September 22, 1898. Gold was found on the beach
at Nome on approximately July 27, 1899, setting off the next major stampede. The city of Fairbanks, Alaska began
life as a trading post for Tanana Valley miners in August 1901. Felix Pedro staked his the first major claim in the wilderness
near current day Fairbanks on July 28, 1902 which set-off another stampede in 1903. There were other significant gold
finds in other areas of Alaska in this same time period which set-off mini stampedes of their own.
The story of the gold rush is complex. There are many different players in many locations. But the central characters
of the story are those people that came from all over the world to attempt to reach Dawson City. It is estimated
that approximately 100,000 people attempted to reach Dawson City beginning in the summer of 1897. It is estimated that
30,000 to 40,000 people endured the incredible hardships of the winter of 1897/1898 and completed the journey, most arriving
in June and July of 1898. Thousands of people turned back after realizing how difficult the journey would
be. Many people lost their lives in avalanches, freezing lakes, rivers and rapids, to disease and the incredible freezing
cold of winter. Some of the stampeders committed suicide, unable to deal with their personal reality during or after
the trip to Dawson City. A few people were murdered in Skagway or on the trail. Unfortunately, many of those
that completed their journey to Dawson City discovered upon arrival that almost all of the valuable gold claims had already
been staked by the Alaska/Yukon prospector community before the stampeders arrived. However, it appears that a few thousand
of those that made it to Dawson were able to participate in the gold rush itself. However, for many stampeders the goal
wasn't to mine gold. The goal was to mine the miners of the gold they worked so hard to remove from the creeks and bedrock
below the permafrost of the Yukon. This is the story of the owners and workers in the saloons/hotels, dance halls,
gambling rooms, brothels, restaurants, river transportation and every other type of business one can imagine from the
late 1890s era. Dawson City became an incredible engine of economic activity for all kinds of people, reputable and
not.
One of the most interesting aspects of the Klondike gold rush
is that it took place primarily in Canada and about 80 percent of the stampeders were US citizens and almost all the
goods the stampeders took with them to Dawson City were imported from the United States and import duties had to be paid and
collected. Another interesting feature of the entire gold rush is that Canada's North West Mounted Police
were in place and kept order in the Yukon during the entire Klondike gold rush period. Keeping order didn't mean eliminating
all activity that was technically illegal, it meant keeping a reasonable level of law and order and letting adults conduct
their personal affairs pretty much as they wished as long as they didn't negatively impact others. There
was no equivalent police force on the US side of the border. Alaska was the wild west just like the lower 48 in
the decades preceding the gold rush.
After
reading the books, seeing and traveling through much of area in the middle of the summer and talking to locals about
winter weather that is experienced in the Yukon and central Alaska region one has to ask oneself some questions. Why
did so many people risk so much to be part of the gold rush? One factor was that the western US ports, Seattle, Tacoma,
Portland and San Francisco, and Edmonton were really hurting economically. The business leaders of the coastal cities
knew that that they would have a significant financial benefit if thousands of people bought their outfits and caught ships
operating from their ports heading north. The business leaders of Edmonton knew that would get the same benefit for
those that would try the overland route to the Yukon. There was a tremendous global marketing campaign from western
states business leaders to convince people to become Yukon stampeders. It worked! Did people really understand
how difficult it would be to physically make the journey? Clearly the answer is no, but once they were committed to
the trip about one-third that started had the guts and drive to do what it took to make it all the way to Dawson City no
matter what. What these people had to endure to successfully achieve their objective is almost beyond belief.
Was it worth the effort? This is one of the most fascinating questions concerning the Klondike stampede. In the
end it appears that more money was spent (total cost of the trip and supplies) by the stampeders attempting to reach
Dawson City than the value of the gold taken out of the ground during the time period of the stampede and a few years after
it was over. Much of the gold was spent by the miners in Dawson City living the good life available to them in the environment
where they were living and working. Very few people used their Klondike wealth as a launch pad for more success after
the gold rush was over. However, there is no doubt that the economic activity created by The Gold Rush was instrumental
in helping get the US out of its 1890s depression.
During my time in Whitehorse I had the opportunity to visit a local museum and begin understanding the world
that existed in the late 1890s in the Yukon. I also learned about the construction of the White Pass and Yukon
Route Railroad which was completed in 1898 at the end of the gold rush and the development of Whitehorse as transportation
hub connecting the Yukon River traffic with the railroad. The narrow gauge railroad transited White Pass in the
coastal mountains and connected Skagway to the Yukon River at Whitehorse. The railroad is no longer in use in Whitehorse
other than for use as a waterfront tram for tourists. I also had the opportunity to explore the SS Klondike,
one of the last sternwheelers remaining from the train/ship transportation era. As I walked around the town I thought
about how it must of looked years ago with shipyards, warehouses, livestock pens and everything needed to support
mining operations and life in the Yukon. The riverfront is now all cleaned-up and is a very nice park.
In the old days it was filled with buildings bustling with business activity. Today Whitehorse is the capital of the
Yukon and continues to be a transportation hub with a modern airport and highway system.
