| There was grim pathos in the
scene on the dock while the gold hunters were waiting for permission
to go on board. Some were taking passage who would surely
never leave Alaska alive. They had heard stories of the
returned miners that health was an absolute requisite in the
terrible climate of the Klondyke district. they smiled and
knew better. One man
said he was suffering from lung trouble, but that he might as well
die making a fortune as to remain on the shores of Puget Sound and
die in poverty. |
Gold Madness
The city of Seattle hired a public relations expert to
sell the world on the story of the Klondike gold rush and sell it he did.
Within days, a mad stampede began to seek fame and fortune in the gold diggings
of Bonanza and El dorado Creeks. The Klondike gold rush was on.
| Monday, July 19, 1897 |
Tacoma Daily News, Tacoma,
Washington |
Page 1 |
| Seattle, July
19. - The mining excitement, caused by reports of rich gold finds in
the Klondike region of Alaska, has not at all abated here.
Over 100 men took passage for the far north on the steamer Alki,
which sailed yesterday afternoon at 5 o'clock. The steamer was
scheduled to sail at 9 o'clock in the morning but the great amount
of freight shipped delayed her departure eight hours.
At 5 o'clock the lines were cast off and
with hope high in their hearts, with cheers and fluttering
handkerchiefs, these men answered the honest wishes for their
Godspeed and safe return.
Following are the names of the Seattle
passengers:
J. A. Bennett, A. B. Buck, Dr. J. Brown,
Fred Bremer, M. Maresne, W. H. Hill, Mrs. W. H. Hill, J. C. Romine,
Mrs. E. M. Smith, D. W. Ward, Ralph Schrack, A. K. Faber, E. M.
Ward, T. J. Harris, Robert Evans, J. B. Corey, J. C. Boatman, M.
Keenan, Thomas Keenan, E. R. Buck, A. Hennekan, L. C. Danbett, W. B.
Goodrich, J. R. Wilson, J. Wright, C. E. Pfeifer, J. H. Hendren, H.
B. Donahey, D. A. McGilvery, Dan A. Steward, E. J. Kelly, J. H.
Holland, Thomas McElwain, Richard Wood, J. Hyand, John H. Hughes, B.
A. Burton, William Jolly, E. D. Carfee, R. Abernathy, N. Pepoin, F.
Ehewerette, B. R. Holden, P. I. Bursith, R. J. Allen, J. C. Farr,
Thomas Christenson, A. Sutro, F. A. Wall, D. G. McFarrish, George
Crist, George F. Gilmore, P. A. Gilmore, James Amestry, J. A.
Graham, Miss Alice Gordon, Bert Porter, F. H. Coates, John Olson, J.
Barter, F. Connor, H. Duncan, E. M. Barrington, G. Numan, Mrs. J. E.
Bartey, A. Fish, A. Dreinger, Joseph Geiner, A. Mereoun, Joseph
Green, A. E. Tambell, E. S. Hopkins, Mrs. B. Hogen, J. B. Kenney, J.
R. Rods, S. Monnett, W. S. Shanks, F. Fisk, E. S. Jeffreys, Mrs. M.
McLean, B. Raymond, H. R. Raymond, Annie Hughes.
Thirty-four of the above list went to
Juneau; one went to Douglas and one to Wrangel; 30 of the remainder
went to Dyea and 20 went to Skagway bay. |
| July 19, 1897 |
New Haven Register, New
Haven, Connecticut |
Page 3 |
| Another steamer
will sail today with humanity, and a third one will leave here
Tuesday, carrying as many passengers as the law will allow.
Every ticket for Tuesday's boat has been sold. already the
companies are selling room on steamers booked to leave as fast as
they can be placed in readiness.
Men are leaving all sorts of positions to go up
there, and Seattle and Tacoma are livelier than they have been for
years. All classes are going, from prominent, professional and
business men to stevedores. Two thousand persons have already
arranged to start from Puget Sound at once for Klondike.
Former (Washington) Governor John H. McGraw swill sail on Tuesday's
steamer Portland.
