Conclusion

These posts helped us drawing a general view of the Klondike Gold Rush, from the first gold discovery to the stampeder's arrival to the Yukon territories. At the end, the Gold Rush seemed to ended as quickly as it had started, for most of the gold seekers, it ended before it could actually begin. The stampeders, exhausted, disappointed, (dead) or financially ruined, stop their adventure, and went home for those who could still afford it.But as short as this Gold Rush had been, it had still marked the continent, and is still well established in the American culture Many books had been written about the experiences of former prospectors and journalists, photographs had been taken and published, novel had been written then adapted in movies. The adventure of the Gold Rush had been studied for it had, for a time, created a specific sort of society, with an economy focused around that event.

This general picture had been made through the study of the movie The Call of the Wild which - even if considered as a  " rather poor adaptation of the 1903 literary classic by Jack London" according to the Contemporary British and Irish Film Directors: A Wallflower Critical Guide (p. 12) - is a pretty good representation of the historical aspect of the time. For some representation, we could say that the movie must have faced technical difficulties; the visual representation of the Chilkoot Pass for example was disappointing compared to the impressive photographs diffused by the journalists, but and some historical facts had been cut. This aspects, such as the several ascention that a stampeder must do to carry all of his supply past the mountain or the men offering to carry the supply for money, were part of the historical context and the financial benefits made from the Gold Rush. By not showing it, the movie focused on the representation of a journey, with the Chilkoot Pass as a mere obstacle. This is the main downside of this adaptation in my opinion; the direction seemed to put the main focus on the adventure, and because of that, the movie sometimes differs from the novel, and overcome some historical aspect. 

However, it must be said that the focus of the movie, compared to the novel, is understandable. The novel is mainly focus on the evolution of Buck character, his relationship with the wild. It would be extremly difficult to conveys an animal inner thought in a movie without using narration for example, which would have been seen as shallow. Probably because of this difficulties, the movie chose to focus on two humain characters, and by doing so, the historical context and the interaction between other human being -used only as a background in the novel - became also more important than the animals and the wild. Indeed, this has an impact on the quality of the adaptation, however, the movie could still be used as a good historical support. 

Indeed, throughout my research, some important aspect that came out were treated in the movie, or at least mention at some point. The importance of dogs and experience in the Klondike is explicitely explained and represented in the movie, and the role of the mail men appeared more clearly than in the novels. The absence of more complex aspect of the Gold Rush are however something that can be noticed. The representation of the Klondike Gold Rush in this movie is a vision already shared by most of the Americans, and the vision of this movie will not enlighten the spectators about the new economy, or the psychological impact of the wildlife on the stampeder.

Economy - Financial journey of a prospector.

The Klondike Gold Rush was also called a stampede, for many people turned to Alaska to find gold, when other turn to the stampede to take their money. Indeed, as we had already talked about, the journey to the North had to be organized before hand in order to survive in the cold and harsh climate. A prospector needed a lot of supply, various type of it, from food to tools, but also needed various services, on the trail and once arrived at the gold fields.

I had some problems for this post, and I wondered how I should conducted it. Should I listed the different type of economy, service, supply needed at the time ? Should I opposed the legal economical sectors to the illegal one present during that time ? 

At the end, I decided to follow the steps of a imaginary stampeder, from his preparation in the USA, to the gold field. For the sake of this imaginary friend -let's call him Jack-, I decided to give him enough money for him to survive, and even some money for entertainement, but of course not enough for luxury. He will encounter several people who will represent the different type of goods and services of the Klondike era.

Fig 1 : Underground minig shaft (Source : Kurtis A. 1898)

Jack heard the news about gold in the Klondike through the newspaper and decided to go on an adventure, even if money is pretty short. He has two main choices here : to sell almost everything and hope to get wealthy in Alaska, or have enough money to spare. Luckily for him, he has enough money. The next step is to get ready for the journey, and found a boat to sail there. Jack decided to pack some heavy clothes and paid a ticket to Seattle, where he can get his gears and another ticket to Skagway. He heard that a sled and a dog, or maybe a horse could be useful, maybe he will buy one on the road, at Seattle or directly at Skagway.

