Klondike Gold Rush

Before the arrival of Europeans in the Yukon region, the tribal people residing in the northwest America traded copper nuggets.  Most of the tribes were aware of the gold in existence; but gold was not valued by them.  The Russians and the Hudson Bay Company had both explored the Yukon during the first half of the 19^th century, but ignored the rumors about gold.  They were in favor of fur trading, which offered more readily available profit.  They needed to rely on fur trading to survive.  After the 1850s American prospectors began to arrive in the Yukon area.  These prospectors made deals with the Native Tlingit and Tagish tribes which in turn succeeded in opening up the Chilkoot and White Pass trails between the years of 1870 and 1890.  The miners met the Han people, a semi-nomadic tribe of hunters and fishermen who resided along the Yukon and Klondike Rivers.  The Han did not appear to know about the existence of gold deposits. 

Ed Schieffelin discovered gold deposits along the Yukon River in 1883, and as a result an expedition up the Fortymile River in 1886 resulted in returning a vast amount of gold.  This discovery led to the creation of Fortymile City.  The same year gold was found near the Klondike River.  This discovery was not as profitable, only small amounts of gold was detected so it was not determined an official discovery.  By the late 1880s, more than a few hundred miners were working their way along the Yukon valley.  These miners were living in small mining camps and trading with the Han to ensure their survival.  On the border of Alaska, Circle City was established, a logging town in 1893 near the Yukon River.  In only three years Circle City grew to become what was referred to as the “Paris of Alaska” with a population of 1200 and saloons, opera houses, schools, and libraries. In 1896, a foreign correspondent from the Chicago Daily Record came to visit due to the notoriety of the community.  At the end of the year, Circle City became a ghost town when news arrived that substantial amounts of gold was found upstream at Klondike. 

On August 16, 1896, an American prospector named George Carmack, his Tagish wife Kate Carmack, her bother Skookum Jim and their nephew Dawson Charlie were travelling south of the Klondike River.  Because of a suggestion made by another prospector, Robert Henderson, the group of prospectors began looking for gold near the Bonanza Creek, at the time referred to as Rabbit Creek, one of the Klondike’s tributaries. There was some confusion of whom actually made the first claim, Carmack declared he did, however Skookum Jim and Dawson Charlie asserted that Jim did.  Gold was in existence along the river in massive quantities.

Carmack staked four claims along the river, one as his normal claim, the second as a reward for having discovered the gold, and one each for Jim and Charlie.  Jim stated that Carmack’s extra claim was really his; but the extra claim had to be staked for Carmack because no one would believe a Native American could have made the discovery.  The claims were registered at the police post at the mouth of the Fortymile River and news spread rapidly from there to other mining camps in the Yukon River valley. By the end of August, all of Bonanza Creek had been claimed by miners. 

The Klondike Gold Rush, also known as the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the last Great Gold Rush, involved approximately 100,000 prospectors who decided to try their luck and travel to the Klondike region of the Yukon in the northwestern portion of Canada between 1896 to 1899.  Gold was discovered in this region on August 16, 1896.  When the news hit Seattle and San Francisco the following year, a mad dash to this area was triggered. It took a year for the news to travel to these cities due to the inclement weather in the Yukon area. The journey was extremely difficult and only approximately 40,000 arrived.  Only a few became wealthy, only 4,000 struck gold.  The gold rush ended in 1899 when gold was discovered in Nome, Alaska.  My interest in the Klondike Gold Rush was peaked when I learned that Mr. Bayliss of whom our local library was named after in Sault Ste. Marie, MI took part in this excursion during the late 1800s.

The gold rush brought over $1,139,000 to the northwestern American ports in July 1897 which is equivalent to $1 billion in 2010 in gold.  The gold rush created a public fever, many left their jobs to set off for the Klondike in search of gold.  The stampede was joined by traders, writers photographers, and others trying to make a profit.  The prospectors arrived by taking a route through the ports of Dyea and Skagway in Southeast Alaska.  They followed either the Chilkoot or the White Pass trails to the Yukon River and then they sailed down to the Klondike.  Boats and canoes were constructed when they reached the Yukon River.  Each Klondiker was required by the Canadian government to bring a year’s supply of food on their trip to prevent starvation, their equipment and other supplies weighed close to a ton, which for the most part had to be carried in stages by themselves. To tell you the truth, I don’t know how they did it.  Due to the mountainous terrain and cold climate, most prospectors did not arrive until the summer 1898. 

Mining was difficult to almost impossible, the permafrost made digging slow and tedious.  Many of the miners decided to buy and sell claims, creating investments and having others do the work. To accommodate the Klondikers, towns sprung up along the routes.  Dawson city was developed near the Yukon River.  It grew from a population of 500 in 1896 to 30,000 people by the summer 1898.  Because of the poorly planned development of this city and due to its remoteness, it proved to be unsanitary and the inhabitants of this city suffered from fires, high prices and epidemics.  Even though these hardships were in existence, many of the wealthiest prospectors lived a life filled with gambling and drinking heavily in the town’s saloons.   The Native Han people underwent severe hardships, they were moved to a reserve to make way for the prospectors and many of them died. 

By 1898, the newspapers which advertised heavily about the gold in the Klondike, lost interest.  The newly discovered gold in Nome marked the end of the gold rush.  The boom towns declined in population.  However, the gold rush continued to a smaller degree until 1903 when production peaked after heavier equipment was brought in. Since 1903, the Klondike has been mined on and off and an estimated 1,250,000 pounds of gold have been taken from the area.  Today many tourists travel to the region and this interest continues to fuel the economy.