Gold discovered in the Yukon - Aug 16, 1896 - HISTORY.com This Day In History: 08/16/1896 - Gold Discovered in Yukon In a This Day in History video, host Russ Mitchell takes us through the history of August 16th. On this day in 1829, Chang and Eng Bunker, a pair of conjoined twins from Siam, arrived in Boston to be put on exhibition. On this day in 1868, T.E. Lawrence, the British soldier who gained fame as Lawrence of Arabia, was born. On this day in 1988, George H.W. Bush picked Dan Quail to be his running mate on the Republican presidential ticket. Also, on this day in 1896, George Carmack struck gold while fishing near the Klondike River in Canada's Yukon Territory; at last, the Gold Rush was on.

Lead Story Gold discovered in the Yukon Share this: Gold discovered in the Yukon Author Gold discovered in the Yukon URL Publisher A+E Networks While salmon fishing near the Klondike River in Canada’s Yukon Territory on this day in 1896, George Carmack reportedly spots nuggets of gold in a creek bed. His lucky discovery sparks the last great gold rush in the American West. Hoping to cash in on reported gold strikes in Alaska, Carmack had traveled there from California in 1881. After running into a dead end, he headed north into the isolated Yukon Territory, just across the Canadian border. In 1896, another prospector, Robert Henderson, told Carmack of finding gold in a tributary of the Klondike River. Carmack headed to the region with two Native American companions, known as Skookum Jim and Tagish Charlie. On August 16, while camping near Rabbit Creek, Carmack reportedly spotted a nugget of gold jutting out from the creek bank. His two companions later agreed that Skookum Jim–Carmack’s brother-in-law–actually made the discovery.

Regardless of who spotted the gold first, the three men soon found that the rock near the creek bed was thick with gold deposits. They staked their claim the following day. News of the gold strike spread fast across Canada and the United States, and over the next two years, as many as 50,000 would-be miners arrived in the region. Rabbit Creek was renamed Bonanza, and even more gold was discovered in another Klondike tributary, dubbed Eldorado. “Klondike Fever” reached its height in the United States in mid-July 1897 when two steamships arrived from the Yukon in San Francisco and Seattle, bringing a total of more than two tons of gold. Thousands of eager young men bought elaborate “Yukon outfits” (kits assembled by clever marketers containing food, clothing, tools and other necessary equipment) and set out on their way north. Few of these would find what they were looking for, as most of the land in the region had already been claimed. One of the unsuccessful gold-seekers was 21-year-old Jack London, whose short stories based on his Klondike experience became his first book, The Son of the Wolf (1900).

For his part, Carmack became rich off his discovery, leaving the Yukon with $1 million worth of gold. Many individual gold miners in the Klondike eventually sold their stakes to mining companies, who had the resources and machinery to access more gold. Large-scale gold mining in the Yukon Territory didn’t end until 1966, and by that time the region had yielded some $250 million in gold. Today, some 200 small gold mines still operate in the region. Related Videos Klondike Gold Rush of 1896 Blog Klondike Gold Rush of 1896 Gold was discovered in British Columbia in the Cassiar districts, in 1873, and miners entered the Yukon region, in 1882. In 1886, coarse gold was discovered after Forty-mile Creek was found, sending shock waves of excitement through the Yukon country. In August 1896, George and Kate Carmack, Skookum Jim, and Dawson Charlie, discovered gold on Bonanza (Rabbit) Creek, a tributary of Klondike River. Two weeks later, gold was found on Eldorado Creek, a tributary of Bonanza.

In the fall of 1896, news of the Klondike strikes reached Circle City, and miners departed for Dawson. Building began at the new site of Dawson City, Yukon Territory. By September 1896, Bonanza Creek is fully staked out and many claims were already producing. During the winter of 1896-97, miners worked the Klondike mines, removing millions of dollars in gold. The summer of 1897 brought news and spectacle. The day of July 14 exploded as the steamship Excelsior arrived in San Francisco, California with a half million dollars worth of gold on board, and wondrous stories of the Klondike Gold Rush hit the news wires. Three days later the steamship Portland docked in Seattle and 68 miners unloaded one million dollars worth of gold in front of a crowd of 5,000. During July and August 1897, miners left Seattle and other cities for the Klondike. By September of that same year, 9,000 had left the Port of Seattle.

Ships bearing the first stampeders arrived in Dyea and Skagway, Alaska or steamed directly up the Yukon River to Dawson City. Oliver Millett of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, staked a claim on Cheechako Hill, far above Bonanza Creek, that produced a half million dollars worth of gold. A staking rush of the nearby hills began. In the winter of 1897-98, writer Jack London and an army of miners trudged over the White and the Chilkoot Pass trails. In the spring of 1898, thousands left Seattle and other cities for the Klondike. The population of Yukon peaked at over 30,000. Dawson City became the largest Canadian city west of Winnipeg. The ice on Lake Lindemann and Bennett Lake thawed and an armada of more than 7,000 boats began their water journey to Dawson City. Unfortunately, more than 60 men and women were killed by a snowslide on the Chilkoot Trail. Through the summer of 1898 between 20,000 and 30,000 potential miners had reached Dawson.

Gold was discovered at Anvil Creek, Alaska. Two years after the Great Seattle fire of June 6, 1889 , the city began to regrade downtown to expand the commercial district. More than $22 million worth of gold was pulled out of the creeks. Roughly $2.5 million was pulled out in 1897 and $10 million in 1898. In the spring of 1899, more than a million dollars worth of property and 117 buildings are destroyed in a fire in Dawson City. The town site of Nome, Alaska, was staked out and established. The summer of 1899 brought change and growth to the Alaskan and Canadian gold territories, the railroad came to Alaska as the first White Pass and Yukon Route train ran from Skagway, Alaska, to Carcross, Yukon. A year later, the line to Whitehorse was completed. When gold was discovered on the beaches of Nome, Alaska, two thousand arrived to extract it, and the next gold rush began. The Klondike Gold Rush was officially over. A Steamer arrived in Seattle in October 1899; it carried Nome miners and gold.

