I. Introduction

The enclosed curriculum materials consist of a variety of original documents related to the Klondike gold rush and Seattle and a set of maps of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. These materials are intended to provide students with an opportunity to learn about and investigate a specific topic in Washington history: How the Klondike/Alaska gold rush played a role in Seattle’s economic growth and its rise to a position of economic dominance among Northwest cities. The materials also allow for the investigation of other topics as well, including the experience of men and women in the gold rush itself, in both Alaska and the Yukon Territory. Combined with a few other resources, these materials provide teachers with a focused curriculum unit on the Klondike and Seattle that combines history, geography, and literature, and adds an in-depth focus to the broader consideration of the history of trade and economic growth in the Pacific Northwest

The materials can be used in myriad ways. Most of the document “cards” or fragments, make reference to a particular place within the geography of the Northwest, the Yukon, and Alaska. The cards can thus be organized in reference to the maps. Students can start with the cards and find the places in question on the maps, and begin to understand what those places were like during the gold rush. They can also use the cards in tandem with the maps to follow miners into and out of the Yukon and Alaska, and get a firm grasp on the geography and natural features of the region. There are sources from miners who took different routes—Chilkoot Trail, White Pass Trail, Stikine River and Teslin Trail, and Yukon River. They can use the cards and the information from Klondike guidebooks to calculate the distances and costs involved in traveling to and outfitting for the goldfields, and gauge the methods of Seattle boosters in making Seattle a leading outfitting city. Outfitting lists and price lists provide a way for students to calculate just how much weight miners transported with them to the North, how far they had to travel, and what that travel entailed. The cards can then provide the basis for discussions, debates, and writing on the themes that emerge from the Klondike. Further suggestions are outlined below.

II. Historical Context

In the 19th century Seattle’s economic development was curiously linked to gold. The California gold rush of 1849 created a sudden, large, and growing market for timber, and Seattle got its first rush of trade profits in shipping milled lumber south to the Bay Area and the Sierra goldfields. Gold discoveries in northern and eastern Washington drew more settlers north of Columbia in the 1850s and 1860s. A gold rush to the Fraser River in the 1850s, and a later one to the Cassiar region of British Columbia, drew many California miners to the Northwest, and formed the basis of a fledgling mining industry supplied by merchants in Victoria, Vancouver, and Seattle. Seattle remained a small, timber-oriented town, however. The growing community pinned its hopes for economic expansion on the coming of the intercontinental railroad, but the Northern Pacific foiled those hopes in 1883 by ending its tracks in Tacoma rather than Seattle. By that time Seattle and Tacoma had begun their long-standing rivalry over which would be the premier metropolis of Puget Sound, but Portland remained the larger, more influential trade center north of San Francisco.

Seattle’s prospects promised to rise, however, with the completion of a second railroad line, the Great Northern, from St. Paul to Seattle, in 1893. The completion of this second line, however, coincided with a severe economic panic, followed by a severe depression that lasted until 1897. At the moment that the railroad promised to open more and distant markets for Northwest timber, fish, and wheat, the national economy bottomed out. Unemployment soared in the Northwest, and around the country. Banks closed, and businesses failed.

Throughout the 1880s and early 1890s, a small number of gold prospectors and miners moved into and out of the Yukon River regions of the Yukon Territory and interior Alaska, making small gold strikes and moving from promising camp to promising camp. Alaskan villages, such as Circle City and Fortymile, were somewhat well known before the major strike along the Klondike River in 1896. The large, industrial Treadwell gold mine opened near Juneau well before the famous strike as well. Gold mining in the Yukon and Alaska was by no means an unheard of industry, and even in the depressed years of the mid-1890s, Seattle and other Northwest cities saw a few gold miners, and supplied them with food and equipment. In early 1896, months before the Klondike discoveries, miners showed up in Seattle in increasing numbers, taking passage for Circle City and Cook Inlet, following news of gold strikes.

Even this increasing gold-related trade did not promise Seattle anything in the way of a basis for sustained economic growth. In 1890, Seattle had a population of about 42,000 people. The city’s economy had diversified in the 1870s and 1880s to include not only a small gold mining segment, but also coal mining, farming, wheat and fruit shipments, small manufacturing, dairy production, and a fishing industry that had moved north to include halibut and salmon fisheries in Alaska. But the timber industry, including a crucial shingle-production sector, remained the mainstay of the Washington, and the Seattle, economy.

In July of 1897, the steamer Portland arrived at Schwabacher’s dock on the Seattle waterfront and discharged a horde of successful Klondike gold miners, weighed down with bags, sacks, and boxes of gold. The newspapers and telegraphs spread word of this shipment, and the similar one to San Francisco, all over the nation and the world. The depression-starved populace ate up the story. About 10,000 people in Seattle immediately decided to try their luck at the goldfields, and prepared to leave for the Klondike that summer. The immediate demand for mining supplies galvanized the grocers, clothing jobbers, and hardware mercantiles in the city. Several thousand people beyond Seattle arrived to look for work in the city, hoping to find jobs in the service economies fueled by the growing boom. Others flocked from all over the country to attempt to get to the northern interior before winter set in.

Within a few weeks of the arrival of the Klondike gold, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce met to come up with a plan for promoting Seattle as the outfitting center for the northern goldfields. The Chamber formed a Bureau of Information to advertise and publicize Seattle to the nation and the world at large, and to organize Seattle businessmen to join forces in this project. The Bureau of Information was led by its able and energetic secretary, an eastern newspaperman named Erastus Brainerd. The great fear, for Brainerd and other, was that another city, Portland or San Francisco, Vancouver or Victoria, would capture the prospective miners’ attentions and draw them, and their business, to a city other than Seattle. Brainerd thus masterminded a huge media campaign designed to convince the whole country that Seattle was the one and only gateway city to Alaska. He used newspapers, letters, circular surveys, advertisements, an exhibit of gold, and petitions to the government to draw attention and business to Seattle.

The documents here include several items that pertain to the Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s campaign to capture the Alaska trade, and thus to boost its own economic fortunes. There are several documents that show the competition between various cities for this trade. How do these cities still compete today? This connects to the larger Northwest history theme of how cities grow, and how they competed with each other to capture economic fortune. Seattle grew by becoming a center for trade with Northwestern hinterlands, which with the gold rush came to include Alaska. This can be compared to Portland and its Columbia and Willamette River hinterlands. It can lead to a general discussion of why cities become economically wealthy when hinterlands often do not. And that can lead to broader questions about rural vs. urban conflicts, resentments, problems, which characterize Northwestern history and politics.

Brainerd’s thorough work, tenacity, and sheer volume of effort paid off. According to its own sources, Seattle managed to draw 3/4 of the gold seekers to its stores and wharves. The actual number is difficult to pinpoint. The Seattle Trade Register reported 15,000 miners moving through Seattle from January through March, 1898, which was one of the most crowded periods. But that was only three months. The numbers must have reached three to four times that number in the next two years, but, given the transient nature of the population, it was difficult to tell. In January, the Trade Register reported that the jobbers, or supply houses, had stocked their premises almost beyond capacity. Several new outfitting establishments opened up in January 1898 as well. Grocers opened new businesses as well.

With thousands of men and women passing through Seattle on their way to the Klondike and Alaska, each of the city’s and the region’s industries received a boost. Seattle merchants sold meat, dried fruit, and flour to the miners, as well as clothing and equipment. They shipped lumber north to Skagway and Dyea to build new towns, boats, and docks. The Moran Bros. and other Seattle shipbuilders began construction of scores of new steamboats. On Whidbey Island, potato farmers and processors began to produce dried potatoes for the farmers, and sold tons of their traditional crop in novel ways. Ships that usually sailed north with tin for salmon canneries carried miners and equipment north as well, and returned with salmon.

The city’s infrastructure received its share of benefits. With thousands of transient miners in the city, hotels and rooming houses were overbooked. The construction business boomed, with new houses and businesses, restaurants and hotels. Feeding and housing the miners created jobs, which drew more people, which created more jobs. The amount of money passing through Seattle banks went from $36 million in 1897 to $68 million in 1898 to over $100 million in 1899. The population, though always roughly estimated, may have reached over 60,000 by 1898, and would reach 80,000 or 90,000, give and take the transient population, by the turn of the century. The 1900 U.S. Census put it at 80,700, not counting Ballard and the suburbs.

Seattle was able to boost its economy when miners returned as well. Almost immediately upon learning of the gold strike, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce petitioned the federal government to establish an assay office in Seattle. The office was in place in the city by the summer of 1898. This meant that miners returning to Seattle could have their gold tested and given value right in the city, and that they could exchange that gold for coin or paper money. Before, they had had to travel to San Francisco to get an official government assay. With Seattle’s assay office in place, gold, money, and spending power flowed straight into the city.

Where some money flowed, more money followed. Seattle’s status rose in the eyes of major corporations around the country. Both railroads, the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern, invested millions in upgrading their Seattle waterfront facilities in order to handle the transshipment of goods from trains to ships and back again. Much of that transshipment expanded far beyond the Alaska trade to include expanding imports and exports to Honolulu, the newly conquered Philippines, and the Far East. With new wharves and docks, major steamship companies could establish headquarters in Seattle in order to serve the growing Northwestern trade network.

The Klondike gold rush was certainly a good example of a city taking advantage of a temporary boom. It was also more than that. Once Seattle had “captured” the Alaska trade, it moved beyond the temporary benefits to solidify the economic ties between the city and Alaska.

Seattle reached out and claimed Alaska as its hinterland, a large and distant source of raw materials, and a market for Seattle’s commerce and production. It learned to funnel Alaskan people and resources into and out of Seattle, and used the wealth produced through this core-hinterland relation to re-make itself as a leading national metropolis. After 1900, the city saw new buildings, like the 1904 Alaska building, the city’s first modern skyscraper. Engineers began plans for the Denny regrade, washing away hills to extend the city’s commercial district. Planning began for the Lake Washington ship canal, to link inland freshwater lakes with Puget Sound. This urban and suburban development, combined with burgeoning trade connections, set the city on a new course in the 20th century. By 1905, the city directory labeled Seattle “The Metropolis of the North Pacific” and “The Gateway to Alaska and the Orient.” In that year, the directory also stated that “the merchants of Seattle practically control the trade of Alaska, and the Yukon Territory, which is $20,000,000 per annum and is increasing yearly. . . . Seattle is the headquarters and base of supplies of the Puget Sound, Alaska, and Fraser River salmon fisheries, which produces salmon valued at $15,000,000 per year.”

Of course, no one realized any of this more than the city’s economic community. Once the initial effects of the Klondike boom waned, the Chamber of Commerce took action to solidify trade ties with Alaska, and to continue to promote the city’s growth. The greatest expression of their efforts was the 1909 World’s Fair, Seattle’s Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. The AYPE celebrated Seattle as the center of an international trade system linking the city and its northern hinterland, and the Asian-Hawaiian-Philippine trade connections as well. On the fairgrounds at the University of Washington, the buildings and exhibits celebrated the peoples and products of all of Seattle’s trade hinterlands and trade partners, highlighting the city’s economic and cultural achievements. The fair’s exhibits and rhetoric made it clear that Seattle was really the most important Alaskan city, even though it was not even in Alaska. Seattle’s business community was dedicated to economic development in Alaska, because development in Alaska meant wealth for Seattle. Seattle’s attitudes combined a great pride and self-aggrandizement with gratitude. During the AYPE, the city placed a statue of William Seward in Volunteer Park in order to honor the man that had convinced the country to purchase Alaska in 1867. Seattleites knew that they owed much of their newfound prominence to Alaska, but still asserted their own greatness. This tended to annoy Alaskans, a resentment that continues, along with Seattle’s ties to Alaska, to this day.

The document sources here provide source materials with which students can investigate Seattle’s role in the gold rush, and uncover the ways in which Seattle harnessed this event to fuel its own growth. However, there was more to the gold rush than that. For the hundreds of men and women who left home in search of gold, it was a futile act, an incredible amount of hard work, and a great adventure. Very, very few of those men and women found much gold. Some broke even, some came back destitute. A small, small percentage struck it rich. Most who did had to invest a lot of money in order to do so. While stories abounded of poor men and women who in one day became millionaires, it happened only to a tiny handful of people.

For the majority, the experience of the gold rush was not about getting rich, but about hard work, struggle, and privation in a new environment. The documents here provide a number of comparative perspectives on this experience—men and women, workers and miners. They include diaries and journal entries from the trails and rivers that led to the goldfields, and from the mining towns and mines themselves.

Most miners who outfitted in Seattle took one of four routes to the Yukon goldfields. The “rich man’s route” was by steamship all the way—from Seattle through Dutch Harbor and into the Bering Sea. During the few months free from ice, steamers could enter the mouth of the Yukon at St. Michael’s and get up river to Dawson City. This was a long voyage, and expensive, but provided a relatively easy trip. The Stikine River-Teslin Trail was another less popular route, due not to expense but to difficulty. Miners took steamers up the Stikine River from Wrangell, Alaska, passing almost immediately into British Columbia. From the head of navigation at Telegraph Creek, they commenced a difficult overland journey with sleds and pack trains that proved for many nearly impossible. The trail led them to Teslin Lake, and thence to the other lakes that formed the headwaters of the Yukon. The letters of Hunter Fitzhugh, excerpted in the documents, describe the challenges of this route.

The majority of miners took either the Dyea Trail over Chilkoot Pass or the White Pass Trail over White Pass. These famous trails left from Dyea and Skagway, respectively, two small towns at the head of Lynn Canal. Skagway was the bigger town, booming quickly as the break-and-bulk point for people and supplies that came off of steamships and were taken up the trails. The White Pass Trail was the less grueling of the two trails, passable by horses and mules. It was plagued by unbelievable mud and rough terrain, which resulted in the death of scores of horses and other animals. The trail was replaced by the White Pass and Yukon Railroad by 1899.

The Dyea Trail was the most famous, and the greatest physical challenge. Too steep for horses or mules past a certain point, miners had to haul their hundreds of pounds of supplies on their backs. They moved up and back on the trail, making multiple trips over each section, shuttling loads further and further up the trail. The greatest challenge came in the final ascent of the pass, which was as steep as a staircase, though this staircase was carved in snowpack. The ascent to the summit, and then the descent to Lake Lindeman, were for many the most grueling experience of their lives. Scores of miners gave up while attempting these trails. They sold their outfits to others and headed back down to tidewater to find passage south to Seattle or other cities. The trails became moving marketplaces, dotted with buyers and sellers, crude lodging establishments and restaurants. The miners proved a lucrative captive market for those who could find something to sell—and there always seemed to be something to sell.

Most miners crossed the passes in late winter, February or March, and then camped along the headwater lakes, Lindeman and Bennett, until the ice cleared from the lakes and rivers in April and May. They built boats at the lakes, buying lumber from sawmills that appeared out of nowhere, or whipsawing their own lumber. This was particularly hated work, one man positioned beneath a log, one above, while the log sat on a high frame. The two men than push-pulled a cross-cut saw up and down through the log—the man on the bottom subject to falling debris, the one on top to losing his balance. Many friendships and partnerships foundered on this work.

In the spring, miners launched their heavily loaded barges, rafts, scows, and even small steamers, and headed down the long lakes to meet the Lewes River, which joined with others to become the Yukon. There were several challenges along the way, including the White Horse Rapids and Five Fingers Rapids, which wrecked quite a few boats and even killed people. Once they passed these points, most miners turned to the task of finding gold-bearing claims to mine. Some, hearing that the Klondike fields had been completely claimed, headed up other rivers in British Columbia, like the Stewart, to prospect for new gold-bearing ground. Some headed past the Klondike and Dawson, across the border to Alaska, where they prospected a series of American creeks, including Independence, Fourth of July, the Koyukuk River, and Manook Creek (also spelled Mynook, and Munook) near Rampart City, Alaska.

In 1899, news of a strike near the mouth of the Yukon led many miners to leave the fields of the upper Yukon for Nome, which became the site of a second large-scale gold rush. Hundreds took steamers north from Seattle in 1900 to mine the beaches and creeks at Nome. They joined the crowds from the Yukon in taking brief stabs at finding gold, but few lasted longer than a few months in Nome. Because Nome was on the coast, with direct access by steamship during the ice-free season, Nome was built almost instantly. Anything that could fit in a ship was brought from Seattle, from whole buildings to narrow-gauge railway tracks. Despite the ability to get almost anything to Nome, the miners still had to grapple with the environment and the complete lack of wood.

