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Klondike
Columbia Encyclopedia entry: Klondike
Klondikeklŏn'dīk, region of Yukon, NW Canada, just E of the Alaska border. It lies around Klondike River, a small stream that enters the Yukon River from the east at Dawson. The discovery in 1896 of rich placer gold deposits in Bonanza (Rabbit) Creek, a tributary of the Klondike, caused the Klondike stampede of 1897–98. News of the discovery reached the United States in July, 1897, and within a month thousands of people were rushing north. Most landed at Skagway at the head of Lynn Canal and crossed by Chilkoot or White Pass to the upper Yukon, which they descended to Dawson. Others went in by the Copper River Trail or over the Teslin Trail by Stikine River and Teslin Lake, and some by the all-Canadian Ashcroft and Edmonton trails. The rush continued by these passes all the following winter. The other main access route was up the Yukon River, c.1,600 mi (2,575 km), by steamer. Many of those using this route late in 1897 were caught by winter ice below Fort Yukon and had to be rescued. With unexpected thousands in the region a food famine threatened, and supplies were commandeered and rationed. The number in the Klondike in 1898 was c.25,000. Thousands of others who did not find claims drifted down the Yukon and found placer gold in Alaskan streams, notably at Nome, to which there was a new rush. Others went back to the United States. Gold is still mined in the area. The hardships of the trails and the color of Klondike days are described in many personal narratives; among the best are W. B. Haskell's Two Years in the Klondike (1898) and James Wickersham's Old Yukon (1938).

See W. S. Greever, The Bonanza West (1986).

Columbia Encyclopedia search results: Klondike
Results 1 - 10  of 21
  • Dawson

    Dawson or Dawson City, city (1991 pop. 972), W Yukon, Canada, at the confluence of the Yukon and Klondike rivers. It is the trade center of the Klondike mining region and a tourist center. Dur...

  • Bonanza Creek

    Bonanza Creek, stream, c.20 mi (30 km) long, W Yukon, Canada. It flows NW to the Klondike River near Dawson. The first gold strike in the Yukon occurred there in 1896.

  • Skagway

    Skagway, city (1990 pop. 692), Skagway-Yakutat census div., SE Alaska, in the Panhandle, at the head of Lynn Canal; founded 1897. It is an ice-free port of entry; a trade and tourist center; t...

  • Nordenskjöld, Nils Otto Gustaf

    Nordenskjöld, Nils Otto Gustaf, 1869–1928, Swedish geographer and explorer, nephew of Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskjöld. He headed an expedition to Patagonia (1895–97) and later explored the Klondi...

  • White Pass

    White Pass, 2,888 ft (880 m) high, in the Coast Mts., on the Alaska–British Columbia border, NE of Skagway. A hazardous trail through the pass was made (1897) by prospectors going to the Klond...

  • Chilkoot Pass

    Chilkoot Pass, alt. c.3,500 ft (1,070 m), in the Coast Mts., on the British Columbia–Alaska line. The Chilkoot people long used it to pass between the Pacific coast and the Yukon River valley....

  • gold rush

    Gold rush, influx of prospectors, merchants, adventurers, and others to newly discovered gold fields. One of the most famous of these stampedes in pursuit of riches was the California gold rus...

  • solitaire

    Solitaire or patience, any card game that can be played by one person. Solitaire is the American name; in England it is known as patience. There are probably more kinds of solitaire than all o...

  • Stikine

    Stikine, river, 335 mi (539 km) long, rising in the Stikine Mts., NW British Columbia, Canada. It flows in an arc west and southwest, crossing SE Alaska, to the Pacific Ocean N of Wrangell Isl...

  • Service, Robert William

    Service, Robert William, 1874–1958, Canadian poet and novelist, b. England, educated at the Univ. of Glasgow. He went to Canada in 1897 and held odd jobs in British Columbia and at Whitehorse ...

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