Charles H. Hamilton, secretary of the
North American Transportation Company who returned on the Portland,
is the busiest man in town. His office is besieged by persons
impatiently waiting for an opportunity to arrange for transportation
to the new El Dorado. |
| July 23, 1897 |
The Oregonian, Portland,
Oregon |
Page 6 |
| LONDON, July
22. - Sir Donald Alexander Smith, Canadian high commissioner in
London, has been besieged for several days past by inquirers who
desire to go to the Yukon mines. Most of the applicants for
information are young men without money who are employed on farms
and in factories. Would-be emigrants of this class are urged
to remain at home, but hardy men with a capital of $100 or more are
encouraged to leave for the gold fields.
Various steamship companies report that few
persons have left England for the new gold fields thus far.
This is probably due to monetary considerations. |
| July 22, 1897 |
Minneapolis Journal,
Minneapolis, Minnesota |
Page 1 |
| Seattle, July
22. - The steamer Portland, which sails this afternoon for St.
Michaels, Alaska, carries 125 passengers, the full limit, and is
loaded almost to the danger limit with provisions. Among her
passengers are several well-known men. Ex-Governor McGraw, who
for many years was president of the First National bank of Wyoming,
governor of Washington for four years ending January last, and later
a candidate for United States senator to succeed W. S. Squire, goes
to the Clondyke to seek fortune again. General M. E. Carr,
formerly brigadier general of the state militia and whose law
practice is the largest in the state, is also a passenger on the
Portland. Captain A. J. Balliet, at one time Yale's greatest
oarsman and football player, leaves a handsome law practice to seek
gold on the Yukon. |
| July 23, 1897 |
The Oregonian, Portland,
Oregon |
Page 6 |
| SAN FRANCISCO,
July 22. - Captain Hays, of the Bertha, speaking of the Clondyke
boom, said: "The fact that the
new fields are 2000 miles from St. Michaels, and the difficulties of
transportation are innumerable, cannot be too forcibly impressed
upon intending prospectors. The newspapers will be responsible
for the loss of many lives, and a great deal of suffering and
hardship if they do not strongly advise the public that the river
Yukon, now that the mountain torrents have ceased running, is very
low, and consequently much of the 5,000 tons of supplies now
awaiting transportation, cannot possibly be conveyed to their
destination for some time."
Messrs. Sloss, of the Alaska Commercial
Company, are equally frank. One of the firm said:
"What we most fear is that the excitement
will cause many people to rush northward without properly
considering how they are to live through the winter after they get
there. We have about 5,000 tons of provisions on the Yukon,
and are sending as large additional quantities as possible, but we
are not able to say whether the supply will be equal to the demand,
nor when the supplies will reach their destination with any
certainty. The sternwheel steamer with which the Excelsior is
to connect will be the last to make the Yukon river trip this
season. It will reach Dawson City with a barge in tow about
September, and must immediately return, as the river usually freezes
over early in October.
"It is for this reason principally that
we have declined to carry more than the usual complement of
passengers on the Excelsior this trip. We could easily have
constructed accommodations for another hundred, but preferred to
utilize the space for supplies to feed those already there and on
the way." |
| July 23, 1897 |
The Oregonian, Portland,
Oregon |
Page 6 |
| NEW YORK, July
22. - The world says: "The
Clondyke gold fever has reached this city. At all the ticket
agencies and railroad offices inquiries are being made about rates.
The first expedition from this city for
the Yukon gold fields will leave early next week. All the
details have been arranged at the office of former Judge George M.
Curtis. The party is to comprise William Edwards, a young
lawyer in Mr. Curtis' office, a son of Billy Edwards, of the Hoffman
house; John W. Edwards, a Brooklyn druggist; Dr. James W. Broston,
of Brooklyn, and Charles Edelman, a civil and mining engineer of
this city. |
| July 23, 1897 |
The Oregonian, Portland,
Oregon |
Page 1 |
| The
announcement in yesterday's Oregonian that the steamer George W.
Elder would go on the Alaska route from Portland, starting on her
first trip July 20, was the subject of general conversation, and
renewed the lively interest already prevailing in the Clondyke
excitement. The O. R. & N. has a large force of men at work on
the Elder, lifting her up for her first trip, and Mr. N. Poston, the
agent in this city of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, was busy
wiring his people in San Francisco for instructions relative to
passenger and freight rates, in order to meet the many demands
making for both as the result of the bare announcement that the
steamer would be put on the route. Before the noon hour he had
all the data necessary to do business with, and commenced the sale
of tickets for passengers, and by 3 in the afternoon he had
booked 31 cabin passengers and about as many in the steerage.
