Klondike is a region in the Yukon territory in northwestern Canada. It was the site of one of the world’s most famous gold rushes. The Klondike covers about 800 square miles (2,070 square kilometers), including the Klondike River and its tributaries. The Klondike has a subarctic climate with long, cold winters and short, warm summers.
On August 17, 1896, a team of prospectors, including George W. Carmack, his First Nations wife Kate, and her relatives Skookum Jim and Tagish Charlie, discovered gold in Rabbit Creek (later named Bonanza Creek). Canadian miner Robert Henderson had directed Carmack’s team to Rabbit Creek, a few miles from his own claim.
Carmack’s group took their gold to Forty Mile, a mining camp less than 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the junction of the Klondike and Yukon rivers, to register their claim. Forty Mile quickly emptied as miners hurried to Rabbit Creek. Henderson later received official credit as a co-discoverer of the Klondike gold field.
In July 1897, the steamship Portland arrived in Seattle, Washington. It carried prospectors who had struck it rich at Bonanza Creek and a large amount of gold dust and nuggets. News of the discovery spread quickly. The first large wave of prospectors headed to the Klondike in the fall of 1897. A second, larger wave followed in 1898. Miners from Forty Mile already had staked most of the good claims, and few of the latecomers became rich. By 1930, an estimated $200 million worth of gold had been mined from the Klondike.
Large mining companies eventually bought most of the original mines. Large dredges scoured the area’s creek bottoms, producing millions more dollars’ worth of gold. In the 1960’s, meager returns forced the mining companies to cease operations. Sharp increases in the price of gold later led to further mining of the Klondike with different techniques.
