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Klondike
Excerpt - Klondike
Thousands cross the Chilkoot Pass
… Around 22,000 people attempted the Chilkoot Trail in the fall of 1897, and a human chain stretched across the entire length of the pass. Those who paused to rest with their loads often had to wait hours to re-enter the line.
Newspapers, like The Chicago Record, printed lists of supplies needed by those seeking to travel to the northern gold fields. The papers stressed that based on reports of hundreds who had traveled to the placer mines of the Klondike region previously, each man would need enough food, clothing and working materials to last at least one year.
 During the late 1890s, thousands of Klondikers climbed aboard ships like the Australia, pictured here, and headed toward Alaska and Canada. But few found the fortunes that drew them north.
Photo courtesy of University of Washington
Wilse Collection, No. 531
The Record’s analysis showed that men who’d lived in Alaska among the gold-bearing creeks for anywhere from one to 10 years, figured that an adequate supply of food per day per man varied from 4-1/2 to 5-1/2 pounds. That brought the actual food supply for one person for one year to 1,600 pounds.
“Highly carbonaceous food should predominate; stimulants of alcoholic character should be avoided,” the Record reported. “One pound of tea is equal to seven pounds of coffee for drinking purposes; three-quarters of an ounce of saccharin (this concentrated sweet can be obtained from druggists) is equal to twenty-five pounds of sugar, so that three ounces of saccharin is equal to 100 pounds of sugar. Citric acid is a remedy for scurvy.”
 Prospectors hiking to the Klondike often took time out to check creeks for colors.
Photo courtesy of University of Washington
Frank LaRoche Collection, LAR214
The newspaper went on to list other essentials for a gold-seeker’s outfit, including 150 pounds of bacon, 250 pounds of flour, 40 pounds of rice, matches, a gold pan, one teapot and a whipsaw.
The estimated cost per outfit of food, clothing, hardware and medicine, of which one bottle of “good whiskey” was a part, came to about $140 if bought in Seattle. Those who waited to purchase their outfits in Alaska paid three to four times as much.
Packing supplies a problem for many
Compiling and paying for a complete 2,000-pound outfit may have been the easiest part of the equation. Hauling it up the Chilkoot Trail was another matter.
 In order to get 2,000 pounds of gear to the top, each Klondiker had to climb to the 3,739-foot summit of Chilkoot Pass dozens of times. The pass, located on the Alaska-Canada boundary, is 4.1 miles northeast of Mount Hoffman and 17 miles north of Skagway.
Photo courtesy of University of Washington
Eric A. Hegg Collection, HEG408
Once they reached Skagway or Dyea, many stampeders paid Native packers between 12 cents and $1 to carry their supplies. Others less fortunate had to make as many as 30 trips to shuttle their supplies across the pass, since they couldn’t carry much more than 70 pounds at a time. The relay of supplies along the trail ballooned the hike to more than 1,000 miles.
The trail was so steep that 1,200 steps were cut into the ice and snow to prevent the stampeders from sliding down. One enterprising prospector also set up a horse-powered tram to hoist luggage between a point on the pass, known as the Scales, to the summit for a small fee in early autumn 1897. By the following spring, three gasoline- and steam-powered tramways operated and ran up and down the pass. If a stampeder could afford the 5 to 15 cents per pound fee, then buckets suspended on a cable carried his cargo to the summit….
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