Hundreds of miners did go to the Klondike goldfields in Yukon Territory, and to Dawson City, the town that grew up at the mouth of the Klondike where it flowed into the Yukon. Few of these miners could get claims on the rich creeks of the Klondike district, but many worked for wages for other mine owners, or worked others’ claims on a share system, which was called a lay claim. Some were able to break even doing this kind of work. Others made enough money to attempt to prospect other creeks on their own. Most made little progress, or turned to other jobs and other ways of making money. Huge numbers, hundreds, realized that without claims on the rich creeks they had no hope of becoming millionaires. They immediately got on steamers and headed down the Yukon for home before the rivers closed up for the winter. In the early winters, 1897-98, for instance, many attempted to leave during the winter, by dogsled. This was a grueling and dangerous trip as well.

For those who stayed, the work of gold mining provided its own set of hardships and challenges. The work was profoundly affected by seasons and the sub-Arctic climate. In order to find gold-bearing gravel, miners had to sink shafts next to existing creeks down to older stream beds that had been covered up with 10-20 feet of muck, dirt, and permafrost. Running water posed a challenge, so miners dug in the winter, when the creeks were frozen. They used fires and hot rocks to thaw through the permafrost and loosen the dirt. Digging and thawing, they excavated deep shafts, piling up the dirt and gravel on the surface, to wait for spring. Only in spring, when the ice cleared, could they get the running water needed to wash, or sluice, the “pay dirt” and separate out the gold. Miners panned samples of dirt all winter to test their claims and assess the amount of gold in any particular hole or drift, but they never knew how much gold they were going to get until the spring “wash up” when they sluiced the gold or used rockers to separate it out. This meant that miners could do back-breaking labor all winter, and end up with very little money at the end. Faced with such disappointment and uncertainty, many miners gave up quickly and headed home. Others found wage labor jobs, cutting wood or digging for other miners. The profitability of individual placer mining declined quickly after the first few seasons. Individual miners and small groups of partners could unearth the easily accessible nuggets. Mining for finer gold required much more massive and expensive equipment, especially dredges. After 1900, large companies began buying up claims along the Klondike and at Nome, and the creeks soon became the site of large scale technological mining. As a popular field for individual miners, Alaska and the Klondike faded rapidly.

III. Themes to Guide Discussion and Work

Excitement and Wealth: Though students can argue about this, the Klondike gold rush was probably the most momentarily exciting event in the Northwest in the 19th century. People really got quite crazy. The documents provide a way for students to investigate this excitement. Why was this event exciting? What were people excited about? What factors contributed to the excitement, and who worked to increase or decrease it, and why? How was the gold excitement related to the larger economic and social context of the Pacific Northwest in the late 19th century? What happened to that excitement as the gold rush progressed? How did it change?

The question of the Klondike excitement is of course connected to gold and to the promise of wealth that went along with gold. The Klondike gave people a chance, or so they thought, to get rich. That promise of riches is something that students can debate. Why did/do people want to get rich? What options did they have in 1898? Why was this such an attractive option? Why did everyone think it would work? And who did get rich? Where? Why? How? How was money really made? Who failed to get rich, and why? How did individuals deal with both excitement and disappointment?

Diaries and letters of both men and women provide the means, as well, for students to gauge how the themes of excitement and wealth might have played out differently for men and women, according to the broader definitions of men’s and women’s roles and responsibilities both in the gold country and in the society as a whole. They can also investigate the different approaches taken by people of different social status.

The Natural Environment: For people used to modern urban living, or even farm life, in the 1890s, the trip to the Klondike was a profound change. The natural environment of the Chilkoot Pass, Lake Bennett, the Yukon river, the goldfields, and Dawson City demanded new skills, hard work, and profound adjustments. It also posed severe dangers that for many people meant injury and even death. Where was the danger? What were their biggest concerns in taking care of themselves in this new environment? What was the work of gold mining actually like? What role did the physical world play in shaping the event? The rivers? The mountains? The gold itself? The climate? What was gold mining actually like? What new knowledge and skills did men and women gain? What did they think of those experiences? Were they good or bad? These questions can be linked to other extractive economies in the Washington history. How did gold mining compare with logging, ranching, fishing, or farming, as a way of relating to the natural world? How does the environment play a role in the history of the Northwest?

Social Relations: The tension, excitement, and challenging environment of the Klondike threw people together in new ways. How did they relate to each other? How did men and women relate? What work did women do? What work did men do? Rich and poor? What kinds of communities did they create—towns, households, villages? How did they deal with conflicts? With frustration? Did men and women relate differently under special circumstances? How did gold miners view and deal with Native peoples in the Yukon and Alaska? What kind of work did Native peoples do? How did all of these relationships change over the course of the gold rush?

Industrialization and Transportation: The 1898 gold rush was a modern event. It took place in a world of railroads and telegraphs, steamships and streetcars. Unlike earlier gold rushes, people could move to and from Seattle very quickly, in a matter of days. News traveled quickly as well. This modernity contrasted sharply with conditions in the goldfields, at least at the start. Transportation was a great challenge, no matter what the season. Gold seekers had to wait months to get into and out of the goldfields. They could get from the East Coast or the midwest to Seattle or Skagway in days. On the way back out, once they got to Skagway or Seattle, they could be back home in San Francisco, Chicago, or New York very quickly. How did this shape the event? What did it make possible? What were the contrasts between the modern and the very primitive?

VI. Chronology: Seattle and the Klondike Gold Rush

Year	Event
1886	Gold strike at Forty-Mile Creek, Alaska.
June 1889	Seattle Fire.
1892	North American Trade & Transportation Company (NAT&T) founded in Chicago, to set up trading posts along Yukon River.
1893	Completion of Great Northern Railway from St. Paul to Seattle.
1893	Financial panic and depression hits American economy.
1895	NAT&T store established at Circle City, Alaska.
March-April 1896	Considerable numbers of miners leave Seattle for Circle City, Alaska, other goldfields at Forty Mile, Sixty Mile, and Cook Inlet.
1896	Population of Circle City reaches 5,000.
August 1896	Gold discovery on Bonanza Creek, tributary of Klondike River, Yukon Territory.
Fall 1896	News of Klondike strike reaches Circle City, miners depart for Dawson. Building begins at the new site of Dawson City, Yukon Territory.
Winter 1896-1897	Miners work Klondike mines, take out millions in gold.
April 1897	Population of Dawson City reaches about 1,500.
Summer 1897	Population of Dawson City reached 3,500.
July 1897	Miners return to Seattle and San Francisco with news of Klondike gold and gold itself.
July-August 1897	Miners leave Seattle and other cities for the Klondike. By September 1st, 9,000 left the port of Seattle.
February-April 1898	Thousands leave Seattle and other cities for the Klondike.
April 3, 1898	Snowslide at Chilkoot Pass, killing over sixty men and women.
Summer 1898	Between 20,000 and 30,000 potential miners reach Dawson
July 1898	Gold strike at Anvil Creek, Alaska, Nome Mining District.
1898	Seattle begins regrade of downtown to expand commercial district.
April 1899	Town site of Nome staked and established.
Summer 1899	Discovery of gold on Nome beaches. Two thousand arrive to mine.
October 1899	Steamer arrives in Seattle with Nome miners and gold aboard.
January-April 1900	One to two thousand miners travel from Yukon to Nome.
April-May 1900	Ships sail from Seattle for Nome gold beaches, with up to 20,000 on board.
Summer 1900	Thousands descend on Nome beaches to dig for gold in the sand.
1901	Annual volume of business in Seattle tops $50 million.
1902-1903	Gold discoveries in Tanana Valley, Alaska, and founding of Fairbanks.
1903	Founding of Alaska Club, a Seattle organization for Alaskan businessmen.
1904	Construction of the 15 story Alaska Building, the first steel frame skyscraper in Seattle. Financed by Jafet Lindeberg, who struck gold in Nome in 1898, along with other stockholders of the Scandinavian-American bank. Includes space for Alaska Club offices.
1906	Schwabacher Company constructs new 8-story building at First and Jackson in Seattle.
1908	Alaska Club and Arctic Club merge in Seattle, bringing together Seattle and Alaska businessmen.
1909	Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition is held in Seattle.
1909	Statue of William Seward placed in Seattle’s Volunteer Park.
1914	Seattle’s ocean-borne commerce reaches new high of $154,599,947.
1915-1916	Alaska exports nearly $50,000,000 in gold, silver, copper, other minerals, and salmon, to the U.S.
1916	Construction of Arctic Building on Third Avenue in Seattle.