Early in 1900, from January to May, one to 2,000 miners went down the Yukon to Nome, and ships sailed from Seattle for the Nome gold beaches with up to 20,000 passengers on board. Throughout the summer of 1900, thousands descended on the Nome beaches to dig for gold in the sand. From 1901 through 1904, big things happened in Alaska and in Seattle. Thanks to the Alaskan and Canadian Gold Rush and the rebuilding of Seattle and San Francisco, the annual volume of business in Seattle topped out at more than $50 million. Gold was discovered in the Tanana Valley of Alaska, and the city of Fairbanks was established. The Alaska Club, a Seattle organization of miners who had struck it rich in the Alaskan and Canadian gold territory and other Alaskan businessmen, was created. Between the years of 1906 and 1916, Seattle grew significantly in size and recognition. Part of the re-growth of Seattle became apparent when, in 1906, the Schwabacher Company constructed a new eight-story building at First and Jackson in Seattle.

In 1908, the Alaska Club and Arctic Club merged in Seattle, bringing together as one group the Seattle and Alaskan businessmen. The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition was a world's fair held in Seattle on the grounds of the University of Washington , in 1909, publicizing the development of the Pacific Northwest. The grounds design was achieved by the Olmsted Brothers . Also in 1909, the Statue of William Seward was placed in Seattle's Volunteer Park . Seattle's ocean-borne commerce reached a new high of $155 million in 1914. Between 1915 and 1916, Alaska exported nearly $50 million in gold, silver, copper, other minerals and salmon to the United States. One of the benefits Seattle received from the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896 was the ability to rebuild the city. In 1916, the Construction of the Arctic Building in Seattle was the physical manifestation of the design work of A. Warren Gould. Off-site search results for "Klondike Gold Rush of 1896"... Klondike Gold Rush By Gary L.

Blackwood On August 16, 1896, George Washington Carmack and two Indian friends in the Yukon pried a nugget from the bed of Rabbit Creek, a tributary of Canada’s Klondike River, and set in motion one of the most frenzied and fabled gold rushes in history. Over the next two years, at least 100,000 eager would-be prospectors from all over the world set out for the new gold fields with dreams of a quick fortune dancing in their heads. Only about 40,000 actually made it to the Klondike, and precious few of them ever found their fortune. Swept along on this tide of gold seekers was a smaller and cannier contingent, also seeking their fortunes but in a far more practical fashion. They were the entrepreneurs, the men and women who catered to the Klondike fever. George Carmack, the man who began it all, was neither a die-hard prospector nor a keen businessman. The California native was simply in the right place at the right time. Not that this son of a Forty-Niner had anything against being rich.

But, like most of the white men who drifted north in the 1870s and ’80s, he came as much for the solitude as for the gold. Read More in Wild West Magazine Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!! There had been rumors of gold in the Yukon as far back as the 1830s, but little was done about it. The harsh land and harsher weather, plus the Chilkoot Indians’ jealous guarding of their territory, effectively kept out most prospectors–until 1878, when a man named George Holt braved the elements and the Indians and came back with nuggets impressive enough to make other prospectors follow his lead. By 1880, there were perhaps 200 miners panning fine placer gold from the sandbars along the Yukon River. In 1885, gold was found in paying quantities on the bars of the Stewart River, south of the Klondike River. The next year, coarse gold was found on the Forty Mile River, and a trading post, called Fortymile, then sprang up where the river joins the Yukon River.

In 1893, a little farther down the Yukon, in Alaska, two Russian half-bloods hit pay dirt that produced $400,000 a year in gold, and spawned the boom town of Circle City. Known as ‘The Paris of Alaska,’ it boasted two theaters, eight dance halls, 28 saloons, a library and a school. But when news of the strike on Rabbit Creek (soon to be renamed Bonanza Creek) reached the citizens of Circle City, they decamped in droves. Only a year before Carmack’s lucky find, Canada had created the Yukon District as an administrative subunit within the Northwest Territories, and construction had begun on Fort Constantine (across from Fortymile), the first North-West Mounted Police post in the Yukon. So law enforcement was in place just in time to greet the droves of prospectors who would soon be stampeding to the Klondike region of the Yukon District, which would become a separate territory on June 13, 1898. Like his Indian friends, George Carmack believed in visions.

Shortly before his dramatic discovery, he had a vision in which two salmon with golden scales and gold nuggets for eyes appeared before him. So lacking in mercenary impulses was he that he interpreted this as a sign that he should take up salmon fishing. And that’s just what he was doing, along with his friends Skookum Jim and Tagish Charley, when a determined prospector named Robert Henderson floated down from upriver and, in keeping with the prospector’s code, told George about the ‘color’ he’d found on a creek he dubbed Gold Bottom Creek. But, he warned, glaring at Jim and Charley, he didn’t want any ‘damn Siwashes’ staking claims there. The three friends didn’t like Henderson’s attitude, and for two weeks they ignored his lead. Then, with nothing better to do, they meandered over to check out Henderson’s claim. Henderson insulted the Indians again by refusing to sell them tobacco. Indignant, George, Jim and Charley left and set up camp on Rabbit Creek. While cleaning a dishpan, one of the three unearthed the thumb-sized chunk of gold that set the great rush in motion.

Probably because of the insults, Carmack didn’t bother to hike the short distance back to Henderson’s diggings to tell him of the strike. Instead, he headed downriver the 50 or so miles to Fortymile to record his claim, and Jim’s and Charley’s. On the way, he bragged to everyone he saw of his good luck. Most of the old-timers just scoffed. Carmack had made’strikes’ before that amounted to nothing, earning him the nickname ‘Lying George,’ so they put little stock in this new bonanza of his. But a few cheechakos (newcomers) went to investigate, and the word spread. Within five days, the valley was swarming with prospectors. By the end of August, the whole length of Bonanza Creek was staked out in claims; then an even richer vein was found on a tributary that became known as Eldorado Creek. If all this had come about early in the year, the news would have reached civilization within a few weeks. But winter was already closing in. Once the rivers froze and the heavy snows fell, communication with the outside was nearly impossible.