Finally, he reached Seattle; many stores had opened lately and sell the basic gears for the prospectors. Shovel, pickaxe, rope for the actual mining, clothes for the cold, a tent for the night, gold pan for the gold in the river, frypan for the food, and of course, food. 

Here, he can also buy strong horses, or oxes, and also fury and powerful dogs that had been sold or stolen by poor people most of the time. Jack thinks that he should also find these gears in Skagway too, if needed. Maybe he should buy a sled directly in Skagway and not bother with the transport. 

And so, Jack buys enough food for the boat trip, and also the most important gears, he also buys snowshoes and off he goes.

At Skagway, he can't afford sled dogs infortunatly, which means that his trip will be way longer, therefore he buys a years of food supply. In a way, he won't need to buy food for the dog. Since he did not buy a horse, Jack decided to buy a sled that he will drag himself. Now, Jack needs to decide which way to go; his choice was the Chilkoot Pass.

On his way, he encounters several Indian, who proposed to sell him supply if he is short, or help him drag the sled, or propose to be his guide. 

When he arrived at Chilkoot Pass, he has to pay to get in the line and used the stairs. He had to carry all his supply up the mountain, but he knows he would need several passage to do that. When someone proposed him to help him for money, he accepted. He could have took the tramway but it was way too expensive. 

Fig 2 : A band performs in front of an hotel (Source : Hegg, 1898)

We will skip his trip to Dawson, which had been very long and dangerous, he had buy supplies on the way. He had stop at several places, which had grown with the arrival of the stampeders. Finally he reached Dawson, and decided to take a quick break from the trail, and change his mind. Here there is bar, certainly some women, alcohol, music, he could play the roulette in some sort of casino, or could even watched dog fights if he is interested. At that city he could also received mail from his family; the postal workers had quite the job here for many prospectors waited letters or wanted to send some. Yet he doesn't know who paid them, is it the governement, or each person had to give money to man ? (In the movie The Call of the Wild, the two postal workers are acclaimed when they arrived at Dawson City with the mail, showing how important they were for the Klondikers, who waited for letters from their family, or maybe other package and so on.) It is hard to have news from the outside world in the remote Yukon territories, but people manages to bring newspaper, or some of them are paid by the journals to read it aloud in the town.

The city gives him everything he would need, entertainment, a place to sleep other than a tent, once again supply (he realises he could have died of starvation!) He still has to be aware of the numerous thieves, in every city, for every bit of food or gears is important here.

At the gold field, he has to pay for a land to mine. And Jack started to mine.

Fig 3 : Disappointed gold seekers selling their outfit (Source :

Jack did not find gold, and he had to work for stampeders to gain enough money to go home. But Jack was lucky, he was wise enough not to take too much supply, yet he had to buy some in order to survive. Jack did not die on the trail from the cold or the wildlife. Jack could write a novel.

This post was more a summary of all the different economical fields that emerged at the time, to help the prospectors and benefit from their lust of gold. I realize it is quite short, and that the journey had been cut of all the actual adventure, but I thought it was necessary to gather every type of workers who participated in the Klondike alongside the big companies and the prospectors. Legal or illegal.

Sources :

1. Curtis, A. (1898) "Mucking thawed ground in a drift on 16 Eldorado" [Photograph] Retrieved from Library University Washington
2. Becker, E. A (1898) "The North American Transportation and Trading Company's band performs in front of The Criterion, a Dawson hotel." [Photograph] Klondike '98: Hegg's Album of the 1898 Alaska Gold Rush. Binfords & Mort, Portland, Oregon, 1958. Retrieved from here.
3. Curtis, A. (1898) "Disappointed gold seekers selling theirs outfits along the Dawson waterfront, Yukon territories" [Photograh] Retrieved from Library University Washington

White Pass : "The Dead Horse Trail"

The Chilkoot Pass was one of the most famous, and more populated pass on the way to the Klondike gold field, but another way was also well known at the time, and principally used by prospectors with pack animals : White Pass. If this path was largely used at the time, therefore quite famous, it was also for a more gloomy characteristic; also called the "Dead Horse Trail", this path had seen most of the pack animals died on their way to the Klondike.
This path is not represented in the movie nor in the novel, however it was an important route during the Klondike Gold Rush and presents another part of the perilous aspect of this Klondike stampede.