V. Bibliography: General Sources on Seattle and the Klondike

Adney, Tappan, The Klondike Stampede (1900; repr. Vancouver, B.C.,1994).

Bolotin, Norman, A Klondike Scrapbook: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times (San Francisco, 1987).

Berner, Richard C., Seattle 1900-1920: From Boomtown, UrbanTurbulence, to Restoration(Seattle, 1991).

Berton, Pierre, Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush, 1896-1899 (1958, repr. Toronto, 1993).

Hackman, Rebecca. “Klondike Gold Rush: The Perilous Journey North.” University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections. Online Exhibits. https://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcollections/collections/exhibits/klondike.

Herbert, Christopher. Gold Rush Manliness: Race and Gender on the Pacific Slope (Seattle, 2018)

Holeski, Carolyn, and Marlene Conger, In Search of Gold: TheAlaska Journals of Horace S. Conger, 1898-1899 (Anchorage, 1983).

Ladue, Joseph. Klondyke Nuggets: Being A Brief Description of the Famous Gold Regions of the Great Canadian Northwest and Alaska. New York: American Technical Book Company, 1897.

LaRoche, Frank, Photographic Views En Route to the Klondike (Chicago, 1898).

Library of Congress. Klondike Gold Rush Photographs. Photos, Prints, Drawings. https://www.loc.gov/photos/?q=klondike+gold&loclr=blogmap.

Martinsen, Ella Lung, Black Sand and Gold: A True Story of the Alaska-Klondike Gold Rush (Portland, 1956).

Marks, Paula Mitchell, Precious Dust: The American Gold Rush Era,1848-1900 (New York, 1994).

Mayer, Melanie, Klondike Women: True Tales of the 1897-98 GoldRush (Athens, Ohio, 1989).

Morgan, Murray, One Man’s Gold Rush: A Klondike Album. Photography by E. A. Hegg (Seattle, 1967).

Morse, Kathryn. The Nature of Gold: An Environmental History of the Klondike Gold Rush (Seattle, 2003).

Pomeroy, Earl, The Pacific Slope: A History of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada (New York, 1965).

Sale, Roger, Seattle: Past and Present (Seattle, 1976).

Schwantes, Carlos, The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History, revised ed. (Lincoln, 2000).

Spude, Catherine Holder. Saloons, Prostitutes, and Temperance in Alaska Territory (Norman, 2015).

Stone, Thomas, Miners’ Justice: Migration, Law, and Order on the Alaska-Yukon Frontier, 1873-1902 (New York, 1988).

University of Washington. The Klondike Gold Rush. Digital Exhibit. University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections. https://content.lib.washington.edu/extras/goldrush.html.

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1. Mary Hitchcock, Bering Sea, June 1898; in Melanie Mayer, Klondike Women: True Tales of the 1897-98 Gold Rush (Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press, 1989), p. 56.
A wealthy woman’s awestruck description of the Bering Sea, showing the reaction to the new and extreme natural environment many encountered in Alaska. Hitchcock was a tourist, interested in experiencing the Yukon River and the atmosphere of the gold rush.

2. Inga Kolloen, Dyea Trail, March 21, 1898, in Melanie Mayer, Klondike Women, p. 73.
A young woman’s experience on the Dyea Trail and the hardships of the trip to the Klondike.

3. Inga Kolloen, Dyea Trail, March 29, 1898; in Melanie Mayer, Klondike Women, p. 78.
A young woman’s experience on the Dyea Trail, indicating difficulties with weather, living conditions, and the attitudes of men.

4. Martha Purdy, Summer 1898; in Melanie Mayer, Klondike Women, pp. 102-103.
A woman’s account of crossing the worst part of the Chilkoot Pass, indicating the overwhelming effort involved and the particular experience of women.

5. Flora Shaw, Lake Bennett, July 1898; in Melanie Mayer, Klondike Women, p. 175.
A female journalist’s description of boat building at Lake Bennett, with concerns about the men’s inexperience and the risks they took with their boats.

6. Frances Dorley, Five Finger Rapids, summer 1898; in Melanie Mayer, Klondike Women, p. 198.
A Seattle dressmaker’s account of tensions between men and women while navigating a small boat down the Yukon River.

7. Letter from Thomas J. Church to General J. B. Metcalfe, July 19, 1897. Erastus Brainerd Scrapbooks, vol. 1, p. 1. Microfilm copy, University of Washington Libraries; original, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.
A letter from a Seattleite in Chicago concerning Seattle’s role in outfitting miners the opportunities for Seattle merchants to make money from the excitement over gold mining.

8. Letter from Eugene Higgins to E. O. Graves, January 22, 1898, Erastus Brainerd Scrapbooks, vol. 1. Microfilm copy, University of Washington Libraries; original, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.
A letter from a Seattleite in New York concerned about Seattle’s chances to profit from the business of gold miners and compete with San Francisco, Portland, and Tacoma for that business. Includes suggestions for an advertising campaign.

9. Letter from Erastus Brainerd, Seattle Chamber of Commerce, to local businessmen, November 20, 1897. Erastus Brainerd Scrapbooks, vol. 1, p. 18. Microfilm copy, University of Washington Libraries; original, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
A letter from the Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s secretary to Seattle businessmen urging them and their employees to write to papers and friends around the country pushing Seattle as the best outfitting place for Alaska.

10. Seattle Chamber of Commerce Report, September 7, 1897. Erastus Brainerd Scrapbooks, vol. 1, p. 7. Microfilm copy, University of Washington Libraries; original, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
A report from the Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s publicity committee outlining specific plans for advertising Seattle as the point for departure for the goldfields.

11. “Outfit for a Woman,” in Gold Fields of Alaska: Klondike Gold Fields and Northwest Territory, R. A. Irving, ed. (Chicago: North American Transportation and Trading Company, 1897?), pp. 78-79. Original: Bibliotheque Nationale du Quebec; Microfiche, Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions, M2501, Pre-1900 Canadiana, #15730.
A Chicago guidebook’s opinion on what a woman needed for a mining outfit.

12. A Guide to the Klondike and the Yukon Gold Fields (Seattle: Lowman and Hanford, 1897), p. 95. Original: Provincial Archives of British Columbia; Microfiche, Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions, M2501, Pre-1900 Canadiana, #15074.
A Seattle guidebook’s statement to miners that the city had the ability to buy any and all miners’ gold, and that the city planned to establish an assay office where gold could be weighed and valued officially.

13. Letter from the Seattle Chamber of Commerce to James J. Hill, president of the Great Northern Railway, n.d. Erastus Brainerd Scrapbooks, vol. 1. Microfilm copy, University of Washington Libraries; original, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
A Seattle Chamber of Commerce letter stating the reasons why Seattle needed and could support a government assay office, including a statement about how this would best serve the miners’ needs.

14. “The Klondike Year,” in Seattle Argus, December 18, 1897.
A Seattle newspaper’s account of the first big year of the gold rush, including an interesting description of Seattle’s crucial role and its great progress in strengthening trade connections and ending the economic slump of the early 1890s.

15. “The Skagway Trail,” in Seattle Argus, September 25, 1897.
A description of the toll taken on horses and other pack animals along the Skagway Trail to White Pass in 1897.

16. Seattle Argus, September 25, 1897.
A report on the difficult conditions along the Skagway Trail in 1897 and the fact that very few who attempted to cross White Pass made it. Many turned back frustrated by the difficulties of the trail.

17. “A Klondiker’s Advice,” in Seattle Argus, December 18, 1897.
A newspaper column including advice from a miner about the real difficulties of mining in the Klondike.

18. Letters home from R. Hunter Fitzhugh, September 18, 1897 and September 25, 1897. Robert Hunter Fitzhugh Collection, Box 2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Two letters from a 29-year-old man from Lexington, Kentucky, who traveled to Wrangell, Alaska in 1897 and faced great difficulties in attempting to travel up the Stikine River route to the goldfields. His letters include an account of the ship’s voyage to Victoria and the environmental toll of trying to get to the mouth of the Stikine River.

19. Letter from R. Hunter Fitzhugh, Rampart, Alaska, July 2, 1899. Robert Hunter Fitzhugh Collection, Box 2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A letter from R. Hunter Fitzhugh expressing his desire to stick to gold mining for another year because life at home offered no better opportunities.

