Alaska Gold. A real story (II)
By Eric Prendeville. Elemetal – Anchorage , Alaska
Although the first Alaskan gold rushes were relatively minor, interest exploded following one event. On July 17th of 1897, an ordinary steamboat named the SS Portland docked in Seattle, Washington. The only thing interesting about this particular steamboat is what was onboard: nearly two tons of gold from Dawson City in Canada’s Yukon Territory and 68 very rich individuals. A few days earlier the Excelsior docked in San Francisco with a similar load. The word spread quickly, making headlines of every major newspaper in the country; the Klondike Gold Rush was on. The attention was primarily over the border in Canada, however the findings in tributaries of major rivers shared by both countries provided the spark igniting Alaska’s gold mining industry.
In a time of economic depression following the panic of ’93, many people were left with nothing to lose and hoped that the Yukon was the opportunity they needed. Alaska accommodated some 100,000 prospectors shipped up from Seattle, many of whom landed in the Skagway area, overwhelming the small settlement. The task of carrying enough food and equipment to survive was a major difficulty. After many had starved along the way, the Canadian government addressed the problem by requiring visitors of the Yukon to have a year supply of goods. The mandate specified a list of food and supplies amounting to almost 2,000 pounds.
It’s 1898, you’ve made the exciting, yet anxiety laden trip to Skagway. You’ve spent the last few months in the frigid cold, hauling literally a ton of supplies up the 3,000 foot mountainside. There is an overpowering stench of dead horses and you sleep in a tent whenever you’re so lucky. Your mind is in a state of crazed manic-depression, optimistic to find gold and strike it rich, yet mulling over the very real possibility you may never return home. Cold, sore and exhausted, you’ve been admitted into Canada. Now all that is left to do is build a boat from scratch while waiting for the river to thaw. It’s a 550 mile trip down the rapids of the Yukon River to Dawson where you can begin work as a miner. You do have a claim, right?
Of all the prospectors making the journey to Dawson, only 40,000 are estimated to have made it, and most of those arriving faced great disappointment, with the vast majority of gold-rich land already staked out. Less than half of them actually worked claims, with only a few thousand finding gold at all. Three hundred prospectors earned $15,000 or more, millionaire status at the time. Only 50 were prudent enough to maintain their wealth. The value of gold extracted during the Klondike Gold Rush is estimated to be a worth over a billion dollars today. In a few short years the rush had come and gone. For 8,000 or so of these relentless prospectors, it was on to the next venture when gold was discovered in Nome, Alaska in 1899.
The discoveries in the Yukon and in Nome gave reason to take the potential of Alaska’s natural resources seriously. The merit of purchasing the frigid, vast expanse on the other side of the continent until then had yet to be demonstrated. The land was home to natives whose descendants had spent centuries learning to live off the land despite its harsh conditions. Critics referred to the purchase as “Seward’s Folly” after Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the deal. The land was purchased for $7.2 million, which is close to $115 million in terms of today’s dollars, or about $175 per square mile. The value of the gold extracted from Nome in 1899 alone was $2 million at the time, or $57 million in terms of today’s dollars, half the purchase price of the state.