Gold rush fever hit in 1896. Men and women alike journeyed to Alaska for the chance of making easy money. Some succeeded and others failed. Some women in particular made their marks during the gold rush, but not just by panning for gold. These women started businesses. The chance of becoming rich persuaded business women to journey to the Klondike.
Belinda Mulrooney was seduced by the riches in Dawson. She was 26 when she arrived in the Yukon. Mulrooney had no one and nothing but a 25 cent-piece which she threw in the Yukon river for good luck. At 21 Mulrooney left home to run a successful sandwich shop in Chicago, and then an ice cream parlor in San Francisco before settling on working as a stewardess for a steamship company. “She had saved