Alaska Gold Rush

This is probably the most well-known photograph of the Alaska Gold Rush.  There is just one problem: it is not a photograph of the Alaska Gold Rush.  It’s a photograph of the advance of argonauts up the Chilkoot Pass into Canada for the Klondike Gold Rush.  The Klondike Gold Rush took place around Dawson in the Yukon Territory of Canada.  It lasted about 14 months.  The Alaska Gold Rush started in1880 and ended with the Second World War. And one other Hollywood myth.  It was said that as you went up the ice staircase, you could not stop.  As you can see here, there are cutouts for men to rest on their way up – to Canada. And, for the record, you could not get into Canada if you did not have at least 1,000 pounds of food.  So the men you see here are going to be moving that 1,000 pounds of food, 60 pounds at a time, up the staircase. Which meant a lot of trips. And this is a photograph taken late in the rush.  Note the wire across the top of the photograph.  For the rich, you could have your 1,000 pounds cabled up to the top of the pass.

www.authormasterminds.com/steve-levi

Steve Levi is an Alaskan writer who specializes in the Alaska Gold Rush (nonfiction) and the ‘impossible crime,’ (fiction.)  An ‘impossible crime’ is one where the detective must figure out HOW the crime was committed before going after the perpetrators – like a Greyhound bus with bank robbers and hostages disappearing off the Golden Gate Bridge –THE MATTER OF THE VANISHING GREYHOUND. Steve’s books can be found at www.authormasterminds.com/steve-levi

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *