Gold fever in the Klondike captured public imagination
Newspapers of the time were enthralled with tales of miners’ adversity and riches
On July 14, 1897 the steamboat Excelsior sailed into San Francisco Bay after a long journey from St. Michael’s, Alaska.
Its arrival set off one of the world’s great gold rushes.
“SACKS OF GOLD FROM THE CLONDYKE,” blared a front-page headline in the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Half a Million Dollars in Dust on One Steamer. Fifteen Miners Come With Fortunes.”
The Vancouver World had printed an item on the “Rich Clondyke” on July 9, when it reported “statements made by returning miners confirm the previous reports of the wealth of the Clondyke country.”
But it held off on a bigger story until July 19, when it picked up a story out of Seattle about how five members of the RCMP had just arrived in Seattle from Alaska with $200,000 worth of gold.
Still, the hype was nothing compared with San Francisco.
“BIGGEST PLACERS IN THE WORLD,” read the headline for a letter from a “prominent and wealthy young business man of San Francisco” to his brother.
“The excitement on the river is indescribable, and the output of the new Clondyke district almost beyond belief,” said the letter, which ran on the front of the Chronicle.
“Men who had nothing last fall are now worth a fortune. One man had worked forty square feet of his claim and is going out with $10,000 in dust. One-quarter of claims are now selling at from $15,000 to $50,000.”
The Chronicle’s front page was dominated by stories of “Frozen Alaska’s El Dorado” for the next two weeks. (It continued to refer to “the Clondyke” for a few days before switching to “Klondyke” and finally “Klondike,” the correct spelling.)
The paper’s artists made numerous etchings of photographs of the miners and their camps, it ran lists of miners and how much money they’d made, and it interviewed anyone who’d actually been to the goldfields. It also warned of the hardships potential gold-seekers would face.
“The Clondyke region presents difficulties which stagger the average man and make afraid even those who have already travelled the long and torturous trail that leads to the golden ground,” the Chronicle wrote on July 16.
“In order to reach Dawson City one must cross icy plains, climb steep snowclad mountains and spin down treacherous rivers which threaten every minute death and destruction.
“Not one of the miners who came on the Excelsior will advise anybody to make the journey.
“They tell gladly enough of the wealth to be had almost for the picking up, but they also tell you of the dangers.
“‘Do not go,’ they say, ‘Unless you have a good outfit, plenty of provisions and money enough to last a year.’ ”
This would prove to be a boon for Vancouver, which was one of the main cities equipping miners before they headed north. The Vancouver World was soon brimming with ads for stores selling mining supplies — it even ran a 16-page “Klondike Special” on Dec. 31, 1897.
The business was welcome, because North America had gone through economic depressions in 1893 and 1896.
Vancouver had been hit hard — the World had a real estate ad on July 27 with several properties that had been reduced in price, including the “forced sale” of a 132-by-132-foot lot on Melville in the West End that had been slashed from $4,500 to $2,500.
The first “Klondyke Gold Fields” ad in the World was for a Canadian Pacific ship, the SS Islander, leaving from Victoria for Dyea, Alaska on July 28 and Aug. 15.
Another CP ship, the SS Danube, left Vancouver for Alaska on Aug. 2.
An estimated 100,000 people set out for the Klondike during the gold rush, but only 30,000 to 40,000 probably made it to the gold fields.
The most popular route involved trekking through the heavy snow of the Chilkoot Pass in the Yukon with over 1,000 pounds of provisions, which the authorities made everyone carry, lest they starve in the long winter.
For all the hype, the Klondike gold rush lasted for only three years.
When gold was discovered near Nome, Alaska in the summer of 1899, many miners left the Yukon and went there.