20. Letter from R. Hunter Fitzhugh to friend Brokie, Rampart, Alaska, Summer 1899. Robert Hunter Fitzhugh Collection, Box 2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A cheerful letter from a miner to a friend at home describing daily activities and worries about not being able to get jobs at home.

21. Letter from R. Hunter Fitzhugh to his father, February 24, 1898. Robert Hunter Fitzhugh Collection, Box 2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A description of the hardships of traveling by dog sled up the Stikine River to Telegraph Creek, British Columbia.

22. Letter from R. Hunter Fitzhugh to his father, Lake Teslin, B.C., May 5, 1898. Robert Hunter Fitzhugh Collection, Box 2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A personal description of the hardships of the Teslin Trail, one of the less popular routes to the goldfields.

23. Letter home from R. Hunter Fitzhugh, Lake Teslin, B.C., May 5, 1898. Robert Hunter Fitzhugh Collection, Box 2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
An emotional letter home about the challenges of the Teslin Trail and the effect of these challenges on the miner’s emotional state.

24. Seattle Financial Information, from Polk’s Seattle City Directory, 1898-1905.
With figures showing changes in population, banking, exports, and imports, this information gives a basic idea of Seattle’s trade economy in the years after the gold rush.

25. Promoting Seattle and the Gold Rush, from Trade Register (Seattle), January 8, 1898.
Report on one of the Chamber of Commerce’s plans to promote the gold rush and Seattle. The Chamber sent a gold exhibit on the Great Northern Railway to be shown in major American cities as means of attracting people to the idea of gold mining.

26. Letter home from R. Hunter Fitzhugh, Hoosier Creek, Alaska, November 12, 1899. Robert Hunter Fitzhugh Collection, Box 2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A miner’s letters describing, in colorful terms, the frustration and futility of not finding gold when others did.

27. Letter fragment from R. Hunter Fitzhugh, Rampart Mining District, January 1900. Robert Hunter Fitzhugh Collection, Box 2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A miner’s letter about the difficulties of mining, including the hard work, mines filling with water, and neighbors finding gold.

28. Letter from R. Hunter Fitzhugh, Rampart Mining District, December 21, 1899. Robert Hunter Fitzhugh Collection, Box 2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A miner’s letter about the hardships of mid-winter life in the gold mines.

29. Last letter home from R. Hunter Fitzhugh, Rampart, Alaska, October 29, 1900. Robert Hunter Fitzhugh Collection, Box 2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A miner’s letter about the difficulty of whip-sawing, a common method of sawing wood in the Yukon Valley. The men put the log on a frame about eight feet off the ground. One stood above it, one stood below it, and push-pulled a saw up and down through the log. They all hated this kind of work.

30. Letter from R. Hunter Fitzhugh to his mother, Hoosier Creek, March 2, 1900. Robert Hunter Fitzhugh Collection, Box 2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A miner’s commentary on the Nome gold miners headed down river in the spring of 1900.

31. Letter from William Ballou, Seattle, March 29, 1898. William B. Ballou Papers, Letters 1898-1918, Box 1-2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A Massachusetts miner’s view of Seattle while passing through in March 1898.

32. Letter home from William Ballou, Rampart Mining District, September 20, 1899. William B. Ballou Papers, Letters 1898-1918, Box 1-2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A miner’s perspective on the freedom and uncertainty of gold seeking.

33. Letter from William Ballou, Rampart City, Alaska, Summer 1898. William B. Ballou Papers, Letters 1898-1918, Box 1-2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A description of the lower Yukon Valley by a miner headed upriver to the mines.

34. Letter from William Ballou, Dawson City, Spring 1899. William B. Ballou Papers, Letters 1898-1918, Box 1-2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Observations on gambling in Dawson City.

35. Letter from Joseph Gibson, Dawson City, to his wife Sarah Ellen Gibson, n.d. Sarah Ellen Gibson Collection, Correspondence 1884-1903, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A husband’s letter to his wife urging her to join him in Dawson City, where he felt there was enough work for them to do well. He refers to previous family troubles and the promise of a new start.

36. Letter from William Ballou, Dawson City, June 20, 1899. William B. Ballou Papers, Letters 1898-1918, Box 1-2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Views on work, laziness, and the challenges of Alaska.

37. Letter from Lynn Smith, Chena River, October 1904. Herbert Heller Papers, Lynn Smith Correspondence and Letters, Box 1, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Brief comment on the cold and wood fires.

38. Excerpt from the diary of Harold Peterson, August-September 1898(?). Diary of Harold Peterson, VFMS, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A man’s description of the mud and the crowds along the Dyea Trail.

39. Letter from O. G. Herning, Willow Creek Mining District, March 2, 1903. O. G. Herning Correspondence, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A miner’s discussion of why mining was a worthwhile business, namely to make money and get out.

40. Excerpt from diary of Edward C. Adams, Dawson City, January 16, 1901. Edward C. Adams, “Dairy [sic] of the Tripp from Seattle to Dawson City and also for the whole year of 1900,” VFMS, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A succinct statement of just how cold it was.

41. Letter from Lynn Smith, Rampart, to his sister Polly, September 19, 1898. Herbert Heller Papers, Lynn Smith Correspondence and Letters, Box 1, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Commentary on the food.

42. Letters from Jonas Houck to his wife in Detroit, Michigan. Jonas Houck Papers, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A Detroit miner’s account of various points along the journey, the trail, and Dawson City.

43. Letter from Lynn Smith, Rampart, April 15, 1902. Herbert Heller Papers, Lynn Smith Correspondence and Letters, Box 1, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Account of a particularly miserable trip and meal.

44. Letter from Lynn Smith, Rampart, to his sister, November 1898. Herbert Heller Papers, Lynn Smith Correspondence and Letters, Box 1, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Mention of a man who brought in eggs in order to make money. A preview of Jack London’s story with a similar plot, “A Thousand Dozen.”

45. Letter from Lynn Smith, Glenn Gulch, October 29, 1901. Herbert Heller Papers, Lynn Smith Correspondence and Letters, Box 1, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The excitement of panning for gold described by a long-time miner.

46. Letter from Lynn Smith, Rampart, December 17, 1903. Herbert Heller Papers, Lynn Smith Correspondence and Letters, Box 1, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Account of trading for furs with the Tanana Indians and the diseases afflicting native peoples.

47. Letter home from Lynn Smith, June 1900. Herbert Heller Papers, Lynn Smith Correspondence and Letters, Box 1, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A miner’s comment on the removal of native peoples from an island near St. Michaels, at the mouth of the Yukon River.

48. Letter from Herman Ferree, Sheep Camp, to his sister in Indiana, February 19, 1898. “Dyea and the Dyea Trail,” VFMS, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Enthusiasm for the jobs and wages to be had packing goods at Chilkoot Pass as well as a description of the crowds on the trail.

49. Excerpts from Frank Purdy’s diary, November-December 1898. Diary of Frank Purdy, VFMS, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A Massachusetts miner’s somewhat sad entries about December 1898 in the goldfields.

50. Excerpt from the Dyea Trail, January 12, 1898.
Grand plans for the town of Dyea, the start of the Dyea Trail, and the idea of a gateway city.

51. Reprint in the November 21, 1898, Alton Democrat of a letter from an Iowa gold seeker at Clear Creek, Alaska. Letters of Iowa Goldseekers, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks. See also, John Clark Hunt, ed. “The Adventures of the Iowa Goldseekers,” Alaska Journal 3 (Winter 1973), p. 2-11.
A detailed description of digging mining holes in Alaska creeks.

52. Excerpt from Dawson Daily News, May 23, 1900. Reprinted in Norman Bolotin, A Klondike Scrapbook: Ordinary People, Extrordinary Times (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1987), p. 50.
A newspaper description of dogs in Dawson City. Dogs were crucial to sled transport in winter, but in summer they had nothing to do and were often abandoned and neglected.

53. Letter from Assistant Commissioner, Royal Northwest Mounted Police, Yukon Territory to Clifford Sifton, Minister of Interior, Ottawa, Ontario, January 2, 1905. Reprinted in Norman Bolotin, A Klondike Scrapbook: Ordinary People, Extrordinary Times (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1987),
p. 84-85.

54. Letter from E. G. Abbott to his family, Reprinted in Alton Democrat, June 10, 1898; Letters of Iowa Goldseekers, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks. See also, John Clark Hunt, ed., “The Adventures of the Iowa Goldseekers,”  Alaska Journal 3 (Winter 1973), p. 2-11.
Description of the loads carried by boats from Tagish Lake to Dawson City, showing the sheer amount of goods miners transported to the goldfields.

