In July of 1897, the Portland, a ship fresh from the Yukon Territory,
arrived in Seattle with exciting news. Gold had been found
in the Yukon!
On board the Portland on that Saturday morning were sixty-eight "stampeders," miners
who were returning with their riches. They were not the first
to have found gold in the Yukon Territory. That honor went to
a Californian, George Washington Carmack, who with a small party
had found a gold nugget in the Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the
Klondike River, near Dawson City, Yukon Territory.
Klondike fever was born. Men (and some women,) dropped what
they were doing, quitting their jobs in the hopes of striking
it rich. A quarter of the Seattle police force walked out and
headed for the goldfields. The stampeders traveled overland to
either Skagway or Dyea, Alaska, from there taking one of two
treacherous passes that lead into the Yukon and to the goldfields.
Miners were required to take a year's worth of supplies with
them. Few made it all the way to the goldfields and even fewer
struck it rich. Some enterprising people set up shop and sold
supplies or services to the miners to earn a living. Others preyed
upon the miners, men such as Jefferson "Soapy" Smith,
who left Denver, Colorado to go to Skagway, Alaska. "Soapy" Smith
and his gang of criminals controlled Skagway until a disgruntled
miner shot and killed him.
The Klondike gold rush lasted until 1898. By 1900, it was no
longer easy to find gold. As for the miners? They were off to
the next gold rush, in Nome, Alaska.
In this mini unit, you can: learn about the discovery of Gold
in the Klondike, see actual pictures of the towns and gold fields,
read a contemporary manual on how to mine for gold dust, and
play a gold rush game where you can try to find gold in the Klondike.
