As Cupid flits about flinging arrows into unsuspecting lovers this week, I thought it would be fun to take a look back in Alaska’s history and see what love-struck couples did when their stars crossed and they wanted to marry. Well, it turns out that miners during the Klondike Gold Rush sometimes had to improvise […]
One gold-rusher prospects the prospectors in Nome!
Fired with the romance of the undertaking and inspired by exciting rumors, thousands thronged to Nome’s beaches in 1900 after gold nuggets were found in the sand. Lured by the siren’s cry of “gold,” prospectors who’d not had luck elsewhere in Alaska came in the hopes that Nome’s sand would become their pay dirt. But […]
Girdwood settles on Crow Creek
Kudos to Girdwood! The rustic little ski town near Crow Creek south of Anchorage was named in the top 25 of the World’s Best Ski Towns by National Geographic! Like many of Alaska’s towns, Girdwood can trace its roots to the gold rush era more than 100 years ago. As news of Alaska gold […]
Miners’ Code ruled the Last Frontier
Prior to the arrival of sheriffs and judges to the Far North, a practical application of frontier democracy called the Miners’ Code ruled the Last Frontier. Each camp decided matters of common concern by majority vote and meted out justice to fit the crime. When a situation came along that necessitated a meeting, the miners […]
Newspapers spread the word of Yukon gold!
Glowing reports, like the following excerpt from the Aug. 8, 1897, edition of the New York World newspaper, helped fuel the stampede for gold along the Yukon River. “Mr. J. O. Hestwod, one of the most successful argonauts of ’97, has just returned from Klondike and furnishes by telegraph to the Sunday World a true […]
Alaskan Entrepreneurs – From Rags to Riches
Harriet Smith Pullen left her children and a bankrupt farm in Washington state and arrived broke in Skagway on Sept. 8, 1897. Although her husband came with her, their marriage ended in divorce. Earning $3 a day as a cook, one of many enterprising Alaskan entrepreneurs, the 37-year-old opened a tent restaurant to feed Skagway’s […]
Fires in Alaska – The Day Dawson Burned
Fires in Alaska – The curse of many towns during the Klondike Gold Rush era, and Dawson was no exception. The extreme cold, coupled with dryness, meant fires burned in all buildings when occupied. Stovepipes thrust through flimsy walls or roofs of cabins and tents carried smoke from high-creosote spruce. Over time, the creosote built […]
Flame of the Yukon dazzled miners with her moves
After brief stints in Skagway and Whitehorse, one Kansas girl swirled her way into Gold Rush history when she stepped on stage at the Palace Grand in Dawson City in 1900. Kathleen Eloisa Rockwell, better known as “Klondike Kate,” delighted audiences of miners with her song-and-dance routines. She wore an elaborate dress covered in red […]
Alaskan Fortune – Immigrant puts the right foot forward
One of Anchorage’s finest department stores can trace its roots to the gold rush days of the Klondike when a young Swede hunkered down with pick and ax and chipped out a small fortune. John W. Nordstrom arrived in New York City from his native Sweden in 1887. With $5 in his pocket, and not […]
Prospector turns Alaska history into gold
One prospector who headed north at the turn-of-the-last century later successfully turned Alaska history into gold. As a young man, famous American novelist Rex Beach struck out from Illinois in 1897 in search of his fortune in the gold-filled Klondike. Along with others who had some money and time, he chose to travel the all-water […]
Alaska’s First Streetcar
A three-hour stopover in Skagway in July 1923 by President Warren G. Harding turned into a booming business for one Alaskan sourdough. Martin Itjen, an immigrant who came north from Florida in 1898 to join the stampede in search of riches in the Klondike, took the President on an excursion in a painted coal truck. […]
Chitina once was a thriving town
This Model-T is loaded and ready to deliver mail out of Chitina in 1919. These new-fangled automobiles put a few sled dogs out of business along some of Alaska’s postal routes! The town, located about 53 miles southeast of Copper Center on the Edgerton Highway, was a bustling operation following the discovery of copper ore […]