Fig 1 : 

The White Pass is often described as "deceptively easy", for the first few miles were wide enough to let wagons through, but soon the path will narrow and allow only person to go, creating, here again a long line. The journalist Tappan Adney wrote in his book The Klondike Stampede (1900) "No one knows how many people there are. We guess five thousand - there may be more - and two thousand head of horses... A steamer arrives and empties several hundred people and tons of goods into the mouth of the trail, and the trail absorbs them as a sponge drinks up water."
If it was a hard path for the Klondikers, who had to spend time loading their animals, and waiting in line, it was worse for the said animals. They would often fall due to the poor state of the floor, and would block the path to other prospectors who had to wait for the fallen horse to be loaded once again. According to Adney, this was a common sight at the time, for many of the stampeders had never worked with pack animals before, and leading and even loading a horse was a complicated task for them. Moreover, because of that inexperience, they treated harshly their animals, and scarcely gave them time to rest.

Fig. 2 :An horse on the ground, White Pass 
(Source : Tappan Adney, )

During these tedious delays the wretched horses for miles back had to stand, often for hours, with crushing loads pressing down upon their backs because no one would chance unloading them in case movement might suddenly resume. An animal might remain loaded for twenty-four hours, his only respite being the tightening of the pack girths, and this was one reason why sarcely a single horse survived of the three thousand that were used to cross the White Pass in '97. 

The wait, the inexperience, the broken bones due to the many falls and heavy carriage, all those elements added together resulted in the death of many animals on this trail, which gave it its surname of "Dead Horse Trail". The stampeders didn't bother buried or sometimes even push aside the corpse of their dead animals; if some executed their poor animals, it is to think that not all of them care to give them a quick death, for I believe a bullet could be seen as the time as an important supply. Horses and oxes had to walk over the corpse of fallen animals, and some animals had even tried to kill themselves had reported some journalist.
The Dead Horse Trail was a name given to a portion of the trail, and not all of this path was this dangerous, but as for many other occasion, the harsher part of an adventure, even a part of it, will be more famous than the rest. Many journalist and stampeders had written about that particular part of the pass, and all of them said that they had been strongly marked by these events. 

Source :

1. Heggs, Eric A. (1889) Klondikers with packtrains on the White Pass Trail near Bennet, British Columbia. September, 6, 1889 [Photograph] University of Washington Librairies, Special Collection Division
2. An hourly occurence Tappan Adney, The Klondike Stampede , 1900 [Photograph]
3. Pierre Berton, Klondike, The Last Great Gold Rush, 1896-1899 (1958),  Canada, Anchor Canada, p.123

Chilkoot Pass : "The Golden Stairs"

Fig 1 : Klondikers carrying supplies ascending the Chilkoot Pass

Chilkoot Pass, also called "The Golden Stairs", had became the emblematic trail of the Klondike Gold Rush. Many photographs had been taken of the long line of stampeder climbing the Coast Moutains.

Here is a long extract from the book by Pierre Berton, who describes the creation of the Golden Stairs. It explained how the Golden Stairs were cut, and the path organized for the stampeders to use.

The first steps were chopped out of the last one hundred and fifty feet of climb, where the going was so steep that one stampeder compared it "to scaling the walls of a house." Two partners cut the steps out with axes in a single night and collected more than eighty dollars a day in tolls. [...] But other came after them to cut more steps and to charge more tolls until there were fifteen hundred steps cut in the mointainside, with a rope balustrade alongside and little shelves where men could step out of line and rest their packs. Yet few stepped out, because a man might have to wait all day before slipping back into place. Each paid his tolls in the morning to climb the "Golden Stairs", as the stampeders called them, and for this set fee could use these stairs as many times as necessary until nightfall. Most used them only once a day, for it took them six hours to climb a thousand feet encumbered by a fifty-pound pack, and fifty pounds was as much as the average man could handle. 

The path was less dangerous than difficult and exhausting for the gold prospectors. The path had been thought and exploited : stairs were cut, a rope had been placed to make the stampeders progression easier, etc. Chilkoot Pass was first a shortcut through the mountain, to make the path to the gold field quicker and more easy to access. It was one of the two pathes more used at the time by stampeders going on foot to the Klondike Region. Because of the mass of people using it, it had evolved with the time.

In this extract, we can see the pass, without any steps nor rope; nevertheless, the mass of people trying to reach the top of the mountain is still impressive. From that, we could form several suposition. First, the movie had depicted the early time of the Klondike Gold Rush, when the Golden Stairs were not yet a thing and the stampeders were still struggling to pass it. The passage is not yet organized, which conveyed a slightly different impression of the passage. In this scene, the spectator can see what seemed to be a never-ending file of stampeders, overburden trying to reach the top. The slow march, the sound and the different interaction between the stampeders (" ") created a feeling of struggle, of hard work. When I watched this scene, I had the impression to see real immigrant trying to reach another country, which had not been the case when I watched White Fand and the extract on the Chilkoot Pass. Indeed, what is really impressiv in this scene is more the number of gold prospector represented on the screen than the actual pass. It must be linked to the technical difficulties of the time (1972), when it must have been tricky to represent the Golden Stairs as it was at the time (not as high, not as slopping).
However, if the movie chose to make Buck go through this pass, I personnaly found it a bit strange, and probably not entierly possible. I search in the novel for a trace of that passage, and I didn't find any proof that Buck actually took  the Chilkoot Pass. If in the novel, geographical place are mentioned, they are not throughtfully depicted, so I may be wrong. However, as we can see on the picture, the Golden Stairs were more steep than shown in the movie, therefore it would have been difficult for the postal worker to transport six dogs plus the supply up the pass, and a long time, for already took many hours for a stampeders to carry a part of his supply on his back. Even if dogs must have taken this passage, I think it was one or two dogs per prospector, not a whole team of sledge dog. So why the movie decided to represent the Chilkoot Pass ? Mostly for the strong and emblematic image it was for the Klondike Gold Rush. It surely represent how difficult it was for the prospectors to reach the gold field.
Another thing in this extract is the interaction between two random prospectors and the main characters : "How long have you been out of Skagway? -Six days! -You are lucky, It took us forty-five days to get here." Here, we can see the obvious difference between them, the dog being a huge help for the mail men. However, I could not tell if the time gap is historically correct, for I have not found the average lenght of the journey on foot. It must vary for each prospector and depend on many factors.
I said that the Chilkoot Pass was not yet organized in this extract, which is not totally true. We can see at the botom of the pass tents, and a lot of stampeders who seemed to rest or to prepare for the next day. We can also see several prospector making a stop during their ascention, saying that they'll here for the night. If people could stop when doing up the pass, it was not common, for it was then hard to get back on line, moreover, due to the slopping, it would have been difficult to established a small camp to sleep.

In this extract from the movie White Fang, we can see a different representation of the Chilkoot Pass, and the technical difficulties seemed to have been overpassed. The Golden Stairs fit quite well the pass shown on the pictures. We can see the stairs cut in the ice, the rope, the stampeders loaded with supply, carrying them on their back, the long line, the wait, etc. However, it still lack an historical something which, I think, would have change the vision of the path.

Fig 2 : 

The feelings conveyed in this extract are clearly impressive, the mountain appeared gigantic, and the path even more hard to climb. However, the stairs still appears as a one-way route. Once Jack reach the top, the hardship seemed to be over, like an hard obstacle to be overcome. In reality, stampeders often had to take several time the stairs to carry all of their supply, therefore, they had to go down the pass too, a series of slide were craved in the ice near the stairs.
Men and women even offered they services to carry the supplies of the stampeders up the trail. In these two extract, Chilkoot Pass is more represented as an obstacle than an actual route were prospector had to go up and down and up again. This created a more adventurous aspect of the path in the movie than in reality.

Chilkoot tramway.

