It takes a day to go four or five miles and back it takes a dollar to do what ten cents would do at home.” One eyewitness reported, “It is impossible to give one an idea of the slowness with which things are moving. This usually required making several trips up and down a frozen slope, including 1,500 steps carved of snow and ice known as the “golden staircase.”ĭaunted, many prospectors gave up at this point and headed home. Although pack animals were used to haul supplies for much of the stampeders’ journey, once they reached Chilkoot Trail they had to abandon the animals and carry their supplies the rest of the way. The Chilkoot Trail was steep, icy and snowy. Many animals became stuck and died, earning the trail the nickname, “The Dead Horse Trail.” It’s estimated 3,000 horses died on White Pass. The White Pass was not as steep or rugged as the Chilkoot, but it was new, narrow, clogged, and slippery with mud. The next leg of the trip was the most difficult no matter which trail a stampeder chose. For the first leg of the journey, well-stocked stampeders traveled to port cities in the Pacific Northwest and boarded boats headed north to the Alaskan town of Skagway which took them to the White Pass Trail, or Dyea which took them to the Chilkoot Trail. Getting to Yukon Territory was no easy task, especially while hauling a literal ton of supplies. Gold Mining EquipmentĬanadian authorities required every stampeder to have a year’s worth of gold mining equipment and supplies before crossing the Canadian border such as: Most had no idea where they were going or what they’d face along the way. Once it did, however, droves of people known as stampeders headed north, searching for Yukon gold and a wealthier fate. As a result, word didn’t get out about the Klondike gold discovery until 1897. Yukon GoldĬonditions in the Yukon were harsh and made communication with the outside world difficult at best. Little did they know their discovery would spur a massive gold rush. On August 16, 1896, Carmack, along with Jim Mason and Tagish Charlie, later Dawson Charlie (Kaa Goox), both Tagish First Nation members- discovered Yukon gold on Rabbit Creek (later renamed Bonanza Creek), a Klondike River tributary that ran through both Alaskan and Yukon Territory. By 1896, around 1,500 prospectors panned for gold along the Yukon River basin-one of them was American George Carmack. Starting in the 1870s, prospectors trickled into the Yukon in search of gold.
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