William Ogilvie, a Canadian government surveyor, sent off two separate messages to Ottawa, telling of the magnitude of the strike, but both were lost in the bureaucratic shuffle. So it wasn’t until the following July (1897), when steamships from Alaska docked in San Francisco and Seattle–disgorging 68 ragged miners carrying more than 2 tons of gold in suitcases, boxes, blankets and coffee cans–that the outside world caught the Klondike fever. The fever quickly reached epidemic proportions. Like a worn-down body that’s susceptible to any disease that comes along, the country was particularly susceptible just then to gold fever. The amount of gold in circulation had dropped, helping to cause the deep economic depression that had been eating at the United States for 30 years. The Pacific Northwest had been hit especially hard. People were tired of being poor; many who had jobs quit them for the promise of greater rewards. Streetcar drivers abandoned their trolleys; a quarter of the Seattle police force walked out; even the mayor resigned and bought a steamboat to carry passengers to the Klondike.

Those who had no jobs mortgaged their homes or borrowed the $500 or so needed to buy an ‘outfit’–a stove, tent, tools, nails and enough supplies to last a year. A proper outfit tipped the scales at nearly 2,000 pounds–though one fast-talking salesman began hawking a valise that he claimed contained a year’s worth of desiccated food and weighed only 250 pounds!He was just one of a growing number of enterprising citizens who realized there was a fortune to be made right here at home, simply by selling a product, however dubious in value, with the name Klondike attached. There were Klondike medicine chests, Klondike electric gold pans, Klondike mining schools, a Klondike bicycle, even a portable Klondike house purported to be ‘light as air’ when folded up–a doubtful claim, considering it featured a double bed and an iron stove. Inventors dreamed up devices that promised to make the task of digging gold positively pleasant. Nikola Tesla, one of the pioneers of electricity, promoted an X-ray machine that would supposedly detect precious metals beneath the ground without all the trouble of digging.

A Trans-Alaskan Gopher Company proposed to train gophers to claw through frozen gravel and uncover nuggets. Clairvoyants touted their abilities to pinpoint rich lodes of gold. Several ventures were underway to invade the Klondike by balloon. Even as all these cockeyed schemes and services were being offered, there was one crucial commodity that was in desperately short supply–transportation. There weren’t nearly enough ships in the Northwest to handle the stampede of gold seekers–2,800 from Seattle alone in a single week. Everything that floated was pressed into service–ancient paddlewheelers and fishing boats, barges, coal ships still full of coal dust. All were overloaded, and many unseaworthy; they were dubbed ‘floating coffins,’ and all too often they lived up to the name. A few ships sailed around the Aleutians and through the Bering Sea to St. Michael, Alaska, on Norton Sound. The passengers could then take riverboats upstream from the Yukon River delta to the gold fields, a 1,600-mile trip on the winding Yukon. But not many Klondikers could afford the $1,000 fare.

Most boats went only as far as Skagway in the Alaska Panhandle, where the passengers and their outfits were unceremoniously dumped on the mile-wide tidal flats. If the Klondikers weren’t ready to turn back by then, there was plenty of adversity ahead to change their minds. Skagway itself was no beach resort. It was, in fact, a grimy anarchic tent town that a visiting Englishman described as ‘the most outrageously lawless quarter I have ever struck. ‘ There was a saloon or a con man, or both, on every corner, and gunfire in the streets was so commonplace as to be mostly ignored. The most famous of the con men was Jefferson Randolph (‘Soapy’) Smith, the ‘Uncrowned King of Skagway,’ who ran the town’s underworld until he died in a July 8, 1898, shootout. But even in this chaotic setting, legitimate businesses flourished. What the would-be miner needed by now was some way of getting his outfit to the gold fields, so anyone with a wagon and a team or a few mules could do well for himself–or herself.

Harriet Pullen, a widow with a brood of children, arrived in Skagway with $7 to her name, but parlayed it into a fortune by driving a freight outfit all day and, at night, baking apple pies in pans hammered out of old tin cans. She became the town’s most distinguished citizen. Joe Brooks, one of the most successful ‘packers,’ owned 335 mules and raked in $5,000 a day–far more than most men earned in a year. In keeping with the nature of the town, he wasn’t overly scrupulous; if he was hauling equipment for one customer and got a more tempting offer, he’d simply dump the first shipment alongside the trail. Read More in Wild West Magazine Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!! In addition to the boat passage up the Yukon, there were at least five trails being touted as the best route to the gold fields. But three of those were so long and hazardous that only a few men ever succeeded in reaching the Klondike alive on them. The two most heavily traveled routes began in Skagway and the neighboring town of Dyea.

In the fall of 1897, the more popular was the 550-mile Skagway Trail over White Pass. At first glance, it seemed the less demanding of the two; it climbed more gradually, which meant that–in theory at least–pack animals could negotiate it. Once on the trail, miners found it nowhere near as easy as it looked. It led them through mudholes big enough to swallow an animal, over sharp rocks that tore at horses’ legs and hooves, across cliffs of slippery slate, where the trail was a scant 2 feet wide and a 500-foot drop awaited any animal–or miner–who made a misstep. Most of the pack animals were broken-down horses that would have been lucky to survive the trek under the best of conditions. Overburdened as they were by miners desperate to get their outfits over the pass as quickly as possible, they didn’t stand a chance. Before long, the trail was christened ‘Dead Horse Trail’ after the many carcasses that littered it. As writer Jack London described it, ‘The horses died like mosquitoes in the first frost and from Skagway to Bennett they rotted in heaps.

‘ If a horse gave out in the middle of the narrow trail, no one bothered to drag it away; it was simply ground into the earth by the endless parade of feet and hooves. Faced with this nightmare of mud and mayhem, thousands of miners turned back, sold their outfits, and retreated to civilization with spirits broken and pockets empty. But thousands more slogged on and reached Lake Bennett, the headwaters of the Yukon River. Only a very few made it before cold weather choked the lake and the river with ice. The rest were marooned on the shores of the lake until spring. When heavy snow made the Skagway Trail impassable, the growing flow of gold seekers switched to the Dyea Trail, also called the ‘Poor Man’s Trail’ because it was too steep for pack animals.