As our bus drove toward Dawson City along the Klondike River we saw massive piles of gravel left over
from the dredging operations that occurred in the early 1900s after the gold rush was over. When most of the individual miners
left for Nome and other places, the corporate mining period began and huge dredges continued the extraction of gold from the
area where the Klondike and Yukon Rivers come together. We went to the tourist office and got a map of the
remaining historical sites in town and walked to virtually all of them on Dawson City's gravel and
dirt streets and wooden sidewalks. I walked down Front Street and the other famous historical streets and saw what
was left from the early days of Dawson City. Dawson City had three major fires in its first two years of life.
There is virtually nothing left of the original city. But there are a small number buildings from around 1900 that
illustrate the problem of improperly building on permafrost land. I saw the berm along the river bank walkway that
was built up in phases over a century to help stave up the disastrous floods that have plagued Dawson City a number of
times since its founding. I walked by the historic government buildings that are the symbol of the presence of
law and order in Dawson City since its founding. I traveled on a Yukon River boat and saw the remains of three
old sternwheelers rotting away on the western bank of the Yukon River with the metal stacks rusting away due to
exposure to the elements. I looked at the scar on the mountain that overlooks Dawson City that has been there since
the beginning of time just like the stampeders did when they arrived in Dawson City over a century ago.
Fairbanks is now a fairly modern city. It now has a park on its riverfront
that a century ago was filled with ships and boats bring supplies to the miners and taking people and gold Outside. I
walked the streets that are part of its gold rush history. I had the opportunity to visit the Gold Dredge 8 National
Historic District. I learned how this massive industrial gold mining machine worked when it operated
between 1928 and 1959 in the Tanana Valley. Dredge 8 didn't shut down because it ran out of gold to mine.
During its operating life gold prices were fixed by the US government. It was shut down because it was no longer profitable
to mine for gold at the government's price. I learned how to pan for gold (and got a few flakes) and learned
how the Alaska/Yukon miners mined through the permafrost to reach the gold bearing bedrock in the middle of winter.
During the cruise phase of our trip we stopped at Haines, Alaska. From
Haines we took a small ferry down the Lynn Canal to Skagway. As we passed the area where Dyea once existed
there was nothing. Once a boom town during the Klondike stampede, there is nothing left of Dyea today.
There were four huge cruise ships tied up at the Skagway docks for the day, delivering over 10,000 tourists into the city.
We walked around Skagway among the thousands of tourists on the streets, not too much different when thousands of stampeders
were in Skagway heading for the Dawson City. We saw some of the early buildings that continue to exist.
We rode the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad from Skagway to the White Pass summit in Canada. We looked down at the
path many of the stampeders with heavy backpacks walked to cross the coastal mountains and shook our heads
in amazement. We marveled at how the railroad company could build a 110 mile railroad in such a hostile environment
in just 26 months. The railroad, completed on July 29, 1900, was a truly international effort of
British financing, American engineering and Canadian contracting. Today, the railroad carries tourists during the summer
season on 67 miles of its original 110 mile route. Once we reached the summit we could see the beginnings of the lake
region to our north and wondered how did stampeders make their way over this desolate, rocky terrain. We took a bus
back to Skagway from the summit and looked at some of the most rugged terrain we had every seen. How could anyone transport
tons of equipment over the passes in the middle of winter through the snow and freezing cold?
It is virtually impossible for any of us to imagine what it must have been like to live in The Gold Rush era.
Could any of us endure the hardships that thousands of stampeders did? Do we have the same guts,
determination and physical stamina? Could we have packed our gear over the mountains, transported our gear over
rough terrain for endless miles, built boats with no experience, sailed them for hundreds of miles through turbulent
water and successfully arrived at Dawson City? But the Klondike stampede was over quickly. Dawson City's
population began to decline quickly after it peaked in the summer of 1898. Many people followed the stampede to Nome
and then Fairbanks and other places in Alaska. Many returned to the outside and their prior lives. Some died in
their attempt. Some stayed in Dawson City for the long term.
Today Dawson City has less than 2000 permanent residents. A few years ago Dawson City had only about 500 permanent
residents. The winters in Dawson City are harsh, no different than they were over 100 years ago. The Yukon River
freezes over in the fall and the ice breaks up in the late spring. It takes a special kind of person to live in that
environment. The people of Dawson City and the Canadian government have successfully developed Dawson City's tourist
industry. Mining operations are continuing in the Dawson City area. The area never completely ran out of
gold. People lost the economic incentive to mine it. Today, with the price of gold around $1400 per ounce
miners have returned to the area working their claims with modern equipment, extracting precious metals from the earth.
To all of the people that participated in The Gold Rush we salute you for
following your dreams and making the best decisions you could under the circumstances of your times. We marvel
at what you accomplished. To all of those that continue to pursue their dreams in Alaska and the Yukon we wish you all
the best. We hope that we can return one day to the land of The Gold Rush.
Copyright 2013 by TPM
