The Klondike Gold Rush

DID YOU KNOW • Sam McGee, immortalized in Robert W. Service’s poem, “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” was actually a Canadian who flocked to the North at the beginning of the goldrush in the hopes of striking it rich. You can learn more about Sam McGee in the February edition of Reader’s Digest (“Meet the Real Sam McGee,” by David Bly). • At the height of the Klondike Gold Rush, 80 percent of Yukon’s population was American. • Fearing that the Yukon might be grabbed by the Americans, Ottawa sent out the Yukon Field Force to ensure Canadian sovereignty. Much of the Yukon Field Force’s history comes from the pen of Miss Faith Fenton, reporter for Toronto’s Globe. • During the heyday of the gold rush Dawson City had a floating population estimated at 30,000. • In the winter of 1897-98 two workmen took six days to dig two graves in Dawson City. They were paid $200. • Nurse and businesswoman Hannah S. Gould organized the Women’s Clondyke Expedition. Five hundred women planned to steam 24,000 miles from New York to Alaska. They made it as far as Seattle, where they disbanded when their prepaid supplies and steamer north were nowhere to be found. • Katherine Ryan, also known as Klondike Kate, was the first female member of the North West Mounted Police • The dog immortalized in Jack London’s Call of the Wild belonged to Belinda Mulroney, who opened the Fairview Hotel in Dawson City in 1898. • Addison Mizner, who laid out part of Dawson City, later became a key architect of the Florida real estate boom in the 1920s. • The first saloon to open in Dawson City was the Northern Saloon, owned by Harry Ash • Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith was a conman who, along with his thugs, controlled Skagway. Soapy was killed during a gunfight when confronted by Skagway vigilantes in July 1898. You’ll find a website dedicated to Soapy at www.soapysmith.net. •Soapy has been portrayed in many films, plays and television programs, and even a computer game by actors such as Clark Gable, Sam Jaffe and Rod Stieger. In the television sereis Deadwood—set in 19 th century Dakota Territory—Gill Gayle plays a character, named “Huckster,” which is based on Soapy Smith • Charlie Chaplin played the Lone Prospector in the 1925 film The Gold Rush.

Wilfrid Laurier was barely a month into his new job as Canada’s Prime Minister in August 1896 when gold was discovered on Rabbit (later Bonanza) Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River.

Following that strike, local miners who dreamed of striking it rich quickly flooded the area. News of the find was confined to the Yukon until July 1897, when those first successful miners steamed into Seattle and San Francisco with their newfound wealth.

“GOLD! GOLD! GOLD! GOLD!” was the headline in the SeattlePost-Intelligencer. Its description of “a ton of gold” started a stampede of an estimated 100,000 prospectors.

But the Klondike was a long way from any civilized place in North America, and the trek there was arduous, back-breaking and, for many, impossible.

HOW THEY GOT THERE

Gold seekers used a number of routes to gain access to the Klondike, many of which involved long portages, mountains to climb and glaciers to cross. Many never made it. The fastest way to get to the goldfields was by steamer, from Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle or San Francisco, to Skagway or Dyea in Alaska. From there the fortune-hungry traveled to Bennett Lake, B.C., and then proceeded by river to the new town of Dawson City.

Getting from Alaska to Bennett Lake was difficult. Would-be prospectors could haul their supplies along the White Pass Trail from Skagway or take the Chilkoot Trail from Dyea. Both routes were about 30 miles long and each had its obstacles. So many pack animals were lost along the treacherous White Pass Trail that it became known as Dead Horse Trail. The Chilkoot Trail was an old reliable trail, but reaching the summit of Chilkoot Pass tested the strength and will of all who made the effort.

The average person, carrying about 50 pounds of supplies, took about six hours to climb the 1,000-foot-long “Golden Stairs.” And if one could not afford to hire packers, the pass had to be climbed 40 times because one ton of supplies were required to survive a year in the Yukon. At the summit—the border between the United States and Canada—the North West Mounted Police were ready to enforce the law, which included collecting duty.

The boat trip from Bennett Lake to Dawson City could take up to two weeks. Nonexistent before the gold rush, by 1898 Dawson City had every convenience found in Vancouver or Winnipeg: Saloons, hotels, stores, theatres, doctors, churches and graveyards.

Dominion Day Menu, Dawson City’s Regina Café Consommé à la jardinière Rock Point oysters Piccalilli Lobster Newburg Chicken salad en mayonnaise Broiled moose chops aux champignons Cold tongue Roast beef Boiled ham Bengal Club chutney Saratoga chips Cakes and jellies Pears and peaches Cheese Coffee Source: Klondike by Pierre Berton

The Klondike Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands of gold seekers, entrepreneurs, dancers, conmen and the North West Mounted Police who maintained order. The stampede ended in the summer of 1898. By then the gold seekers had spent as much on supplies and travel expenses as they extracted from the earth—about $50 million.