But even there, the Klondikers were forced to hire Indian packers, at as much as 50 cents a pound, or else lug their outfits themselves, 100 pounds at a time, leaving each load alongside the trail somewhere, then going back for the next load and so on, over and over; by the time a miner transferred his whole outfit to the far side of the pass, he might have walked the 40-mile trail 30 or 40 times, and spent three months doing it. The most daunting part was Chilkoot Pass, which lay at the top of a nearly vertical slope, four miles long. An unbroken stream of Klondikers toiled up it day and night–a total of 22,000 in the winter of 1897. It was an agonizing climb, and the worst of it was that each man had to repeat it again and again until his entire outfit was carried over the pass. The only consolation was that, between loads, he got a free ride down the snowy slope on the seat of his pants. For the entrepreneur, there was money to be made here, too.

Several roadhouses went up along the trail, including the grandly named Palmer House at the foot of the pass. Most were no more than large tents or ramshackle wooden structures, but they offered hot meals and a place to sleep, even if it was only on the floor. On the worst stretches of trail, an enterprising man could bridge a mudhole with logs and charge a fee to each miner who crossed. At the pass itself, several men laboriously chopped 1,500 steps in the hard-packed snow, then collected so much money in tolls that the route was dubbed ‘the Golden Stairs.’ Like the travelers on the Skagway Trail, those who crossed Chilkoot Pass ended up in a vast tent city on the shores of Lake Bennett and spent long months there, waiting for the thaw. Most passed the time cutting trees from the surrounding hillsides and sawing them into planks for boats that, in the spring, would take them down the Yukon River to the gold fields, still 500 miles away.

At the end of May 1898, the ice broke, and a flotilla of flimsy, handmade craft set off downriver, only to encounter one last deadly obstacle–Miles Canyon. The ferocious rapids in the canyon smashed boats to splinters on the rocks, so many of them that the North-West Mounted Police decreed that every boat had to be inspected and then guided through by a competent pilot. A few experienced sailors got substantial grubstakes by taking boats through the canyon at up to $100 a trip. Among them was Jack London, who netted a cool $3,000. The boats had one more stretch of rapids to endure, and then the Yukon stayed pretty tame all the way to Dawson City. Before the fall of 1896, Dawson didn’t exist. When gold was discovered on Bonanza Creek, a tent camp went up at the junction of the Klondike and Yukon rivers. By the following summer, its population had grown to 5,000. A year later, after the Klondike fever spread worldwide, it swelled to 40,000–becoming one of the largest cities in Canada.

Thanks to the North-West Mounted Police, it was a far more law-abiding town than Skagway, though there were only 19 Mounties in the Yukon in late 1896. By November 1898, however, there would be 285. In the summer of 1897, the Mounties’ new headquarters became Fort Herchmer, at Dawson. Detachments were established atop White and Chilkoot passes. The Mounties’ main function was collecting customs duty for supplies brought into Canada by the gold seekers. In addition, between 1898 and 1900, a 200-man militia outfit, known as the Yukon Field Force, also operated in the area, helping the North-West Mounted Police to guard gold shipments, banks and prisoners. Despite the presence of law enforcement officers, the flood of new gold seekers still generally found the Yukon just another stage of Hell.

After a miserable, cramped sea voyage, after a weary trek across mosquito-infested bogs and over glaciers, after interminable months spent courting frostbite in a flimsy tent, they had finally reached the fabled gold fields, only to find that all the land along every gold-bearing creek had long since been staked out. For many of them, this was the final blow; they sold their outfits and headed home. Those who stayed felt lucky to find jobs in the bustling town or working someone else’s claim for $17 a day in gold dust–good wages on the outside, but barely a living here. But if Dawson dashed the dreams of the gold seekers, for those few who’d had the foresight to bring goods to sell, the town was a gold mine. The old timers who had spent the winter there, subsisting on a diet of beans and biscuits at best, were eager to trade their gold for luxuries like eggs, fruit, writing paper, or just a bit of news from the outside. One newcomer sold a months-old copy of a Seattle newspaper, soaked with bacon grease, for $15. As Dawson grew, so did the fortunes of those who made the right business decisions.

While most men devoted their energies to working a single claim, Alex McDonald, a Nova Scotian whose shy, awkward manner belied a canny business sense, bought up the claims of discouraged miners and hired others to work them for him. He earned $5 million and the title ‘King of the Klondike’ without ever lifting a pick or shovel. The ‘Queen of the Klondike,’ Belinda Mulroney, took another route to riches. She arrived in the Klondike in the spring of 1897 with $5,000 worth of cotton clothing and hot-water bottles, which she sold for $30,000. Next, she opened a lunch counter and, with the profits, hired men to build cabins that sold before the roofs were on. A successful roadhouse near the gold fields followed. But that was not ambitious enough for Mulroney. She went on to build the grandest hotel in the Klondike–the Fairview, which boasted brass beds, fine china, cut-glass chandeliers and chamber music in the lobby, even electricity generated by the engine of a yacht anchored in the harbor.

For a brief time, Belinda and Big Alex became partners in a scheme to salvage the cargo of a wrecked steamboat. Crafty Alex got to the wreck first and made off with the most valuable supplies, leaving Belinda only some cases of whiskey and a large inventory of rubber boots. ‘You’ll pay through the nose for this,’ she promised, and, as usual, she got her way. When the spring thaw turned the ground in the gold fields to mush, McDonald was in dire need of boots for his men, and Mulroney was happy to provide them–at $100 a pair. Mulroney went on to become the only women manager of a mining company, the largest in Yukon Territory. But life in Dawson had become too tame for the Queen of the Klondike. When news came of a bigger gold strike in Nome, Alaska, she headed down the Yukon to conquer this new region. So did most of the population of Dawson. During one week in August 1899, 8,000 people deserted Dawson for the beaches of Nome. Just three years after the discovery of gold on Bonanza Creek, the great gold rush was over.