55. Excerpts from Asahel Curtis’s diary. Asahel Curtis Papers, Manuscripts and University Archives, University of Washington Libraries.
Seattle photographer Asahel Curtis’s reflections about the men he encountered in the Klondike.

56. Letter from T. T. Barbour, Dawson City. Reprinted in Alton Democrat, June 26, 1898. (Letters of Iowa Goldseekers, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks. See also, John Clark Hunt, ed., “The Adventures of the Iowa Goldseekers,” Alaska Journal 3 (Winter 1973), p. 2-11.
Comments on the crowds along the Yukon on the way to Dawson and at Dawson City itself.

57. Letter from Eli Clark to Erastus Brainerd, Seattle, August 9, 1907. Erastus Brainerd Papers, Box 2, Folder 8, Manuscripts and University Archives, University of Washington Libraries.
A letter from a Seattle promoter in 1907 commenting on the resentment that Alaskans had for Seattle’s domination and control of the Alaska trade and asking that Seattle be more considerate of views from Alaska.

58. Archdeacon Hudson Stuck on salmon, 1920. Cited in Michael J. Carey, “Save the Salmon: The Carlisle Cannery on the Yukon, 1918-1921,” Alaska Journal 15 (Summer 1985), p. 33.
An important note on the other crucial commodity along the Yukon besides gold: salmon.

59. Alaska Steamship Company tourism advertisement, 1938. Alaska Steamship Records, Box 61, Manuscripts and University Archives, University of Washington Libraries.
Decades later, an echo of the importance of gold—or the idea of gold—to Seattle boosterism.

60. Excerpts from the diary of Charles P. Mosier, winter 1898-1899. Diary of Charles P. Mosier, MSS 12, Acc. 82/168, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
Excerpts from the terse, mundane diary of a 17-year-old miner from New York state. Shows the daily work of winter mining and the constant focus on how much gold, measured in dollars and cents, the excavated dirt contained. Shows how little gold they often found. The work consisted of digging holes, thawing the dirt with fires, and then cleaning out the thawed dirt, setting fires again, cleaning it out again, and so forth. In the spring miners sluiced the dirt and washed it in long wooden troughs in order to separate the gold from the dirt and gravel.

61. Excerpt from James Cooper diary, Skagway, August 16, 1897. “Diary of James S. Cooper and Associates to the Klondike,” Dawson City Museum, Yukon, Canada. Secondary reproduction without museum permission is not permitted.
A New York miner’s descriptions of the bustling town of Skagway, prices, liquor, horses, boats, and guns.

62. Excerpt from James Cooper diary, Klondike Mining District, November 1897. “Diary of James S. Cooper and Associates to the Klondike.” Dawson City Museum, Yukon, Canada. Secondary reproduction without museum permission not permitted.
A diary describing the quiet, boring, dark, and cold life of a miner’s cabin in November 1897,.

63. Excerpt from James Cooper diary, Dawson, December 29, 1897. “Diary of James S. Cooper and Associates to the Klondike.” Dawson City Museum, Yukon, Canada. Secondary reproduction without museum permission not permitted.
Sad and depressing days at the end of December 1897.

64. Letter home from Thomas J. Kearney, May 29, 1899. Dawson City Museum, Yukon, Canada. Secondary reproduction without museum permission not permitted.
A man who worked running pack trains from Dawson City to the goldfields describing packing gold and the level of trust given to him by the gold’s owner.

65. Excerpt from James Cooper diary, above Five Fingers Rapids, October 4, 1897. “Diary of James S. Cooper and Associates to the Klondike.” Dawson City Museum, Yukon, Canada. Secondary reproduction without museum permission not permitted.
The daily work, routine, and danger of boat travel from the lakes at the head of the Yukon, down the river toward Dawson City and the goldfields.

66. Letter home from Thomas Kearney, Dawson, August 4, 1898. Dawson City Museum, Yukon, Canada. Secondary reproduction without museum permission not permitted.
A letter from a Dawson City’s man working in a bakery to avoid the less dependable work of gold mining. Also a note about the hundreds of men and women leaving because of the lack of opportunity to strike it rich.

67. Letter home from John H. Lindsay, Fox Gulch, April 3, 1899. John H. Lindsay Collection, MSS 12, Acc. 82/173, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
Description of Bonanza Creek in 1899 and the crowds of people looking for work at a time when no work was to be found.

68. Letters home from John H. Lindsay. John H. Lindsay Collection, MSS 12, Acc. 82/173, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
Entries on the search for work and the departure of many men and women for other goldfields down the Yukon.

69. Letter from James Hamil to his sister, Dawson City, October 8, 1897. Klondike Miners, VFMS, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A letter home to Iowa describing Dawson City in 1897, including prices, work, wages, and crowds.

70. Letter from Maud Case to family in Minnesota. George E. Case and Family Papers, Minnesota Historical Society.
A young women’s letter on the work conditions in the gold mines in 1903.

71. Letters home from Rebecca Schuldenfrei, Dawson City, October 1897. Schuldenfrei Family Letters, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
A middle-aged couple’s reactions to life in Dawson City in 1897, including the problems with finding firewood and money worries.

72. Henry Dow Banks account of shopping in Seattle, February 9, 1898. Henry Dow Banks Collection, MSS 40, Acc. 82/240, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
A Connecticut miner describes the scene at Seattle in February 1898 as he prepares his outfit to leave for the Yukon.

73. Excerpt from the diary of John D. Davies, Nome, April 3 and 6, 1900. John D. Davies Papers and Diary, MSS 160, Acc. 81/137, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
Conditions at Nome, including lack of a reliable source of firewood.

74. Excerpts from diary of Tom Boldrick, Yukon Territory, June 15-16, 1898. Klondike Miners, VFMS, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Diary describing the back-breaking labor of hauling boats and supplies up the White River in search of a good mining location. Shows the difficulty of such work, the obstacles posed by the natural world, and the huge investment of labor involved before mines were even located.

75. Excerpt from diary of Joseph H. Cavanagh, Eagle City, Alaska, May 16, 1901. Klondike Miners, VFMS, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.A miner’s voyage down the Yukon past Eagle City, Alaska, with a description of the town and its facilities. Shows how Yukon towns were growing as a result of the gold rush.

76. Excerpts from diary of Tom Boldrick, July 13 and 14, 1898. Klondike Miners, VFMS, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Diary entries discussing the wait for news of gold.

77. Excerpt from diary of Tom Boldrick, July 4, 1898. Klondike Miners, VFMS, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
An Independence Day celebration consisting of panning for gold, mosquitoes, and hopes of progress. Includes references to the Spanish-American War and memories of other celebrations at home.

78. Excerpts of letters home from Nora Crane, July 9, 1897 – July 11, 1898. Kepner/Crane microfiche collection, Folder 2-3, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A series of letters from a fairly well-to-do young woman about her voyage up the Yukon to Circle City, Dawson City society, gambling, miners, and various other interesting aspects of life. Good, funny source on one woman’s attitudes and experiences.

79. Excerpt of a letter to a friend home from Nora Crane, Circle City, Alaska, July 11, 1898. Kepner/Crane microfiche collection, Folder 2-3, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A woman’s view on the prospects for women’s work in the Yukon and Alaska.

80. Letter to P. B. Weare, North American Transportation and Trading Company, from Harry L. Kepner, August 26, 1897. Kepner/Crane microfiche collection, Folder 8, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A young man’s letter of resignation from one of the supply companies, stating his desire to try gold mining over bookkeeping.

81. Prices from Alfred McMichael’s letters, March-June 1898. Diary and Letters of Alfred McMichael, Juliette Reinicker Papers, MSS 100, Acc. 79/68, Box 10, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
Alfred (Mac) McMichael left Detroit in March 1898 for Seattle and went north by the Dyea Trail, ending up at Fourth of July Creek in Alaska. He wrote regular letters home to close friends and their young children. He noted these prices along the way, which serve as a good example of the expense of supplies and other services in gold country.

82. Letter from Alfred McMichael, Seattle, March 1898. Diary and Letters of Alfred McMichael, Juliette Reinicker Papers, MSS 100, Acc. 79/68, Box 10, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
A miner’s view of Seattle while en route to the goldfields.