Fig 3 : Aerial tram, possibly the Dyea-Klondike Transp.
Company (Source : E. Heggs, 1898) 

The Chilkoot Trails tramway, an aerial tramway, had been constructed around 1897 to make the journey to Dawson City even more easy for the stampeders. It would allowed them to carry their supply and themselves pass the Chilkoot pass.
So why not showing the tramway in the movie, or use it in the novel ? Several reasons. First because it was luxury, which mean that it was expensive, therefore - once again - since the majority of the stampeders were not wealthy, they could not afford it. But the main reason I believe, it is because it is not worthy of a story. The easy way to an adventure is not worthy of a story, and do not belong in a novel or a movie about the difficult task of the prospectors. Moreover, since the movie is not meant to be an exact representation of the historical facts, but mostly an adventure, a tramway would not have been interesting to show. It is way less impressive than the actual Golden Stairs.

Source :

1. Pierre Berton, Klondike, The Last Great Gold Rush, 1896-1899 (1958),  Canada, Anchor Canada, 2001 pp. 196-197
2. Randal Kleiser, dir. White Fang. Walt Disney Pictures, 1991
3. Cantwell, George G. (1900) - The Klondike, a souvenir, [Photographs] Rufus Bucks Publisher, Seattle, 1900  Retrieved fromLibrary University Washington
4. Heggs, Eric A. (1989) A stanpeder prepared to slide down the Chilkoot Pass [Photograph]
5. Heggs, Eric A. - ca. (1898) Aerial tram carrying freight including a canoe, Chilkoot Pass, Alaska. [Photograph] Retrieved from Library University Washington

Dog sleds and dog thefts : "Dogs ! Dogs ! Dogs !"

During the Klondike Gold Rush, many type of transportation had been used, the most common was obvisouly on foot, for must of the stampeders were not wealthy. But ways had been found to help these prospector transporting their supplies to the gold field, such as sledge or pack animals. However, the most efficient way was using dogs, and the high demand for a particular type of dogs lead to the creation of a real traffic.

This extract from the movie The Call of the Wild (1967) corresponds more or less to the very beggining of London's novel. Judge Miller discusses here the various ways of transportation during the Yukon Gold Rush as it had been reported in the newspapers. Some of them are very peculiar and seemed foolish - a feeling that is reinforced by the way the two characters are talking about it and laughing. This leads to the Judge's speech about the importance of dog during that time. 

We know that surviving in the Klondike is not an easy thing, the climate is cold and harsh, and the area is not really what we can call a flat region. The man had to rely on dogs in order to travel faster on the snow and carry their load of supply, which mean that not any dog was made for the journey. Men were looking for heavy dog, capable a running for a long time, and resisting the cold and the snow. These special characteristics had decrease the number of dogs fitting the adventure, and therefore made these type of dogs more rare, and valuable.

In this scene, it is also interesting to note how Buck is represented, and compared it to the rest of the film, as well as its description in the book. In the background, we can see Buck with the two girls, standing still as they wrapped rubbons around him and place a hat on its head. This attitude, and the way Buck is treated draw an easy and comfortable life for the dog, which appears more as a pet than an actual sledge dog. He is not the fierce and hard working animal that will be beaten several times afterwards. When we compared the Buck living in the city and the Buck trying to survive in the Klondike, we can see a obvious contrast, that can be applied to the contrast between two different environment, and which had already been discussed when talking about experience/unexperience. 

We can also note that, in the book, Buck first description is quite different, which is directly linked with the support of the movie: it is harldy possible to convey Buck's inner thought on the screen, therefore, his proud attitude and his view on himself are impossible to depict. Indeed, in the book, Buck is not as soft as he can be seen in the movie. As London wrote :

But Buck was neither house-dog nor kennel dog. The whole realm was his. He plunged into the swimming tank or went hunting with the Judge's son; he escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judge's daughters, on long twilight or early morning rambles [...] Among the terriers he stalked imperiously, and Toots and Ysabel (*) he utterly ignored, for he was king - king over all creeping, crawling, flying things of Judge Miller's place, humans included.

(*) "Toots, the Japanese pug, Ysabel the mexican hairless - strange creatures that  rarely put nose out of doors" 

Because of that description, I didn't feel the same contrast between the two life-style that Buck knew, mostly due to the fact that he was already shown as an outdoor dog, seeking for the call of the wild. Moreover, Buck clearly fitted the characteristics wanted in a dog sledge, which lead the reader to Buck's fate.