Of the 40,000 people who reached Dawson, only about 15,000 actually had the grit to work the gold fields; of those, about a quarter actually unearthed any gold, and only a handful of them became wealthy. Of that handful, a very few managed to hang onto their wealth. Most gambled or drank it away. Big Alex McDonald became obsessed with buying up unwanted claims and eventually found himself stuck with a lot of worthless real estate. He died broke and alone. Belinda Mulroney married a fake French count and lived in style for several years, until her husband invested her money in a European steamship company–on the eve of World War I, which put an end to merchant shipping. She, too, died nearly penniless. Tagish Charley sold his claim, spent the proceeds lavishly, and died an alcoholic. Shookum Jim wasn’t content with the riches he’d made; he spent the rest of his life searching in vain for another strike equal to the one on Bonanza Creek. Ironically, George Carmack, who had never had much use for money, was one of the few miners who managed to keep and even increase his fortune by investing in businesses and real estate.

He was still a wealthy man when he died in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1922. Although the heyday of the individual prospector ended with the rush to Alaska in 1899, a more subtle and more profitable exploitation of the Klondike began. The new railroad line from Skagway was completed that summer, opening up the area to the big mining companies with their mechanical dredges, which did the work of hundreds of miners. They continued to mine the land the gold seekers had abandoned for another 50 years, and unearthed millions more in gold. Once again, the men of business had triumphed. Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!! This article was written by Gary L. Blackwood and originally appeared in the August 1997 issue of Wild West. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Wild West magazine today! Klondike gold rush | Canadian history | Britannica.com Klondike gold rush See Article History Klondike gold rush, Canadian gold rush of the late 1890s. Gold was discovered on Aug. 17, 1896, near the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon rivers in western Yukon territory.

By 1897 up to 30,000 prospectors had arrived in the newly created towns of Skagway and Dyea, jumping-off points to the Canadian goldfields several hundred miles away. Many of the seekers died from malnutrition, hypothermia, or avalanches along the route. The Klondike gold rush was short-lived and had essentially ended by 1899,and soon prospectors began moving on to Alaska . The Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Skagway commemorates the gold rush. Learn More in these related articles: Yukon River major North American river that flows through the central Yukon territory of northwestern Canada and the central region of the U.S. state of Alaska. It measures 1,980 miles (3,190 km) from the headwaters of the McNeil River (a tributary of the Nisutlin River). The Yukon discharges into the Bering... Yukon territory of northwestern Canada, an area of rugged mountains and high plateaus. It is bounded by the Northwest Territories to the east, by British Columbia to the south, and by the U.S.

state of Alaska to the west, and it extends northward above the Arctic Circle to the Beaufort Sea. The capital... More about Klondike gold rush 1 Reference found in Britannica Articles Assorted Reference Yukon River (in Yukon River: History ) External Links Corrections? Updates? Help us improve this article! Contact our editors with your feedback. MEDIA FOR: You have successfully emailed this. Error when sending the email. Try again later. Edit Mode Submit Tips For Editing We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind. Encyclopædia Britannica articles are written in a neutral objective tone for a general audience. You may find it helpful to search within the site to see how similar or related subjects are covered. Any text you add should be original, not copied from other sources. At the bottom of the article, feel free to list any sources that support your changes, so that we can fully understand their context. (Internet URLs are the best.) Your contribution may be further edited by our staff, and its publication is subject to our final approval. Unfortunately, our editorial approach may not be able to accommodate all contributions.

Submit Thank You for Your Contribution! Our editors will review what you've submitted, and if it meets our criteria, we'll add it to the article. Please note that our editors may make some formatting changes or correct spelling or grammatical errors, and may also contact you if any clarifications are needed. Uh Oh There was a problem with your submission. Please try again later. Close Article Title: Klondike gold rush Website Name: Encyclopædia Britannica Date Published: April 11, 2016 URL: Access Date: January 17, 2017 Share Unique Facts about Canada: Klondike Gold Rush The Klondike Gold Rush The Klondike Gold Rush was a frenzy of gold rush immigration to and gold prospecting in the Klondike near Dawson City in the Yukon Territory, Canada, after gold was discovered in the late 19th century. In August 1896, three people led by Skookum Jim Mason (a member of the Tagish nation whose birth name was Keish) headed up the Yukon River from the Carcross area looking for his sister Kate and her husband George Carmack.

The party included Skookum Jim, Skookum Jim's cousin known as Dawson Charlie (or sometimes Tagish Charlie) and his nephew Patsy Henderson. After meeting up with George and Kate who were fishing for salmon at the mouth of the Klondike River, they ran into Nova Scotian Robert Henderson who had been mining gold on the Indian River, just south of the Klondike. Henderson told George Carmack about where he was mining and that he did not want any "damn Siwashes" (meaning Indians) near him. The group then headed a few miles up the Klondike River to Rabbit Creek, now Bonanza Creek to hunt moose. On August 16, 1896, the party discovered rich placer gold deposits in Bonanza (Rabbit) Creek. It is now generally accepted that Skookum Jim made the actual discovery, but some accounts say that it was Kate Carmack. George Carmack was officially credited for the discovery because the "discovery" claim was staked in his name. The group agreed to this because they felt that other miners would be reluctant to recognise a claim made by an Indian, given the strong racist attitudes of the time.

Further evidence of Skookum Jim's discovery is that he was eagerly followed by other miners and caused a mini rush when he later staked some claims in the Kluane Lake area in 1905. Miners and prospectors climb the Chilkoot Trail during the Klondike Gold Rush. From the Canadian National Archives. The news spread to other mining camps in the Yukon River valley, and the Bonanza, Eldorado and Hunker Creeks were rapidly staked by miners who had been previously working creeks and sandbars on the Fortymile and Stewart Rivers. In a fate that many believe to be poetic justice, Henderson, who was mining only a few miles away over the hill, only found out about the discovery after the rich creeks had been all staked. News reached the United States on July 17, 1897 when the first successful prospectors arrived in Seattle, and within a month the Klondike stampede had begun. The population in the Klondike in 1898 may have reached 40,000, threatening to cause a famine.

