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| 1911
The Yukon was the last great frontier in
Canada. The Northwest territories had been penetrated
from the north and the Arctic Ocean, through it's river
systems and by it's forts established by the HBC. The
Yukon which was originally a part of the Northwest
Territories, was mountainous, with the Rockies and the
Coast Mountains, as well as a few other ranges, running
thorough its west and central territory. It has the
highest mountain in Canada (Mt Logan) an some of the
most rugged terrain in the country. It was sparsely
populated, freezing cold in the winter and could get
blazing hot in the summer and even with it's unique
northern beauty, it had few inhabitants of either native
peoples or immigrants.
For the most part the only people in many
of the vast areas of this wilderness were a few gold
prospectors that had wandered up the coast and inland as
the previous gold rushes to the south had petered out.
In 1887 William Ogilvie was surveying the Alaska/Yukon
boarder and he estimated that the main inhabitants of
the Yukon were about 300 prospectors, mainly American,
around forty mile creek or further upstream. By 1893
there were a few small mining towns established along
the Yukon river with some small amounts of gold
trickling out. In 1894 two Mounties took up their posts
at Forty Mile, the small mining town in order to display
Canadian authority over the area.
In August of 1896 a
prospector named George Carmack with two native
partners was busy catching salmon for the winter.
Another miner named Henderson, suggested to Carmack that
he try Goldbottom creek just off Klondike Creek. They
decide to try the Rabbit Creek instead but about
1/2 mile from the juncture of Rabbit Creek they dipped
their pans in another small creek known as Eldorado
Creek and came up with 4 dollars of gold. Henderson
quickly staked a claim there and Rabbit Creek was also
staked out by all the miners who caught word of the
strike and was renamed Bonanza. Henderson was left out
of the rush as he had gone over the ridge and had worked
away on another creek unaware that gold had been found.
A fellow named Ledue who had been backing
Henderson had heard about the strike and he quickly
bought 178 acres of mud flats where the creeks ran into
the Yukon |River and established the city of Dawson
which was named after the director of The Geological
Survey of Canada.
The miners dug in and
worked their claims through the fall and into the winter
as best they could. as the spring approached they began
to realize how rich this strike was and they all waited
for the ice to break along the Yukon River. So far, word
of the gold had not leaked out of the Yukon. On May 14th
the ice broke and the race downstream and to Seattle and
San Francisco began.
On July 17th, 1897 the
Portland, which had left the Yukon with 68 miners from
the Klondike and a reported ton of gold or about
$2,000,000's worth, docked in Seattle and the gold rush
was on. 3 days earlier, the Excelsior had landed in San
Francisco with 15 miners with 1/2 million dollars of
gold. One nugget was 21 pounds and worth $5700.
The rush was on
and the 4 year long economic slump in North America was
snapped. Everyone was swept up by the fever and money
began to move again as the economy began to stir and
business began to invest. A huge rush to the Klondike
was on and Canada became the focal point of the world
with miners streaming in from almost every country.
The Mounties quickly
asserted their control over the Yukon Territory and Sam
Steele of the Mounties became a legend in the way
he handled and keep peace in the gold rush world of the
Klondike. At one point it was claimed that Dawson city
had grown to be the largest city west of Winnipeg and
North of San Francisco.
The old rush lasted only a few years but
helped to jump start the Canadian economy and opened up
the Northwest and the North. This boom was to last well
into the new century and assured Laurier of as
second term as prosperity and a quickly growing country
were satisfied with his leadership.
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