Indeed, the demand for dogs was high at the time, for many prepared their journey in the Klondike, which explained the high price of dogs. At that time, especially for slegde dogs, dogs were not treated as they are now, they were scene as another supply for the gold digger: they were part of their package, and a good way to transport the rest of the supply. This also means that the stampeders had to add a ration for the dogs as well as pay the price of each dog, which was not somethings that everyone could afford. Nevertheless, we could say that dogs became a source of income for many people at the time.

Indeed, the economical context shows that poverty was high, therefore people could do many thing to gain some money. Moreover, whenever their is a high demand, we could say that illegal traffic for that supply starts to emerge here and there. It had also been the case for dogs, a real traffic emerged at the time, where dogs were stolen and then sold. This had been a serious issue, on the American continent and in Alaska too, and not just a way to serve the plot of the novel and the movie.

This extract give a good vision of dog thefts at the time, with several information about it: first who were the theves, then how this traffic worked, and finally how were treated the stolen dogs.

For Buck, the thief was a man working for Judge Miller, which can be seen as the representative for the working class, the people more affected by the economical crisis. As it could have been easily suspected, stealing dogs was just about the money you could earned. Then, this extract shows how the traffic works, which can be tricky to explain just by looking at the extract. It is not explicitly explained what role each characters have, and I will only try to describe what I have understood. Buck is sold to a man that appear to be the , the man that will sold the dogs to the actual prospector - or at least a man who is buying dogs to the thieves. The two other characters, wearing rags, must be taking care of the dogs during the transportation, for they still needed to be fed. The last scene of this extract, where the two poor people get the money shows how much they needed it ("We got the money!' and quickly gathering it from the floor) We can also see the rough way dogs are treated, since at this point, they are not more than supply. Beaten up, their muzzle tied, cages loading the wagon... 

Between the first extract and this one, we clearly see the different treatment of the dogs, from a caring house where Buck is loved and we could even say treated as a part of the family (the Judge talked to him the same way he would do to a child) to a mere supply in a train.

The Herald, 2 March 1898

The Record-Union, 22 Jan. 1898                                          The San Fransisco Call, 29 Jan. 1898

Here are different newspaper article, showing that dog thefts were punished by the law. In The Herald, we wan see that the thief is mentioned as "a hobo", which enforced is idea that the traffic was seen by the poor as a good way to make money, despite the illegal aspect of it. In most of the article, it is linked to the Klondike Gold Rush. We could have wrongfully thought that all dog sent in the Klondike were stolen. In The Record-Union, it is interesting to note that before being stolen, the owner of the dog had receive on offer for his dog: selling his dog was also a way to make profit during the time. We can also note that most of the article are from the beginning of the Klondike Gold Rush. In December, a dog could cost up to $500.

In this last extract, we can see the whole team of sled dogs being stolen in the Alaska, surely to be sold again to other prospectors in another town, to avoid being caught by the authorities of the town. If dog thefts could be the action of a single man for his own benefit, here, we can suspect that these two men are part of a sort of organization, as the postal worker imply by accusing the man. Which I find the most interesting is the implication of the authority in the movie, which had not been mentioned in the novel if I recall it right. Here again, we can see that the movie is more attached to the historical context than the developement of Buck.

As it had been said, others animals had been used during the Klondike Gold Rush, and almost absent in The Call of Wild : pack animals like mules, oxen, horses. They were used to pull the sleds or carry the supplies of the stampeders. The reason of that absence could be explained by the fact that the movie focused on the story of Buck, therefore on the fate of sledge dogs during that period. Also, pack animals often die on the way to the gold field, and took another path than sledge dog, therefore it would have been difficult for Buck or the main characters to encounter pack animals, at least on the trail.

Sources :

"Dogs in the Klondike", The New York Times, January 1, 1899 (Document PDF)
"The Duece Take Him." The Herald, 2 Mar. 1898: p. 8 (Web)
"Would Have the Dog." The Record-Union 22 Jan. 1898: p.11. (Web)
"The Traffic in Dogs." The San Francisco Call 29 Jan. 1898: p.7. (Web)