Most prospectors landed at Skagway at the head of Lynn Canal and crossed by the Chilkoot Trail or White Pass to Bennett Lake. Here, prospectors built boats that would take them the final 500 miles (800 km) down the Yukon River to the gold fields. Stampeders had to carry one ton of goods over the pass to be allowed to enter Canada. At the top of the passes, the stampeders encountered a Mountie post that enforced that regulation. It was put in place to avert shortages like those that had occurred in the previous two winters in Dawson City. The Chilkoot Pass was steep and hazardous, rising a thousand feet in the last half mile (300 m in 800 m). It was too steep for pack animals and prospectors had to pack their equipment and supplies to the top. Some 1,500 steps were carved into the ice to aid travel up the pass. Miner's camp at the head of the Yukon River during the Klondike Gold Rush, from the Canadian National Archives Even though it was not as high, conditions on White Pass were even worse.

It was known as the Dead Horse Trail with about 3,000 animals dying along the route. Others took the Copper River Trail or the Teslin Trail by Stikine River and Teslin Lake, and some used the all-Canadian Ashcroft and Edmonton trails. The other main route was by steamer about 2600 kilometers (1600 miles) up the Yukon River. Many using this route late in 1897 were caught by winter ice below Fort Yukon, Alaska and had to be rescued. An estimated 100,000 people participated in the gold rush and about 30,000 made it to Dawson City in 1898. By 1901, when the first census was taken, the population had declined to 9,000. Throughout this period, the North West Mounted Police, under the command of Sam Steele maintained a firm grip on the activities of the prospectors to ensure the safety of the population as well as enforcing the laws and sovereignty of Canada. As a result, this gold rush has been described as the most peaceful and orderly of its type in history.

The effectiveness of the Mounties in this period made the police force famous around the world, and ensured the survival of the organization at a time when its continued operation was being debated in the Canadian Parliament. The gold rush remains an important event in the history of the city of Edmonton, which to this day celebrates Klondike Days, an annual summer fair with a Klondike gold rush theme. Among the many to take part in the gold rush was writer Jack London, whose books White Fang and The Call of the Wild were influenced by his northern experiences, and adventurer "Swiftwater" Bill Gates. The Golden Stairs | History of the Klondike Gold Rush Twitter The Golden Stairs History of the Klondike Gold Rush Gold! That one word sent shock waves across North America and stirred men to find a fortune – and lose their lives – over four extraordinary years. Prospectors knew the frozen Northwest of Canada had potential. But when men began to send millions in found gold back to U.S. cities, a fever gripped the country. Newspaper headlines fanned the flames as over 100,000 people set out. Just 4,000 struck gold.

The final tally: over seven billion in gold at a price of blood, sweat and death. Chapter 1 The First Glimmer Bonanza Creek in the Yukon Territory of Canada was ground zero for the Klondike Gold Rush. Huge deposits of gold were discovered August 16, 1896 and credited to George Carmack, his wife Kate and brother Skookum Jim. The news traveled fast. Soon the entire territory was crawling with miners in search of the next hidden treasure. The Han People One group knew where a lot of the gold was and held it in much less value: the native Han People. If miners had communicated with the Han, instead of dismissing them as odd and ignorant, they could have been guided to their fortunes instead of searching in many of the wrong spots. The Fever Begins By July of ’87, boats loaded with lucky miners and millions in gold from the Klondike landed at ports in San Francisco and Seattle. Newspapers like the Seattle Post Intelligencer and others blew up the stories with headlines screaming of gold and fortunes just waiting to be made. An industry sprang up selling maps and equipment for mining the Klondike. Gold fever had struck.

The timing was just right – a country with high unemployment, men who couldn’t stand being closed in and working dead-end jobs, just itching for adventure and wealth, plus an economy based on gold combined to ignite a stampede of would-be miners from every walk of life. The fact many of them had no idea what they were doing seemed not to matter. Charlotte Gray Author, “Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike” Critical Supplies To have any chance at finding gold and not dying, would-be miners needed to haul a year’s worth of supplies, nearly one and half tons, with them into the rugged terrain of the Klondike. A typical collection could include 800 lbs. of flour, 50 lbs. of dried fruit, bacon, sugar, beans, coffee, tobacco, soap, 30 lbs. of nails, snow goggles, shovels, knives, tin plates and pots, heavy underwear, wool socks, coats, shirts, tents, sleeping bags, fishing lines, a compass, a stove, gold pans, a gold scale, multiple saws, axes, shovels, picks, 150 lbs. of rope and much more.

Today’s equivalent of $40,000 worth of stuff, mostly moved by sledge, boat and human hands. Chapter 2 The Road To Riches Getting to and through the Klondike, a region of the Yukon in Northwest Canada, east of Alaska, took everything you had. The area is extremely mountainous with high peaks and few to no paths between them. Winding rivers snake through the region, many so turbulent they are impassable. The weather doesn’t help. Very hot, short summers combine with long, ferocious winters where temperatures drop to a mind-numbing 60 below zero or worse. Despite the savage terrain, there were different routes to get to the gold in the Klondike. A journey many chose took them down the Yukon River. The river stretches 2,000 miles with some parts in black swamps swarming with mosquitoes, others frozen and icy. Along the way, the White Horse Rapids claimed dozens of lives. Another path became known as Dead Horse Gulch. While miners could use pack animals here, the route was so treacherous it killed 3,000 horses and mules, the remains left there to rot and block the path.

The Golden Stairs Then there was the infamous Chilkoot Pass. The fastest and least expensive way to get the men and their supplies over the mountains, it was also the most intense. The pass rose over 30 miles straight up and down with avalanches raining down regularly and killing hundreds. Too steep for animals, miners hauled their gear by hand in multiple trips over the pass while enduring rain, sleet, and snow bright enough to burn and blind them. In the winter, steps wide enough for men to travel only single file were carved in the ice and became known as the Golden Stairs. Charlotte Gray Author, “Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike” Chapter 3 Digging Deep Gold in the water Those miners with the guts and good luck to make it through the trip down the rampaging rivers and over murderous mountains could find themselves by creeks in the Klondike ready for prospecting. One way to find gold was panning. Gold is 19 times heavier than water so each dip could mean a shimmer of gold flakes at the bottom of the pan. Backbreaking work, greenhorns found they had to do triple the work of grizzled vets.

