Klondike Klondike

1. Identify the Yukon Territory

2. In what country is the Yukon located?

3. According to this map what city was the final destination?

Getting to the “Fields”Getting to the “Fields”

http://www.library.state.ak.us/goldrush/ARCHIVES/PHOTOS/384_81.htm

Preparation Preparation to go to the to go to the “Fields of “Fields of

Gold”Gold”

Chilkoot PassChilkoot Pass

• A 35-degree slope of snow and ice -- four miles long, requiring fifty trips ( six hours each ) to bring a year's worth of supplies per individual, as required by Canadian authorities, to the top.

• At the height of the rush, 22,000 seekers endured the ordeal.

35° Angle

• Photos of a human chain of stampeders trudging up the Chilkoot Pass have come to symbolize the Klondike Gold Rush.

• In 1897-'98, the North West Mounted Police set up a border crossing into Canada at the summit of the Chilkoot.

• They ordered every stampeder to carry a year's worth of supplies. After all, there was no turning back once they were into the Klondike, and commerce was limited, to say the least.

Chilkoot PassChilkoot Pass

Chilkoot Trail 1898 Supplies:Chilkoot Trail 1898 Supplies:As a result, many stampeders struggling up the mountain rampart were bent double under the weight of their packs,

which typically contained the following: • McDougall and Secord Klondike Outfit List (clothing & food):

2 suits heavy knit underwear6 pairs wool socks1 pairs heavy moccasins2 pairs german stockings2 heavy flannel overshirts1 heavy woollen sweater1 pair overalls2 pairs 12-lb. blankets1 waterproof blanket1 dozen bandana handkerchiefs1 stiff brim cowboy hat1 pair hip rubber boots1 pair prospectors' high land boots1 mackinaw, coat, pants, shirt1 pair heavy buck mitts, lined1 pair unlined leather gloves1 duck coat, pants, vest6 towels1 pocket matchbox, buttons, needles and thread comb, mirror, toothbrushetc. mosquito netting/1 dunnage bag1 sleeping bag/medicine chestpack saddles, complete horsesflat sleighs

100 lbs. navy beans150 lbs. bacon400 lbs. Flour and 40 lbs. rolled oats20 lbs. corn meal and 10 lbs. rice25 lbs. Sugar and 10 lbs. tea20 lbs. coffee10 lbs. baking powder20 lbs. salt1 lb. pepper2 lbs. baking soda1/2 lb. mustard1/4 lb. vinegar2 doz. condensed milk20 lbs. evaporated potatoes5 lbs. evaporated onions6 tins/4 oz. extract beef75 lbs. evaporated fruits4 pkgs. yeast cakes20 lbs. candles1 pkg. tin matches6 cakes borax6 lbs. laundry soap1/2 lb. ground ginger25 lbs. hard tack1 lb. citric acid2 bottles Jamaican ginger

Getting across the Chilkoot Trail

Ice creepers, iron with commercially

tanned leather straps. Found on the

Chilkoot Trail Ca. 1898

/

Trails and PassageTrails and Passage

SkagwaySkagway

Arrival at the “field of gold”Arrival at the “field of gold”

Reaching bedrock at last, Klondikers would hunt for the elusive streak of gold, then dump the rock in heaps beside the mine entrance where it would instantly freeze - until the three short summer months, the only time warm enough for the miners to sluice the heaps.

“Of the one hundred thousand people who set out for the Klondike, thirty to

forty thousand got there, and only fifteen to twenty thousand

prospected. Possibly 4,000 found some gold.”

Source---http://www.calliope.org/gold/gold4.html

Danger was an Danger was an everyday part of life.everyday part of life.

Dreams of Gold—Skagway 1898Dreams of Gold—Skagway 1898

Nome, AlaskaNome, Alaska

Cabin luxury – home sweet home!Cabin luxury – home sweet home!

Only about half of those who fought their way over the passes to the Klondike actually looked for gold. Those who did have a claim mined the earth in the most grueling method imaginable. The gold lay in bedrock under ten to fifty feet of permafrost, so they mined Russian fashion - spending the winter months softening the permafrost with fires, digging through it at a maximum of one foot a day.

                                                                       

Jack London in Alaska

The monumental efforts of the Klondike hopefuls inspired Jack London, Robert

Service and lesser talents to spin romantic narratives of the mining life. But history, just as in California, tells a

grimmer story.

http://www.calliope.org/gold/gold4.html

"And the skies of night were alive with light, with a throbbing, thrilling flame; Amber and rose and violet, opal and gold it came."  - Robert W. Service

Aurora Borealis

http://www.geo.mtu.edu/weather/aurora/