page_title: North-West Mounted Police in the Canadian north
section_title: Klondike Gold Rush
hierarchical_section_title: North-West Mounted Police in the Canadian north / Klondike Gold Rush
caption_attribution_description: English: NWMP in Yukon in tent; copyright expired, see http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayItem&amp;rec_nbr=3407658&amp;lang=eng
context_page_description: The history of the North-West Mounted Police in the Canadian north describes the activities of the North-West Mounted Police in the North-West Territories at the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th. The mounted police had been established to control the prairies along the Canadian-United States border in 1873, but were then also deployed to control the Yukon region during the Klondike Gold Rush, and subsequently expanded their operations into the Hudson Bay area and the far north. The force was amalgamated in 1920 to form part of the new Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who continued their predecessors' work across the region.
context_section_description: In 1896, huge amounts of gold were discovered in the Klondike valley. Miners streamed from Forty Mile to the new town of Dawson and, once word got out to the external world the next year, around 100,000 more rushed to the region in search of gold. To reach the Klondike, many travelled by foot over arduous mountain routes and along rivers using primitive boats, and no more than around 30-40,000 successfully reached the goldfields. An estimated 60 to 80 percent of these newcomers came from the United States and most had no experience in the mining industry. Constantine moved quickly to establish a base in the Klondike in 1896, but the small detachment soon became overwhelmed and requested urgent reinforcements from the east. Encouraged by a sense that the organisation now had a new challenge and an opportunity to turn around the criticism of 1885, by 1897, 96 members of the NWMP had been sent to the district and by 1898 this had increased to 288, an expensive commitment for the Canadian government and over a third of the entire NWMP, including its most experienced personnel.
  The borders in south-east Alaska were disputed between the United States, Canada and Britain since the American purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. There were concerns that the United States might annex the Klondike and the NWMP were tasked to assert Canadian control over the borders. The NWMP set up control posts at the borders of the Yukon Territory or, where these was disputed, at easily controlled mountain passes, equipping these with Maxim guns. NWMP detectives were used to infiltrate American organisations to monitor potential conspiracies. The NWMP enforced new rules requiring that travellers bring a year's supply of food with them to be allowed into the Yukon, checked for illegal weapons, prevented the entry of criminals and collected customs duties. The NWMP also helped protect and guide the flow of migrants, evacuating many in late 1897 when food in the Yukon ran out, managing their safety en route, mediating in their disputes and providing practical advice.
  The NWMP played a major part in both law enforcement during the gold rush, managing the boom town of Dawson City and patrolling out across the Yukon Territory using a network of 33 posts. Their efforts to curb criminality were largely successful: in 1898, for example, there were no murders and only a few major thefts. Of 150 arrests for serious offences that year, over half were for prostitution and resulted from an attempt by the NWMP to regulate the sex industry, which included regular arrests and medical inspections. The laws on the consumption of liquor were also strictly enforced, and the police intervened to prevent alcohol being sold to the local Indians. The police's role in running the civil services went much further, however, to encompass fire safety, the management of local game, operating the postal and telegraph system, acting as coroners, providing social support and, in the early days, running the mining registration system. Zaslow has described the Yukon as effectively "a police state" during this period, and Morrison notes their paternalistic willingness to invent non-existent laws when they considered it necessary. The NWMP acted efficiently and with probity during the period, although their task was helped by the geography of the Klondike, which made it relatively easy to bar entry to undesirables or prevent suspects from leaving the region.
  When the force deployed to the Yukon, however, it discovered that labourers were earning up to ten times as much as a constable, even with hardship pay included, leading to serious morale and retention problems.
caption: Tent picture
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