Stump Houses Were All The Rage With Early Settlers "In 1892, a man named William D. McDonald actually opened a United States Post Office in a large, roofed structure made entirely out of abandoned stumps! The office was located in a remote region of the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington." Stump house in Vancouver, BC
The Boomtown That Shouldn't Exist Cape Coral, Florida, was built on total lies. One big storm could wipe it off the map. Oh, and it’s also the fastest-growing city in the United States.
Tonopah, Nevada, 1903... LARGER IMAGE "Tonopah Springs, later the site of one of the richest booms in the West, was an Indian campground for many years, long before Jim Butler spent a chilly night there... The most popular version of the story is that Butler’s mule wandered away and when Butler found the ornery critter, he noticed an outcropping that appeared to be heavily laced with silver. The date was May 19, 1900. Butler firmly believed he had discovered an important silver deposit ... but the assayer told him his samples were worthless, consisting mainly of iron, and he threw them into the back of his tent." ...... CONTINUED Jim and Belle Butler near their tent. Jim and his mule
The Klondike Gold Rush ..1896-1899 Gold was discovered in the Klondike region of Yukon Territory, Canada, by local miners on August 16, 1896, and when news reached Seattle and San Francisco, it triggered a stampede of prospectors (called "stampeders"). The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration by an estimated 100,000 between 1896 and 1899. The town at the center of the gold fields was Dawson, Yukon Territory (see previous posts in this thread). There were 3 routes to Dawson. The "poor man's route" was an inner island sea route from Seattle to one of two Alaska ports, Dyea and Skagway, both located 600 miles south of the gold fields. Both Dyea and Skagway soon became "boom towns" that catered to miners. (I like maps) Dyea, Alaska, circa 1898.. (Dyea is now a ghost town) Outfits lay stacked as stampeders grouped their supplies at Dyea. Circa 1897 Skagway, Alaska, 1898 The port at Skagway From these two ports, stampeders had to cross mountains. From Skagway, they took the White Pass Trail, and from Dyea, the Chilkoot Pass Trail. Someone already posted a picture of the Chilkoot Trail, but I'll repeat it here for comparison. I guess they had to start in winter to get to their destination before the next winter. It was said to take over 4 months to cover these trails, which were both approx 30 miles as the crow flies. Chilkoot Pass .. May, 1898 White Pass ..March, 1898 Both trails led to Bennett Lake, British Columbia. From there the stampeders had to take boats up the Yukon River. None of them brought boats, so they had to stop and make them, or buy them. Bennett Lake, British Columbia, end of the two beginning trails. This is getting too long... (Continued later....)
(Klondike Gold Rush continued...the Yukon River) These are some of the best pictures (imo). They came from different places, and I tried to put them in a meaningful sequence, without so much narrative. It's amazing to me what these people went through. The hard work, patience and ingenuity. So many little boomlet towns created along the way, then abandoned when the gold rush died out. Recap: The stampeders camped in tent cities near Lake Bennett, and worked over the winter to build boats to carry them down the Yukon River. The forests surrounding the area were stripped bare. The Yukon River ice broke on May 29, 1898. Thousands were ready to head down what was understood to be the easiest portion of the journey to the Klondike. Eight hundred boats set out down the river that first day, and would grow to over 7,000 boats holding 30,000 stampeders. The boats reflected the abilities of their builders, from well-crafted and designed craft, to rickety scows that capsized and sank only a few short miles after being launched. The first challenge was Miles Canyon, a narrow gorge where the river abruptly lost two-thirds of its width, bordered by 98-foot lava cliffs. In the center of the canyon, invisible until the boats were almost in it, was a whirlpool known as the Devil's Punchbowl. After the canyon came the White Horse rapids. White Horse rapids filmed by Thomas Edison, 1899 The Northwest Mounted Police assigned a number to each boat, recording the names of the passengers in order to facilitate notification of next of kin. In the first days of the rush down the Yukon River over 100 boats were torn to pieces in the White Horse Rapids, dragging at least ten to their deaths. Those who survived with their lives lost most of their supplies. The White Horse rapids were so dangerous that the police eventually refused to allow any more boats down them unless there was an experienced pilot aboard. Jack London was one of those who was to make a living as a Yukon River pilot. Boats lined up above the rapids waiting to hire an available pilot. Soon a small town known as Canyon City came to life above the rapids. Canyon City is now a ghost town. (continued later.....)
There is only one other notable boom town formed during this period that hasn't been mentioned already--- Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. ..In 1900, the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad was constructed from Skagway to a point past the Yukon River rapids, which became Whitehorse. It was a natural supply distribution center, and eventually the capital of Yukon Territory. We drove through Whitehorse in the summer of 1962, on the way to Fairbanks. If I had to do it again, I might head toward Skagway, instead. Early Whitehorse
Robert Service worked in a bank in Whitehorse during the gold rush. Although his poem was fiction, it was based on people and things he actually saw in the Yukon. Lake Laberge (also spelled Lebarge) is formed by a widening of the Yukon River just north of Whitehorse. Stampeders on Lake Laberge The Alice May was based on the derelict stern-wheeler, the Olive May, that belonged to the Bennett Lake & Klondike Navigation Co. It was abandoned after it struck a rock about 30 miles south of Lake Laberge. A doctor named Sugden used its firebox to cremate the body of a man who had died of pneumonia. William Samuel McGee was primarily a road builder but did do some prospecting. McGee was in San Francisco at the time of the Klondike Gold Rush and in 1898 left for the Klondike. Service saw McGee's name on a form. He talked to McGee about using his name and received permission, which is confirmed by correspondence between McGee and his family. ------------------------------- There are so many great pictures of things other than boom towns available for this period, like: Construction of the White Pass and Yukon Railroad Paddle wheel steamers on the Yukon River Early land tramways past the dangerous parts of the Yukon River There doesn't seem to be an appropriate thread for any of these.