Dawson City to Inuvik - Alaska and Points North: Tips and Tales from the Road - page 195

Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush was launched on August 16, 1896 when Dawson Charlie and
Skookum Jim, local Tagish First Nations men scouted Rabbit Creek (later renamed Bonanza
Creek) with their American friend, George Carmack. They'd been given a tip by Canadian
prospector Robert Henderson that this would be the place to look. Stories vary on who actu-
ally discovered the first nugget, some even crediting Kate Carmack as finding it while doing
her husband's washing.
In any event the men quickly realized what they had and agreed to register their claim in
George Carmack's name because racism was rife and they feared that a claim registered in
an Indian name might not hold. Not to mention the claim of Kate, an Indian woman.
When they registered their claim the next day, August 17, 1896, the greatest gold rush in
history was launched. News of the strike flashed through the mining camps and local pro-
spectors quickly flocked to the area, staking every inch of workable creek. When these new
millionaires returned to Seattle with what the Seattle Post Intelligencer trumpeted as being a
“ton of gold” the stampede north took off.
With the North American economy devastated by the bank failures and financial crises of
the 1890s, it's estimated that up to 100,000 men took the plunge. The well-financed did the
whole route by water, with some sixty steamboats carrying them up the Yukon River. Strug-
gling stampeders made it up the Inside Passage and into Valdez by boat then up and over
the Chilkoot Pass by foot, hauling the required year's worth of supplies (a ton in weight) in
multiple trips through unimaginable conditions. The absolutely desperate started up through
BC, Alberta and the Yukon by land, taking two years to arrive in the Klondike.
Unfortunately, there are only so many claims to be made on the golden banks of any rush
and it was all over within a year. But the impact on the unpopulated wilderness of the far
north was astounding.
Towns like Whitehorse, Skagway, Dawson City, Valdez, Haines Junction, Carmacks, Car-
cross and Teslin all owe their very existence to the influx of gold-fevered men chasing the
dream. Most returned home and many died under the harsh conditions but a hardy few
looked around and decided this astonishing place was the right place for them.