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