The Klondike Gold Rush was the largest gold rush of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although it followed numerous earlier gold rushes to Alaska and British Columbia, it was George Carmack's 1896 discovery of gold on Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River in Yukon Territory, which launched the most publicized era in the annals of gold fever.
Carmack had been prospecting in the area for 10 years without success when he unearthed a 5-dollar pan of coarse gold on Rabbit Creek. That winter, he extracted more than a ton of gold from the creek, which he renamed Bonanza Creek. It was the richest gold strike ever in North America.
News of the gold strike reached the outside world in the spring of 1897, when the SS Portland sailed into the port of Seattle, carrying "a ton of gold" according to the city's newspaper. In fact there were more than 2 tons of gold on board. The "ton of gold" phrase was wired to newspapers around the world, and soon thousands of people who had never dreamed of prospecting - and knew nothing about the trade - dropped everything and outfitted for the Klondike. Even the mayor of Seattle himself headed north after resigning his post.
Actually reaching the Klondike was far more difficult than most stampeders knew. Of the 3 major routes north, many considered the all-water route the easiest. For those who had money, it offered what seemed to be a comfortable, though long, steamer journey: 3,000 miles from Seattle to St. Michael, on the west coast of Alaska, then 1,700 miles up the Yukon River to Dawson City, YT. Yet conditions on board most boats were crowded and filthy, and few had expected such difficult waters to navigate as they found on the Yukon. Of the 1,800 stampeders who chose this route, only 43 reached Dawson City, and of these, 35 had to turn back for lack of supplies. The majority of boats were frozen in the Yukon and had to await the spring breakup.
The 2 major land routes were the Chilkoot Pass and White Pass trails. In appearance, the White Pass seemed a less arduous trail over the mountains than the steep Chilkoot. Beginning from Skagway, the first several miles of White Pass were on a good road, wide enough for pack animals, with a gentle upward grade. Following this, however, was a series of narrow climbs on a rocky switchback path. Eventually White Pass earned the name Dead Horse Trail, for the scores of pack animals that died on this route.
The 33-mile Chilkoot Pass trail, which began just north of Skagway at Dyea, also had forbiddingly steep grades, but it turnout out to be the most expedient route to the gold fields. Some 22,000 men attempted the trail in the fall of 1897. A human chain stretched across the entire length of the pass, and those who paused to rest often were unable to re-enter the line for hours.
The Northwest Mounted Police patrolled the Canadian border on both mountain passes, enforcing the rule that all those heading to the goldfields had to import at least 1 ton of supplies, Most stampeders hired Indian packers at exorbitant rates, while others with less money made as many as 30 trips shuttling their supplies across the pass.
From 3,739-foot Chilkoot Pass, the stampeders hiked to Lake Bennett, where they built boats to navigate 500 miles of the Yukon River to Dawson City. Founded in the early days of the gold strike, Dawson City boomed explosively from its 1896 tent-town population of less than 500 to its heyday in 1898, when 30,000 people crowded this "Queen City of the North."
It is estimated that more than 100,000 gold seekers left for the Klondike. Almost none made it to Dawson by the first winter of 1897; the few who did arrive faced starvation in the ill-supplied town. Less than half reached Dawson by the following fall, briefly transforming it into a boomtown. Only a fraction of those who arrived still had the desire to look for gold, after finding most of the land had been claimed, living costs were sky high and the mining was hard. A mere handful of people, except those who originally staked Klondike claims in the winter of 1896, made any fortune at all during the peak of the gold rush in 1897-1898.
Modern day travelers can explore the history of the Klondike Gold Rush by driving the Klondike Highway south to Skagway or north to Dawson City. It's only a 2-hour drive from Whitehorse to the old gold rush town of Skagway via the South Klondike Highway. Explore Skagway's 6-block historic district on one of the daily guided walking tours offered by the National Park Service.
From Skagway, drive out Dyea Road to the start of the Chilkoot Trail near the once thriving town of Dyea. The 33-mile/53-km Chilkoot Trail begins at Mile 7.2 Dyea Road. Just beyond the trailhead is Slide Cemetery, which contains the graves of those gold stampeders killed in the Palm Sunday avalanche on April 3, 1898, on the Chilkoot Trail. Continue on Dyea Road to the old Dyea townsite, a boom town of 8,000 during the gold rush. The National Park Service offers ranger-led walking tours of the Dyea townsite daily in summer.
The Chilkoot Trail is maintained by the U.S. and Canada as part of the international Klondike Gold Rush Historical Park. Hiking the trail usually takes 3 to 5 days and requires a permit, but day-users on the U.S. portion of the trail do not need a permit. Check with Parks Canada in Whitehorse for information on trail permits, fees, customs, regulations and reservations, or phone (867) 667-3910 or toll-free 1-800-661-0486. On the Internet, visit www.nps.gov/klgo/chilkoot.htm; you may link to the Parks Canada web site from this site for current Chilkoot Trail fees and permit information on the Canadian portion of the trail.
Klondike Highway 2 turns off the Alaska Highway just northwest of Whitehorse and travels some 323 miles/520 km to Dawson City, a must stop for anyone interested in the Klondike Gold Rush. The entire city is a national historic site, preserving many structures from the city's gold rush years, such as the Palace Grand Theatre, which opened in 1899. Visit the Dawson Museum for displays about the gold rush, or take in the Robert Service Show to recapture the spirit of the times. Service, sometimes referred to as the "bard of the Klondike," was born in England in 1874 and was working in a bank in Whitehorse, YT, when he began writing poetry, inspired by the vastness of the Yukon and the characters of the gold miners.