Gold underground If you wanted to get serious, you needed to dig for gold. The ground was so frozen even dynamite wouldn’t make holes so men burned fires day and night to soften the ground for digging. A test dig would tell if the hole held any gold or nothing but dirt. If nothing glimmered, it was time to burn and dig again. If gold appeared, miners would dig underground and in different directions looking for the vein and more and more of the shiny stuff. Miners underground shoveled day and night, risking tunnel collapse and asphyxiation from smoke and methane that would build up as they dug. Men fell into open holes hurting and killing themselves. The men above the hole hauled out the dirt, getting frostbite, malnourished, wrecking their backs and suffering from everything from pneumonia to scurvy. But up came the gold. Big nuggets. Small flakes. And with it came a lot of newly rich men. Chapter 4 Dawson City The Boomtown As more gold was pulled from the ground in the Klondike, more prospectors came looking to stay for the long haul.

Soon small towns called Boomtowns began sprouting up around the region offering lodging, supplies and, at least, a hint of civilization. And no boomtown was bigger or richer than Dawson City. What started out as a 178-acre plot of land at the junction of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers with just 500 people soon exploded over two years into a thriving, sprawling, open 24 hours a day legendary hotspot. The town was constantly flooded with people looking for everything from the next golden opportunity to the next boat out of there. Klondikes - definition of Klondikes by The Free Dictionary Klondikes - definition of Klondikes by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Thesaurus , Encyclopedia , Wikipedia . Klon·dike 1 (klŏn′dīk′) A region of Yukon Territory, Canada, just east of Alaska and traversed by the Klondike River, about 160 km (100 mi) long.

Gold was discovered here in August 1896, leading to the gold rush of 1897-1898 in which more than 30,000 people sought their fortune in the frozen north. Klon·dike 2 (klŏn′dīk′) n. A form of solitaire in which 28 cards are laid out in seven piles and the player moves through the remainder of the deck one or three cards at a time. The objective is to remove the aces and build sequential stacks sorted by suit ascending up to king. [From Klondike (perhaps because the game became popular around the time of the Klondike gold rush ).] klondike old-fashioned chiefly Canadian a rich source of something vb (tr) chiefly Scot to transfer (bulk loads of fish) to factory ships at sea for processing Klondike (ˈklɒndaɪk) n 1. (Placename) a region of NW Canada, in the Yukon in the basin of the Klondike River: site of rich gold deposits, discovered in 1896 but largely exhausted by 1910.

Area: about 2100 sq km (800 sq miles) 2. (Placename) a river in NW Canada, rising in the Yukon and flowing west to the Yukon River. Length: about 145 km (90 miles) Also spelt: Klondyke 1. a region of the Yukon territory in NW Canada: gold rush 1897–98. 2. a river in this region, flowing into the Yukon. 90 mi. (145 km) long. 3. (l.c.) a variety of solitaire. ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: Noun 1. Klondike - a region in northwestern Canada where gold was discovered in 1896 but exhausted by 1910 Yukon Territory , Yukon - a territory in northwestern Canada; site of the Klondike gold rush in the 1890s 2.

klondike - a form of solitaire that begins with seven piles of cards with the top cards facing up; descending sequences of cards of alternating colors are built on these piles; as aces become available they are placed above the seven piles; the object is to build sequences in suit from ace to king as the remaining cards are dealt out one at a time patience , solitaire - a card game played by one person Klondyke - definition of Klondyke by The Free Dictionary Klondyke - definition of Klondyke by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Thesaurus , Encyclopedia , Wikipedia . Klon·dike 1 (klŏn′dīk′) A region of Yukon Territory, Canada, just east of Alaska and traversed by the Klondike River, about 160 km (100 mi) long. Gold was discovered here in August 1896, leading to the gold rush of 1897-1898 in which more than 30,000 people sought their fortune in the frozen north. Klon·dike 2 (klŏn′dīk′) n.

A form of solitaire in which 28 cards are laid out in seven piles and the player moves through the remainder of the deck one or three cards at a time. The objective is to remove the aces and build sequential stacks sorted by suit ascending up to king. [From Klondike (perhaps because the game became popular around the time of the Klondike gold rush ).] klondike old-fashioned chiefly Canadian a rich source of something vb (tr) chiefly Scot to transfer (bulk loads of fish) to factory ships at sea for processing Klondike (ˈklɒndaɪk) n 1. (Placename) a region of NW Canada, in the Yukon in the basin of the Klondike River: site of rich gold deposits, discovered in 1896 but largely exhausted by 1910. Area: about 2100 sq km (800 sq miles) 2. (Placename) a river in NW Canada, rising in the Yukon and flowing west to the Yukon River. Length: about 145 km (90 miles) Also spelt: Klondyke 1.

a region of the Yukon territory in NW Canada: gold rush 1897–98. 2. a river in this region, flowing into the Yukon. 90 mi. (145 km) long. 3. (l.c.) a variety of solitaire. ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: Noun 1. Klondike - a region in northwestern Canada where gold was discovered in 1896 but exhausted by 1910 Yukon Territory , Yukon - a territory in northwestern Canada; site of the Klondike gold rush in the 1890s 2. klondike - a form of solitaire that begins with seven piles of cards with the top cards facing up; descending sequences of cards of alternating colors are built on these piles; as aces become available they are placed above the seven piles; the object is to build sequences in suit from ace to king as the remaining cards are dealt out one at a time patience , solitaire - a card game played by one person Who Discovered the Klondike Gold? Welcome Panning for Gold, A.C.

Warner, 1899, Univ of Washington, Warner 206a On August 16, 1896, four peopleï¿½an American miner, a First Nations man from the Yukon, his sister, who was married to the American, and his nephew, were looking for gold on a creek that flowed into the Klondike River, a few kilometers east of the present town of Dawson. One of themï¿½no one is sure which one it wasï¿½looked into the waters of the creek and saw something glittering. Turning over a rock he (or was it she?) saw gold lying ï¿½thick as cheeseï¿½ in the cracks between the rocks and stones. The others came rushing, and with shovel and pan, dug more gold out of the water. Dancing for joy, they realized that they were suddenly rich, that they had found the rich deposit of gold that men and women had been seeking for more than twenty years in this northwestern corner of Canada. What they did not realize was that their discovery had launched one of the greatest gold rushes in world history.

