Travel Trough Time

The Klondike gold rush began in July of 1897 when two ships docked in San Francisco and Seattle carrying miners returning from the Yukon with bags of gold. The press was alerted and papers carried the story to the masses. The matter changed the history of the Yukon forever. Within a six month approximately one hundred thousand miners, prospectors, storekeepers, adventurists, saloon keepers, bankers, gamblers and prostitutes poured through snow-choked mountain to stake their claim to fortune at the Yukon. River. And only thirty thousand of them completed the expedition.

The easiest and more expensive route to the gold fields was by boat upstream from the mouth of the Yukon in western Alaska. The most difficult route was the "All Canadian Route" from Edmonton and overland through the wilderness.

The most common route taken by the stampeders to reach the fields was by boat from the west coast of the continental U.S. to Skagway in Alaska, over the Chilkoot or White Passes to the Yukon River at Whitehorse and then by boat 500 miles to Dawson City.

 

The Chilkoot Pass trail was steep and hazardous. Rising 1,000 feet in the last ½ mile, it was known as the "golden staircase": 1,500 steps carved out of snow and ice worked their way to the top of the pass. Too steep for packhorses, stampeders had to "cache" their goods, moving their equipment piecemeal up the mountain. Stampeders who gave up often did it here, discarding their unneeded equipment on the side of the trail.

Those who survived the perilous travel mostly found disappointment once they reached Dawson City. Locals had already claimed all of the gold-bearing creeks and claims of "gold for the taking" were grossly exaggerated. Many stampeders headed home, some worked for others on the claims and still others stayed to work in Dawson City.

 

Dawson was the last stop in the Klondike Gold Rush. When miners got to Dawson they would stake a claim and start mining for gold. If they didn't find any at that particular claim they would stake another claim and start again. If they happened to find any gold they would keep on mining until winter came. Some miners would go back to the lower 48 and some might stay through the winter in Dawson.

Today a tight-knit town of 1,500 people and the Yukon’s second largest community, Dawson City is a colourful place where you can still meet placer miners, dog mushers and other Klondike characters. Dawson City is in many ways just as it was at the height of the Gold Rush in 1898. The streets of this authentic frontier town are lined with wooden boardwalks, and you can sense the grit, heartache and golden dreams of the Klondike Gold Rush as you meander down Dawson City's streets.

The gold seekers still visit Dawson City for the fortune today.

Dawson City, Yukon is the the vital part of the world-famous Klondike Gold Rush.