83. Letter from Alfred McMichael, Lake Bennett, Spring 1898. Diary and Letters of Alfred McMichael, Juliette Reinicker Papers, MSS 100, Acc. 79/68, Box 10, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
Reflections on the shared trust that miners held for each other, like leaving their supplies alone while crossing the passes, with no fear of being robbed.

84. Letter from Alfred McMichael, Dawson City, June 22, 1898. Diary and Letters of Alfred McMichael, Juliette Reinicker Papers, MSS 100, Acc. 79/68, Box 10, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
A miner’s warning to others at home not to follow him, due to the expense and hard work. Provides a positive perspective of the honor of hard labor and the equality it bred on the trails and in the goldfields.

85. Letter from Alfred McMichael, Fourth of July Creek, July 13, 1898. Diary and Letters of Alfred McMichael, Juliette Reinicker Papers, MSS 100, Acc. 79/68, Box 10, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
A miner’s declaration that few gold rushers could get rich, no matter how hard they worked.

86. Letter from Alfred McMichael, on Dyea Trail, April 1, 1898. Diary and Letters of Alfred McMichael, Juliette Reinicker Papers, MSS 100, Acc. 79/68, Box 10, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
A male miner’s views of women on the Dyea Trail.

87. Letter from Alfred McMichael, on steamer en route from Seattle, March 27, 1898. Diary and Letters of Alfred McMichael, Juliette Reinicker Papers, MSS 100, Acc. 79/68, Box 10, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
A miner’s description of the steamship voyage from Seattle north to Alaska.

88. Letter from Alfred McMichael, Chilkoot Pass, April 5, 1898. Diary and Letters of Alfred McMichael, Juliette Reinicker Papers, MSS 100, Acc. 79/68, Box 10, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
In contrast to other views, this letter presents a positive and detailed description of crossing the Chilkoot Pass. This particular miner was not burdened with hundreds of pounds of supplies, which may have had something to do with his cheerful attitude. He shipped the bulk of his supplies up the Yukon by steamship.

89. Letter from Alfred McMichael, Sheep Camp, April 8, 1898. Diary and Letters of Alfred McMichael, Juliette Reinicker Papers, MSS 100, Acc. 79/68, Box 10, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.Letters of Alfred McMichael, Juliette Reinicker Papers, MSS 100, Acc. 79/68, Box 10, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
Life at Sheep Camp, on the Dyea Trail, with discussions of gambling, morale, and the tragedy of an avalanche at Chilkoot Pass.

90. Letter from Alfred McMichael, Circle City, August 26, 1898. Diary and Letters of Alfred McMichael, Juliette Reinicker Papers, MSS 100, Acc. 79/68, Box 10, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
A comment on the lies told about Alaska and how it really was not as wonderful as others had made it out to be.

91. Letter from Alfred McMichael, Circle City, August 9, 1898. Diary and Letters of Alfred McMichael, Juliette Reinicker Papers, MSS 100, Acc. 79/68, Box 10, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
A description of the most common way of making money in the gold camps—buying and selling supplies to other miners.

92. Letter from Alfred McMichael, Circle City, September 11, 1898. Diary and Letters of Alfred McMichael, Juliette Reinicker Papers, MSS 100, Acc. 79/68, Box 10, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
Description of one of the ways that miners lost their lives, by accidental shooting.

93. Letter from Alfred McMichael, Circle City, September 11, 1898. Diary and Letters of Alfred McMichael, Juliette Reinicker Papers, MSS 100, Acc. 79/68, Box 10, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
An account of two families that came to Dawson and how they survived long enough to earn money to get home. An interesting note on men’s work and women’s work and the ways to make money in the gold camps.

94. Excerpt from the diary of F. Hiscock, May 25, 1898. F. William Hiscock, “The Youkon Trail of Year 1898.” Dawson City Museum, Yukon, Canada. Secondary reproduction without museum permission not permitted.
The excitement at Lake Bennett as spring arrived, the ice broke up, and the legions of boats started to leave for the Yukon and Dawson City.

95. Letter from Alfred McMichael, Fourth of July Creek, December 10, 1898. Diary and Letters of Alfred McMichael, Juliette Reinicker Papers, MSS 100, Acc. 79/68, Box 10, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
A concise statement on the hard labor of gold mining.

96. Excerpt from the diary of F. Hiscock, Bonanza Creek, November 1898. From F. William Hiscock, “The Youkon Trail of Year 1898.” Dawson City Museum, Yukon, Canada. Secondary reproduction without museum permission not permitted.
A good, clear statement of what Bonanza Creek looked like and how gold mining proceeded.

97. Excerpt from the diary of F. Hiscock, Klondike Mining District, Winter 1898. From F. William Hiscock, “The Youkon Trail of Year 1898.” Dawson City Museum, Yukon, Canada. Secondary reproduction without museum permission not permitted.
The dangers of gold mining, potential for accidents, and conditions in the shafts and drifts.

98. Account of Yukon River by Captain W. P. Richardson. Capt. W. P. Richardson, “The Mighty Yukon as Seen and Explored,” from Compilation of Narratives of Explorations in Alaska (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1900).
A general description of the Yukon River.

99. Letter from William Ballou, Seattle, April 1, 1898. William B. Ballou Papers, Letters, 1898-1918, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A description of Klondike madness in Seattle, spring 1898, by a Boston miner on his way to Alaska.

100. O. S. Johnson’s Alaska Outfit Statement, bought of Stetson Bros. & Co., 1898. Courtesy of Kathryn Utter.
A long and detailed price list of the items bought by one man in 1898. A difficult list in many ways, taken from a personal account rather than a guidebook.

101. Weight and Approximate Cost of an Outfit. Gold Fields of Alaska: Klondike Gold Fields and Northwest Territory (Chicago: North American Transportation and Trading Company, 1897), p. 78. Original: Bibliotheque Nationale du Quebec; Microfiche, Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions, M2501, Pre-1900 Canadiana, #15730.
A guidebook’s simple estimate of costs and weight for a Klondike outfit. Good for comparison with an actual outfit, as outlined in document 100, as well as with the recommended grocery list in document 124.

102. Seattle Price List. Guide to the Klondike and Yukon Gold Fields in Alaska and Northwest Territories (Seattle: Lowman and Hanford, 1897), p. 99. Original: Provincial Archives of British Columbia; Microfiche, Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions, M2501, Pre-1900 Canadiana, #15074.
Prices advertised in a Seattle guidebook for food and a miner’s outfit.

103. Gold types. Guide to the Klondike and Yukon Gold Fields in Alaska and Northwest Territories (Seattle: Lowman and Hanford, 189), p. 99. Original: Provincial Archives of British Columbia; Microfiche, Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions, M2501, Pre-1900 Canadiana, #15074.
The price miners could actually get for the gold they mined.

104. An advertisement for Seattle. Erastus Brainerd Scrapbooks, vol. 1, p. 30. Microfilm copy, University of Washington Libraries; original, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
One of the advertisements that the Seattle Chamber of Commerce placed in newspapers and magazines around the country, advertising Seattle as the gateway to Alaska and the Yukon.

105. Undated newspaper clipping on the “petty jealousies” between Seattle and Tacoma. Erastus Brainerd Scrapbooks, vol. 1. Microfilm copy, University of Washington Libraries; original, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
A Portland, Oregon, newspaper clipping noting the battle between Seattle and Tacoma for status as the key city for the Klondike.

106. Seattle advertisement. Erastus Brainerd Scrapbooks, vol. 1, p. 39. Microfilm copy, University of Washington Libraries; original, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
Another advertisement from the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, stressing repetition of the word “Seattle” as a ploy to link the city’s name with Alaska and gold.

107. Telegram from H. P. Dearborn, New York, to E. O. Graves, Seattle, December 5, 1897. Erastus Brainerd Scrapbooks, vol. 3, p. 42. Microfilm copy, University of Washington Libraries; original, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
A telegram from New York alerting the Seattle Chamber of Commerce that a “rival city” was circulating information against Seattle as the superior city for outfitting.

108. Klondike information free advertisement. Erastus Brainerd Scrapbooks, vol. 3, p. 42. Microfilm copy, University of Washington Libraries; original, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
Advertisement on the benefits of outfitting in Tacoma produced by the Tacoma Citizen’s Klondike Committee.

