The document provides information about the Klondike Gold Rush that occurred in Alaska and Yukon Territory in the late 1890s. It details the route prospectors took from Skagway, Alaska to Dawson City over the Chilkoot Pass, including the large amount of supplies each person was required to carry. Life in the gold fields is described, noting that only a fraction of those who made the journey ultimately found gold. Brief biographies are included of some notable individuals who participated in the Klondike Gold Rush.

1. Klondike

2. Alaska’s Gold Website http://www.library.state.ak.us/goldrush/ The Fields

5. Getting to the “Fields” http://www.library.state.ak.us/goldrush/ARCHIVES/PHOTOS/384_81.htm

6. Preparation to go to the “Fields of Gold”

11. Required Supplies http://www.si.edu/postal/gold/trail18.html 35 ° Angle Weight Cost Clothing............................... 112 lbs. $75.00 Groceries............................. 1249 lbs. $75-$90.00 Footwear............................. 35 lbs. $25.00 Hardware............................. 225 lbs. $40.00

12. Getting across the Chilkoot Trail Ice creepers, iron with commercially tanned leather straps. Found on the Chilkoot Trail Ca. 1898 Alaska Gold http://www.library.state.ak.us/goldrush/

14. Trails and Passage

15. Skagway

16. Arrival at the “field of gold”

17. Reaching bedrock at last, Klondikers would hunt for the elusive streak of gold, then dump the rock in heaps beside the mine entrance where it would instantly freeze - until the three short summer months, the only time warm enough for the miners to sluice the heaps.

18. “Of the one hundred thousand people who set out for the Klondike, thirty to forty thousand got there, and only fifteen to twenty thousand prospected. Possibly 4,000 found some gold.” Source--- http://www.calliope.org/gold/gold4.html

19. Dreams of Gold—Skagway 1898

20. Who went to Skagway?

21. Nome, Alaska

22. Growth and Overpopulation Year: City 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 Boise 1,899 2,311 5,957 17,358 21,393 Portland 17,577 46,385 90,426 207,214 258,288 Seattle 3,553 42,837 80,871 237,174 315,312 Spokane 350 19,922 36,848 104,402 104,437 Tacoma 1,098 36,006 37,714 83,743 96,965

24. Everyday life during the “rush” Some Klondikers took jobs in the mills or worked as watchmen. Others did as their Comstock forebears had done and signed on as pick-and-shovel laborers in the mines. But very quickly the rush ended - the large mining companies moved in with big dredges - and took out the Klondike's holdings - about $300 million.

25. Cabin luxury – home sweet home!

26. Danger was an everyday part of life.

29. Only about half of those who fought their way over the passes to the Klondike actually looked for gold. Those who did have a claim mined the earth in the most grueling method imaginable. The gold lay in bedrock under ten to fifty feet of permafrost, so they mined Russian fashion - spending the winter months softening the permafrost with fires, digging through it at a maximum of one foot a day.

30. Jack London in Alaska The monumental efforts of the Klondike hopefuls inspired Jack London, Robert Service and lesser talents to spin romantic narratives of the mining life. But history, just as in California, tells a grimmer story. http://www.calliope.org/gold/gold4.html

31. Who made the trip?

37. Midnight in Alaska

38. Image © Jan Curtis Textual Reading Sites Auroras Northern Lights http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/Curtis/curtis.html Science Snapshots http://explorezone.com/snapshots/1999/09_09_aurora.htm The Aurora: Information and Images http://dac3.gi.alaska.edu/~pfrr/AURORA/INDEX.HTM "And the skies of night were alive with light, with a throbbing, thrilling flame; Amber and rose and violet, opal and gold it came." - Robert W. Service Welcome to The Aurora Page http://www.geo.mtu.edu/weather/aurora/

40. For More Information… Go to http://conroy.pbwiki.com