GOLD RUSH

Gold was discoveredin the Yukon on August 171896

Gold was discovered along BonanzaCreek, a tributary of the KlondikeRiver, by George Carmack, Dawson Charlie, and Shookum Jim.

Shookum Jim

The world was in the midst of a severe recession and the idea of striking it rich in the Klondike resulted in a ‘stampede’ of people to the Yukon.

News of gold quickly spread and an estimated 100,000 hopefuls set out for the Klondike

Unaware of the treacherous journey they were about to embark on, thousands loaded up with supplied and headed to the Yukon.

There were two main routes to Dawson City

From there, Stampeders had the option of the Dalton Trail, the White Pass Trail or the Chilkoot Trail.

The quickest, but the most dangerous route was the Chilkoot Trail.

Nearly 3000 pack animals died during the Klondike Gold Rush.

For those who chose to travel via the Chilkoot Trail, they were required by the Canadian Mounted Police, to pack supplies to last for one year - 1 tonne per person.

Due to the large amount of supplies each person had, many had to go back and forth over the Chilkoot pass multiple times.

The prospectors then trekked along the Chilkoot Trail, a 53km long, packed with ice, snow, and the bodies of those who did not survive the treacherous conditions.

Horses were used as pack animals and were either killed when they were no longer of use or succumbed to exhaustion and starvation.

“The inhumanity which this trail has been witness to, the heart break and suffering which so many have undergone cannot be imagined. They certainly cacannot be described.” Clifford Stifton, Canadian Minister of the Interior, 1897

The Chilkoot Trail was the most popular route among the thousands of o people travelling to Dawson City.

It was extremely expensive and almost impossible to get a ticket.

Travel by steamship north along the Pacific Coast arriving in the Alaska ports of Haines, Skagway and Dyea.

Travel by steamship from Victoria, Seattle, Portland or San Francisco, around the Alaskan coast and up the Yukon River to Dawson.

By the end of the Klondike Gold Rush, over $29 million in gold was extracted from the creeks and rivers around Dawson City.