Many of the reservations were made by people in Portland for parties
in the East and South, who expect to reach here in time to take the
steamer. Among the Portland people, Corbitt & Macleay will
send a man up on the elder. The others booked from Portland
are: F. A. Insley, Mrs. E. B.
Miles, S. M. Mears, J. H. Hadley and wife, Alexander Kunz, E. J.
Cristie, J. P. Menefee, R. M. Riner, E. B. Holmes, Mr. Clayton, O.
M. Holmes, l. H. Adams, Charles Bresler, E. M. Cox.
Among the others who are said to be
booked to go from the Sound are Dave Campbell, Detective Welch, and
Mr. McCormick, of the Banquet restaurant, whose brother is said to
have sent word to him to drop everything and come on, and if he
couldn't sell his restaurant, to give it away. Many others in
the city are making quiet preparations to leave on short notice. |
| July 26, 1897 |
The Oregonian, Portland,
Oregon |
Page 1 |
| SAN FRANCISCO,
July 25. - The steamer Umatilla left this morning for the north with
290 passengers and a full cargo of provisions. She left for
Port Townsend, where she connects with the City of Topeka, sailing
direct to Juneau. The owners of the Umatilla have applied to
Inspector of Hulls and Boilers Birmingham for permission to carry
all the passengers that the vessels owned by the company will hold.
The Topeka, which is scheduled to leave Seattle early next week, has
already more passengers than is permitted by the law. The same
is true of the George W. Elder, which is scheduled to sail from
Portland July 30. The people at Seattle are begging the
steamship officers to provide them with transportation. More
people are anxious to go to Alaska and the Yukon than possible can
be accommodated at the present time. It is believed by many
that the vessels now fitting at San Francisco and destined for
Dawson City by way of St. Michaels will never reach the former
place. The river begins to freeze about September 20, and it
is not possible for vessels leaving San Francisco after August 1 to
reach Dawson City until at least five or six days after the extreme
cold has set in. |
The logistics of transporting this number of people in
such a short period resulted in the use of ships that were past their prime in
sea-faring years. Hastily organized transportation companies leaped to
life. Mariners revived practically any boat that would float for hauling
the stampeders north. Even Seattle's mayor, W. D. Wood, joined the
stampede - he resigned to set up a steamship and riverboat service to the
Klondike. Many of these ships were long past their prime sea-faring years
and very dangerous to take into open waters. Many of the ships were
pressed out of retirement and used to transport goods to Alaska. This
danger was compounded by the gross overloading of men and material on these
ships. In the five weeks of late July and August twenty steamers left for
Alaska. On many occasions gear stored on the deck of ships would be ruined
by the sea water. Miraculously, few people were lost at sea when compared
to the total number of those who went.
| July 26, 1897 |
The Oregonian, Portland,
Oregon |
Page 1 |
| SEATTLE, June
25. - No greater crowd ever assembled on the wharves of Seattle than
that which witnessed the departure of the steamer City of Mexico.
Among those who applied for accommodations
yesterday was Robert Cahill, who wired from Seattle, having
evidently been unable to get passage on the steamers sailing from
the Sound. A plan which is being agitated by a number of young
men, and which will probably be carried into effect before spring is
to build several small steamboats for use on the Yukon. The
material for the boats will be got out here, so that they can be put
together on the Yukon. A transportation company will then be
organized to do business on that river, connecting with a line of
boats from Portland. |
The Klondike gold fields were in Canada. In 1897,
the population in Dawson had mushroomed to about 25,000 people, many of them
without enough food to last the oncoming winter, and threatened a
famine.
Canadian law required that each miner have enough supplies to last himself one year
(see the list).
This amounted to approximately 2,000 pounds of gear. American and Canadian
cities vied with each other for this lucrative trade. The final word was
had by the Northwest Mounted Police at the entry points to Canada. Here,
each miner's outfit was checked for content and given the Customs seal. If
the outfit had been purchased in Canada, it was not subject to Canadian import
taxes. American supplies were levied with a 10% surcharge. There was
no way for the miner to escape though, because he had to cross American soil to
get to the Klondike, if he went by any of the popular routes, and United States
Customs agents would tax outfits bought in Canada. This led many people to
seriously consider a route that did not pass through American territory.
|
