Saturday, 05. January 2008
The Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush was a frenzy of gold rush immigration to and for gold prospecting, along the Klondike River near Dawson City, after gold was discovered there in the late 19th century. 100,000 people have left for the Klondike. 30, 000 - 40,000 people have made it to Dawson City. Ca. 4,000 people have found gold ...
Dogsled team belonging to Haywood & Oates, Dawson, Yukon Territory, 1899.
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.
Eric A. Hegg Photographs: The Klondike Gold Rush. 736 photographs documenting the Klondike and Alaska gold rushes from 1897 - 1901. Images include depictions of frontier life in Dawson City, the Yukon Territory, and Skagway and Nome, Alaska.
Stampeders near Sheep Camp on the Chilkoot trail. 1897.
Cries of "Gold! Gold! Gold!" sent over 100,000 optimistic "stampeders" rushing to Dawson City and the Klondike gold fields in 1897 and 1898. They believed riches lay waiting for those who could reach this remote Canadian region.
This exhibit highlights their journey north. For most, this journey was the most challenging and time-consuming aspect of the gold rush. Stampeders were physically unprepared and poorly equipped for the severe northern climate and terrain. Some died and many abandoned the journey. About 40,000 people reached the Klondike, only four of every ten who tried.
Klondike Gold Rush: The Perilous Journey North. An online exhibit of text and images that describes the adventures of the the Klondike Gold Rush "Stampeders": their routes through mountain passes, rivers, and boom towns in Alaska and the Yukon Territory; their outfits and pack animals; and the brutal terrain, weather, and disappointment of arriving in the gold fields after all the gold was gone.
Miners thawing frozen ground with steam in an underground gold mine lit by candlelight,
Gold Hill, Yukon Territory, ca. 1898
Photographers have been visiting the Yukon since U.S. Army Lieutenant Schwatka travelled down the Yukon River in 1883. After the discovery of gold on Bonanza Creek in 1896, many commercial photographers travelled to Dawson City, photographing the journey and establishing studios along the way. Many of the stampeders also had small roll-film cameras as part of their outfits. The photographers featured here were in the Yukon just before or during the gold rush and are only some of those that photographed the Klondike gold rush.
The Yukon Photographers: Gold Rush Era
One of the greatest films based on this historical background: Charlie Chaplin's silent movie The Gold Rush, 1925. For the 1942 re-release Chaplin composed and recorded a musical score, added a narration (his own voice) and tightened the editing.
In the spectacular opening scene, there is a view of an endless trail/line of hundreds of prospectors in the Klondike of Alaska in 1898, in the days of the Klondike Gold Rush.