Once upon a time gold was what makes the world go round, it made people greedy, hungry for more, and certainly it drove them to want more and to do crazy things for more. Gold was such a big part of life in the late 1800s through the early 1900s, and there were two main places for gold mining in America; California (there were major gold rushes in California through the mid 1900s) and Alaska, more specifically the Yukon Territory. The Alaska Gold Rush of the late 1800s was one of the major gold rushes in U.S. history. There was one main area in Alaska, where the major discoveries were made, the Klondike River, more specifically Bonanza Creek (University 1). Bonanza Creek was a tributary of the Klondike River and a hot spot for gold mining (University 1). Also, this creek was home to the first discovery of the entire rush. There were many towns during the gold rush that became modern day cities: including modern day cities such as Vancouver, Edmonton, and Seattle. The city to make the least profits during the rush was Seattle. Seattle made only over one million dollars and it was the least productive city. Seattle acquired its small scale empire by doing one thing, selling supplies to prospectors, but unfortunately for the citizens of Seattle their mayor, S.D. Wood, ditched town because he wanted to keep some of the riches for himself (Libraries 1). Vancouver, a once small Canadian town doubled its population during the rush. The most profitable city was, Edmonton, whose population tripled when word of the gold rush spread because people needed to move closer to the gold (University of 1). Dawson is not a major Alaskan town today but it was a Yukon boom-town during the gold rush of the late 1800s. Dawson was also home to many of the deaths that took place because of starvation, living conditions, and depression. These few gold rush towns were home to some of the most interesting people to have lived in this time.

“Joe Juneau and Dick Harris strike it big at little known city called Juneau!” This could and possibly was the newspaper’s headline the day after these two ordinary prospectors made the biggest discovery of the rush (Bryan 1). Donald Trump’s grandfather Fred was also a player in the gold rush. Fred Trump owned a restaurant and a hotel that did very well because of the rush and all the people that brought to town. Another person who became rich because of all the people visiting and prospecting was Martha Black, she owned and operated a sawmill (Libraries 1). Along with Alaska’s great people, there were criminals as well; the most dastardly was Soapy Smith. Soapy Smith a.k.a Jefferson R. Smith was a con-man from Denver who conned people out of their gold and belongings. Soapy controlled White Pass Trail and if you were a prospector you would not want to be there when he was there. There were criminals, but there was a hero! Frank Reid was the man who killed Soapy in 1898; Smith was 38 years old when he died. These people had to deal with terrible living conditions and population issues to achieve their goal of becoming rich.

It was -20 degrees and snow and ice was flying through the air and most prospectors were there by choice (Bryan 1). The usual temperature was between ten and zero degrees Fahrenheit, and some days it got down to negative twenty degrees and that does not account for the blizzards or the wind which was gusting terribly. The lowest recorded temperature during the rush was -50 degrees Fahrenheit (University of 1). The sad part of the rush was it was not just men who suffered the plethora of obstacles but women and children also came along to live in the “Tent City” (Stevens 12). Many people starved to death, but luckily most of the people who did not hit it big within the first couple of weeks lost enthusiasm and turned around. One man boiled his boots to drink the broth because he had so little food (University of 1). One thing people did well was spreading the word about most things, a death in town, someone moving, but the story that spreads the quickest is: “There’s gold in the Yukon!” By the middle of summer in 1898 there were eighteen thousand people in the town of Dawson (National 1). The one thing that stopped a lot of people from coming to Dawson was Canadian customs. To get to the Yukon Territory you needed to pass through Canada and then back into America. The Canadian customs required people to have a certain amount of supplies; for example, a family of four had to have 15 pounds of salt. It was a difficult journey to get to Alaska and survive, but finding gold was even harder. For the few people who survived the journey the adventure got even harder when it was time to find gold. There were many different routes a prospector could take to reach the areas for mining and searching for gold. First, there was the steepest trail, Chilkoot Trail. This was named for the Chilkoot Indians who lived in the area before prospectors came (Kate 1). The trail was nicknamed the Golden Staircase, golden because of what was waiting at the top and staircase because of the 1,500 steps one had to take to get to the top (Greenwood 1). The worst part of the trail was the very end, the journeyers climbed up 1,000 feet in the last half mile. The trail had 1,500 steps to finally reach the top (Washington Libraries 1). Then there was the White Pass Trail, controlled by none other then Soapy Smith himself (Libraries 1). The adventurers were terrified because of this one man. Also, the trails were in worse conditions than the other ones and drove a lot of travelers insane due to the conditions and knowing that Soapy Smith was at one point on the trail. When the prospector finally got to the gold it was time to seek it out. Sometimes it was easy to find the gold, all they had to do was dig a little bit or do some panning in the river but not all the time. This was brutal but it paid off for the people who luckily struck it big.

There was a total of 390,000 ounces of gold found in the Yukon totaling to over 1 billion dollars (Ruby 1). The biggest discovery to reach the states was when the “Portland” docked in Seattle and revealed the ton of gold on board (Washington Libraries 1). And yet, the first discovery was still the most memorable, the Yukon Indians, George Carmack, Jim Mason, and Tagish Charlie were the members of the crew who located that first gold nugget in Rabbit Creek and got the whole rush started (Libraries 1). It is hard to know whether or not to celebrate their discovery.

However we should celebratethese people for one main reason, gold. The Alaska Gold Rush was the first major gold rush of the United States. But, they should get blamed for the thousands of deaths that occurred due to people being gold crazy. Really there is only one way to tell whether we should thank or blame these people. Is America a better place today because of it?

WORKS CITED
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Greenwood, Barbabra. Gold Rush Fever.
Kate, WIll Bryan. "The Chilkoot Pass." Http://library.thinkquest.org. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. .
"Klondike Gold Rush Yukon Territory 1897." Www.questconnect.org. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. .
Libraries, Washington University. "The Klondike Gold Rush." Www.content.lib.washington.edu. Web. 31 Mar. 2012. .
National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior. "The Last Grand Adventure." Www.nps.org. Web. 28 Mar. 2012. .
"Ruby, Alaska: A Gold Rush Town ON the YUkon River." Ruby Alaska. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. .
Stevens, Garth. World Almanac Libarary of the States, Alaska. 12-13.
University of Washington Libraries. "The Klondike Gold Rush." Www.content.lib.washington.edu. Web. 31 Mar. 2012. .
Washington LIbraries, University Of. "The Klondike Gold Rush." Www.content.lib.washington.edu. Web. 31 Mar. 2012. .
Washington, University Of. "The Klondike Gold Rush." Www.content.lib.washington.edu. Web. 30 Mar. 2012
Washington, University Of. "The Klondike Gold Rush." Www.content.lib.washington.edu. Web. 31 Mar. 2012. .
Youngson, R. "The Great Klondike Gold Rush." Marshall Cavendish Multicultural Reference Center. EBSCO, 2 Aug. 2011. Web. 8 Mar. 20120. .