Dawson City and The Klondike Gold Rush

The town of Dawson City sits on the Yukon River, just before it turns west into Alaska on its journey to the Bering Sea. The Klondike River joins the Yukon here and it was the discovery of gold close-by that created the 1897 stampede to Dawson.

Gold was discovered on the Klondike’s Rabbit Creek, quickly renamed Bonanza as it was staked-out in August of 1896 by local prospectors. Many of those first miners struck it rich here, or on Eldorado a little higher up, but Joseph Ladue decided to build a town site and make his money as a supplier. He built Dawson and did very well, without lifting a shovel. Once word got out of the richness of the seam, thousands flocked north to make their fortunes, although for most it was too late. It’s said that many were running away from something, most from the economic depression that began with the ‘Panic of 1893’.

Commissioner’s Residence

But, if we were running away, it was only from the dust of the Chicken run – when we opened up the back of our vehicle everything was heavily coated. It took Carol over an hour of scrubbing, wiping, and dusting to make it liveable again!

Call me a romantic but Dawson has a magical quality that makes you want to live here. And, I’m not alone - the guide at the Commissioner’s Residence was just completing a summer substitution from Ontario: “I’ve been on the waiting list to transfer here for years,” she said, “but it’s a long list and I’m well down it.”

Palace Grand Theatre

It’s a quiet town now; it’s population of 1,300 a far cry from the 40,000 that crammed in here during the Gold Rush. Although its gold mines are still active, tourism is the main trade these days. The streets are still paved with dirt and the sidewalks are still boards above the mud. Many of its famous buildings, Diamond Tooth Gertie’s casino and the Palace Grand Theatre for example, are still intact; though many are crumbling. Perhaps, most notorious is the Downtown Hotel’s 'Sourtoe Cocktail', that featured a real pickled human toe. Unfortunately, a thrill-seeking American swallowed the last one in 2013…

Robert W. Service's Cabin

Three great writers lived here, though never at the same time. First to arrive was a young Californian, Jack London. He was a prospector arriving in 1897, at the height of the stampede; the scurvy and malnourishment he suffered there permanently damaged him. But he based his novels Call of the Wild and White Fang in the Yukon. Robert W. Service, The Bard of the Yukon, was a British-Canadian bank teller transferred to the Dawson branch in 1908. He arrived here just as his Klondike poems achieved fame: his most famous is The Cremation of Sam McGhee, recorded by many including Johnny Cash, here.

One of my favourite writers, and the one I turned to for background, is Pierre Berton who grew up here. His ‘The Klondike Fever’ is the definitive book on the subject. Pierre’s father was a prospector who arrived in 1898.

SS Keno paddle-wheeler plied the Yukon River

Most of the stampeders got to Dawson by travelling the 500 km (300 miles) along the northbound Yukon River from Whitehorse, in homemade boats, and that’s where we’re off to next.

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