Over the next two years, nearly 40,000 people would come from all over the globe, from as far away as Australia, to the Yukon, which was made a separate Territory in 1898. Dawson, which was a swampy patch of mud in 1896, within two years became the largest town in Canada west of Winnipeg. Hundreds of millions of dollars of gold were taken out of the ground, first by individual miners working mostly by hand, and then by corporations using large machines. Large-scale commercial mining went on in the region until 1964, and the creeks are still worked on and off, especially when the price of gold rises. It was one of the most dramatic and colourful episodes in Canadian history. This site explores the question ï¿½who was responsible for starting it all?ï¿½ The mystery does not lie in the fact that no one has any idea who made the great discovery that resulted in the production of millions of dollars worth of gold.

The mystery is that there were several candidatesï¿½five to be exact, including a Canadian who was not present but who might have told them where the gold was ï¿½all of whom have claims to the honour of being the discoverer. They all have claims, yet only one claim can be accepted, for there was only one discoverer. It is up to you to assess the claims and, based on the evidence, choose a winner. ::: The Klondike Gold Rush ::: The Klondike Gold Rush Dawson Sled team On August 16, 1896 Yukon-area Indians Skookum Jim Mason and Tagish Charlie, along with Seattleite George Carmack found gold in Rabbit Creek, near Dawson, in the Yukon region of Canada. The creek was promptly renamed Bonanza Creek, and many of the locals started staking claims. Gold was literally found all over the place, and most of these early stakeholders (who became known as the "Klondike Kings") became wealthy. Since the Yukon was so remote, word of this find spread relatively slowly for almost a year.

On July 17, 1897, eleven months after the initial discovery of gold, the steamship Portland arrived in Seattle from Dawson with "more than a ton of gold", according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. With that pronouncement, the Klondike Gold Rush was on! Within six months, approximately 100,000 gold-seekers set off for the Yukon. Only 30,000 completed the trip. Many Klondikers died, or lost enthusiasm and either stopped where they were, or turned back along the way. The trip was long, arduous, and cold. Klondikers had to walk most of the way, using either pack animals or sleds to carry hundreds of pounds of supplies. The Northwest Mounted Police in Canada required that all Klondikers bring a year's worth of supplies with them. Even so, starvation and malnutrition were serious problems along the trail. The story of the Klondiker who boiled his boots to drink the broth was widely reported, and may well have been true. Cold was another serious problem along the trail.

Winter temperatures in the mountains of northern British Columbia and the Yukon were normally -20 degrees F., and temperatures of -50 degrees F. were not unheard of. Tents were usually the warmest shelter a Klondiker could hope for. Blockade of Klondikers An even larger problem was the trails themselves. Klondikers had two choices: the Chilkoot Trail or the White Pass Trail. The White Pass Trail originated in Skagway, Alaska, where Jefferson "Soapy" Smith, a con-man from Denver, had taken over the town. Smith had set up operations in a saloon/casino called Jeff's Place and led a gang of 300 men, whom he referred to as his "lambs" to fleece Klondikers arriving to take part in the gold rush. He also perpetrated the first telegraph scam in Alaska. Smith put up poles and wires, but they weren't actually connected to anything. Nevertheless, he took cash from Klondikers eager to wire home. The Chilkoot Trail, on the other hand, wasn't a better option, although it had fewer outlaws. It was steeper than the White Pass Trail, and few were fully prepared for how difficult it was.

Many suffered malnutrition and/or died along the trails. Some Klondikers became sick or died from eating the meat of the dead horses found on the White Pass Trail, and it soon became known as the "Dead Horse Trail". Men reportedly went insane on the trail. It is possible that this diet (or lack thereof) contributed to the reports of insanity. With the influx of the 30,000 who did make it over the trails, Dawson temporarily became the largest city north of San Francisco. It was no longer a tent city, but a bona-fide city, with more amenities than one might imagine. Dawson had fire hydrants on the streets, and was the first city in western Canada to have electric lights. People also felt safe in Dawson. The Northwest Mounted Police kept order in Canada, and nefarious characters such as Soapy Smith were not allowed entry. The growth of Dawson was largely responsible for the creation of the Yukon Territory as a new Canadian Province on June 13, 1898. Nor was Dawson the only Canadian city to have dramatic growth due to the Klondike Gold Rush. Vancouver, British Columbia saw its population double, and in Alberta, Edmonton's population tripled.

Bar at Opera House The Klondike Kings quickly became very rich. It is estimated that over one billion dollars worth of gold was found, adjusted to late 20th century standards. Others found their fame and fortune in different manners. Jack London became well-known by writing of his experiences in the Klondike. Fred Trump, grandfather of late 20th century billionaire Donald Trump, earned his fortune running the Arctic Restaurant and Hotel in Bennett, British Columbia, along the Chilkoot Trail. Nor were the successful Klondikers limited to men. Like Fred Trump, Belinda Mulroney became wealthy by running a hotel and selling supplies. Many women found their riches running dance halls. Martha Black bought a sawmill and went on to become Canada's second female Member of Parliament. Even some those who didn't travel to the Klondike managed to get rich from the Gold Rush. Over 1,000 miles away, Seattle businesses made over $1 million (not adjusted) selling the needed food and supplies for the trip to the gold fields. Seattle mayor W.D. Wood should have stayed in Seattle and taken advantage of the wealth the Klondikers brought to the city.

Instead, he resigned his post as mayor and set off for the Yukon. He was one of the many who turned back. Exhausted Stampeder Unfortunately for those who did make it as far as the Klondike, few found the hoped-for riches. By the time the masses arrived, all the creeks had been claimed, and the new arrivals found they had to work for the Klondike Kings, rather than for themselves. The pay was not bad, ranging from $1-10 per day, but this was not what the Klondikers had made the trip for. Many Klondikers never recouped the cost of the trip, which averaged $1200 (not adjusted). Nevertheless, when gold was discovered at Nome, Alaska in 1899, few of these Klondikers stopped to think about what they had just experienced. At the first sign of gold, much of Dawson up and left for Nome, where most of the gold-seekers once again lost out on finding fame and fortune.

Question: What was discovered in Klondike, Canada, in 1896?
Answer: Gold