After getting a great sleep we are up and ready to hit the road. With roughly 180 miles to go with Dawson City as our goal we take off. The highway is empty of anybody and it’s 30 minutes before we see another vehicle. With a speed limit of 90 km/hr there is no rush. For those unfamiliar with the metric system the speed limit works out to 57. To date road construction has been minimal with the occasional temporary bridge or small sections of pavement being replaced. Today we encounter several stretches of construction, some with pilot cars and some without. It’s dusty and bumpy in these sections so we slow down to about 20 mph keeping both the dust down and our teeth intact. We are hit with a few showers that help mitigate the dust and arrive in Dawson City sometime after noon.
We see no wildlife along our route yet still a great drive. Several miles before reaching Dawson City there are vast stretches of piled rock tailings. These are the leftover dredged stream beds from Bonanza Creek and maybe a few other area creeks. Bonanza Creek is where gold was first discovered in August 1896. Yes, this was the start of the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush. Note, it’s referred to as the 1898 gold rush yet gold was first discovered two years earlier. This is due to the remoteness of the area with the lack of any communication to the outside world. It took about a year for the world to hear of the wealth of gold simply waiting to be picked up off the ground. Newspapers around the world ran stories of the unbelievable wealth to be found. All one needed to do was to get up to the Klondike and become rich. The papers hyped it beyond imagination.
What was not mentioned were the difficulties in getting to the gold. Reportedly, there were three options. One would be to take a ship to the beginning of the Yukon River and arrange to travel upriver for over 1,000 miles via paddle-wheel steamer. Sounds easy, but the papers never mentioned the Yukon River flows freely without ice for only part of the year. Additionally, this was the expensive route in terms of capitol outlay. The second option was to take a ship up along the Canadian and Alaskan coast to a spot on the map called Skagway. Upon arriving in Skagway it was a simple hop over a pass, there was a choice of two passes, White Pass and Chilkoot Pass. Once over either pass build a raft and simply float down the Yukon River to Dawson City. Piece of cake! More on that in a bit. The third option was an overland route from Edmonton, Alberta. It was easy to get to Edmonton since it was serviced by train. A train ride to Edmonton and a short jaunt to Dawson. That short jaunt involved about 2,000 miles over trailless wilderness. Only a handful of hopeful miners successfully traversed this route.
Time to focus on the second option, Skagway. The two passes commencing near Skagway crossing the rugged coastal range are White Pass and Chilkoot Pass. The trail up White Pass started on the outskirts of Skagway while Chilkoot Pass required one to travel eight miles or so along the shore to another settlement, Dyea. This was the start of the Chilkoot Pass. Both passes were extremely difficult and many people lost their lives attempting to cross the pass. At the top of both passes lay the border between the United States and Canada. Stationed at each border crossings stood Canadian officials, The Northwest Mounted Police. They would not allow anyone into Canada until the individual presented over 1,000 pounds of supplies. The supplies would be needed for the would-be miner’s survival. If you have ever seen any of the photographs of vast lines of people trudging up a snow laden trail that was how the people traversed. Thye had arrived with some supplies and anything else they needed they had to purchase in Skagway. The lawless frontier town of Skagway was run by a criminal, Soapy Smith. He ruled the town. Either he or his henchmen robbed the miners blind and murdered many of them.
Once one got out of the clutches of Soapy Smith it was time to haul their goods up the pass. While Skagway was lawless, law and order was highly maintained on the Canadian side. The Mounties would inventory each person’s supplies. Many would be miners died attempting to haul their goods up either of the passes. Near Dyea there was an avalanche that killed many on one day in the spring.
Once the necessary supplies reached the border the miners were allowed into Canada and head down to a waiting lake. Once at the lake the task was to build a worthy enough raft to make it down the Yukon. The Mounties monitored the river worthiness of each craft. The float down to Dawson was not without hazards. At difficult river rapids the Canadians were there to safeguard the miners. Many needed to portage around the rapids.
Finally, those who completed the long and difficult journey arrived in Dawson City only to discover all the potential gold producing claims had been claimed leaving most who arrived unable to afford to leave. Dawson was a wild and rough town with plenty of drinking and partying. After only a couple of years most managed to leave town. Some lucky ones ended up reaching Nome where they struck it rich on the beaches of Nome where another gold rush commenced.
Enough about Dawson City today. We are now camped across the Yukon River from Dawson City. Our plans are to spend a few days around Dawson City then head west along the Top of the World Highway.
Seeing North America 