109. Reasons to outfit in San Francisco. Erastus Brainerd Scrapbooks, vol. 1. Microfilm copy, University of Washington Libraries; original, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

110. Reasons to outfit in Juneau. Erastus Brainerd Scrapbook, vol. 1, p. 187. Microfilm copy, University of Washington Libraries; original, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
An argument for Juneau as an outfitting point.

111. Seattle Chamber of Commerce advertisement. Erastus Brainerd Scrapbooks, vol. 1, p. 39. Microfilm copy, University of Washington Libraries; original, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
A striking advertisement from the Seattle Chamber of Commerce showing the visual linkage between the words Seattle, Klondike, and Alaska, that succeeded in linking Seattle and Alaska in miners’ minds.

112. Open letter from the Women’s Klondike Gold Club, Chicago, 1897. Erastus Brainerd Scrapbooks, vol. 4, p. 135. Microfilm copy, University of Washington Libraries; original, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
A letter from a woman to a Chicago organization for women interested in going to the Klondike. Outlines plans for establishing a woman’s colony or group in the goldfields, with “refined, intelligent women.” Includes lots of far-fetched plans and the statement that “THIS IS THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY WOMAN HAS EVER HAD TO MAKE A FORTUNE. Let us embrace it.”

113. Steamer advertisement. Guide to the Klondike and Yukon Gold Fields in Alaska and Northwest Territories (Seattle: Lowman and Hanford, 1897). Original: Provincial Archives of British Columbia; Microfiche, Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions, M2501, Pre-1900 Canadiana, #15074.
A North American Transportation and Trading Company advertisement for those wanting to travel “Direct to Klondyke on Palace Steamers.” This was the fast “rich man’s route” to the Yukon from Seattle.

114. Hardware Prices. Guide to the Klondike and Yukon Gold Fields in Alaska and Northwest Territories (Seattle: Lowman and Hanford, 1897), 100. Original: Provincial Archives of British Columbia; Microfiche, Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions, M2501, Pre-1900 Canadiana, #15074.
Seattle price list for basic hardware items. Good to compare with actual purchases outlined in document 100.

115. “What the Klondike Has Produced.” Guide to the Klondike and Yukon Gold Fields in Alaska and Northwest Territories (Seattle: Lowman and Hanford, 1897), p.27. Original: Provincial Archives of British Columbia; Microfiche, Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions, M2501, Pre-1900 Canadiana, #15074.
Klondike guidebook description of the gold produced by the miners that arrived in Seattle and San Francisco on the first ships in July 1897. Good indication of what the luckiest and earliest miners gained in one season of work.

116. Table of distances.
Miles between various destinations, good reference for transportation questions.

117. Northern Pacific Railway advertisement. Guide to the Klondike and Yukon Gold Fields in Alaska and Northwest Territories (Seattle: Lowman and Hanford, 1897). Original: Provincial Archives of British Columbia; Microfiche, Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions, M2501, Pre-1900 Canadiana, #15074.
An advertisement by the Northern Pacific Railway for those wishing to depart from the Midwest. Almost all miners arrived in Seattle by rail and the railroads heartily promoted their services, lowered fares, and courted this Klondike business.

118. Trail map to Dawson City. Frank La Rouche, En Route to the Klondike: A Series of Photographic Views of the Picturesque Land of Gold and Glaciers (Chicago: W. B. Conkey Company, 1898), facing p. 94.

119. Map of Dyea and Skaguay Trails. Frank La Rouche, En Route to the Klondike: A Series of Photographic Views of the Picturesque Land of Gold and Glaciers (Chicago: W. B. Conkey Company, 1898), facing p. 70.

120. Map of U.S. landforms. Erwin Raisz, “Landforms of the United States” (Cambridge, Mass.: E. J. Raisz, 1954)

121. Map of the Klondike Mining District. Frank La Rouche, En Route to the Klondike: A Series of Photographic Views of the Picturesque Land of Gold and Glaciers (Chicago: W. B. Conkey Company, 1898), facing p. 118.

122. Wallace’s Map of the Klondike, 1898. W. J. Wallace, “Wallace’s Map of the Klondike and Indian River Gold Fields” (Dawson, Yukon: Maria Christenson, 1962).

123. Landform map of Alaska. Erwin Raisz, “Landform Map of Alaska” (Cambridge, Mass.: E. Raisz, 1966).

124. Guidebook excerpts. Klondyke and Yukon Guide: Alaska and Northwest Territory Gold Fields (Seattle: Alaska Illustrators, 1898), pp. 4, 12, 14, 22, 25-26. Original: Library of Congress; Microfiche, Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions, M2501, Pre-1900 Canadiana, #15371.
This guidebook, like the others cited here, was designed to provide the necessary assistance for the novice. Excerpts include a description of the hazards of Chilkoot Pass, another list of required provisions, and “some rules to paste in your hat on the way to the new land of gold.”

125. Table of city population growth. Carlos A. Schwantes, The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History (Norman: University of Nebraska Press, 1989), p. 192. Reproduced with permission from the University of Nebraska Press.
Shows population of five northwest cities every ten years from 1880 to 1920. Note Seattle grew much more rapidly than other northwest cities between 1890 to 1910.

126. Excerpts from a promotional booklet. Compiled by A. S. Allen, “The City of Seattle” (Seattle: Seattle Chamber of Commerce, c. 1900).
Booklet put out by the Seattle Chamber of Commerce to promote the city and explain its recent growth and prosperity. Includes references to food industries, railroads, shipping, the Alaska trade, banking, real estate, and population.

127. Excerpts from The Trade Register 1898. The Trade Register (Seattle).
Newspaper quotes from the height of the supply and outfitting season for gold miners going to the Klondike. One fragment notes the general economic recovery sweeping the nation. The other notes the specific influx of people into Seattle to outfit for the northern goldfields: 15,000 in the first three months of 1898.

128. Shipping and cargo report. March 26, 1898, The Trade Register (Seattle).
Weekly report shows ships and cargoes arriving and departing Seattle during the height of the Klondike rush.

129. Gold Ship Arriving at the Alaska Commercial Company Dock in Seattle. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Negative #5575, Photo by W & S #4712.

130. Gold shipment on Seattle dock. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Negative #1811.

131. “Lucky Prospectors” Arriving in Seattle with Their “Gold Pokes.” Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Negative #1809.

132. Yukon River steamers built by Moran Brothers in Seattle to supply Klondike miners Klondike, 1898. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Negative #1808.

133. Outfitting for Alaska at Seattle. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Negative #4769, copy of a 1901 publication.

134. Cooper and Levy Pioneer Outfitters in Seattle. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Negative #4771, photo by Asahel Curtis, Negative #26368.

135. Yukon Mining School. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Negative #2087, Wilse and Kirk Photo #542.

136. U.S. Assay Office at Ninth and James Streets in Seattle. Copy negative and print, Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries; original negative, Washington State Historical Society, photo by Asahel Curtis, Negative #5488.
The men are melting the final shipment of the first $100,000,000.

137. Vault in Seattle Assay Office Showing Gold bricks Valued at $2,500,000, c.1900. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Negative #4155, Photo by Wilse #1251, copyrighted in 1900 by O. F. Adams, Seattle.

138. Statue of William Henry Seward in Volunteer Park, Seattle, August 28, 1931. Copy negative and print, Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries; original negative, Washington State Historical Society, photo by Asahel Curtis, Negative #58599.

139. Seattle’s Alaska Building. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Negative #6228.

140. Traveling on the Chilkoot, c. 1898. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, photo by Hegg, Negative #98.

141. Packers Ascending the summit of Chilkoot Pass, 1898. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, photo by Hegg, Negative #97.

142. Blockade on Porcupine Hill, “Skaguay” Trail. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, photo by Hegg, Negative #181.

143. Keith and Wilson mine on French Hill. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, photo by Hegg, Negative #3025.

144. Clean-up on No. 1 below Anvil Creek, Nome. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, photo by Hegg, Negative #1228.

145. Front Street, Dawson, Yukon Territory. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, photo by Hegg, Negative #2267.

146. Midnight hour, Oshiwora or “White Chapel” of Dawson. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, photo by Hegg, Negative #2442.

147. The Klondike Fever and Willamette leaving Seattle with 800 passengers. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, photo by Wilse, Negative #2.

148. Alaska freight assembly area. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, photo by Hegg, Negative #58.

149. Dawson laundrywoman and fortune teller. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, photo by Hegg, Negative #B461.