Jack London and the Klondike Gold Rush
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Miles Canyon—Mile-long, Upper Yukon canyon named in 1883 by Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka in honor of his military expedition sponsor, General Nelson Miles.
Moosehide Slide—The landmark depression or scar on the mountain rising above Dawson. (The Hän village downstream from Dawson is also called Moosehide.)
Scales—A settlement at the foot of the Golden Stairs, where steelyard scales were used by professional packers who made a business of toting freight to the summit. As the gold rush developed, the Scales hosted a small tent city, including six restaurants, two hotels, a saloon, and many freighting offices and warehouses.
Sheep Camp—Major boomtown thirteen miles from Dyea on the Chilkoot Trail, and the jumping-off point for pack trips over the Chilkoot Pass. Called Sheep Camp because it may have served as headquarters for men hunting mountain sheep.
Stewart Island—There were actually multiple islands just below the mouth of the Stewart River. The one Jack and his partners wintered on was probably called “Upper” Island or “Split-Up” Island because it was a place where partners often split to go their separate ways. I have simplified the nomenclature to Stewart Island, as Dick North does in Sailor on Snowshoes: Tracking Jack London’s Northern Trail.
White Pass Trail—Also known as the Dead Horse Trail, the forty-two-mile trail scratched out of the woods and rocks and touted as a pack trail to the Yukon River headwaters (also ending at Lake Bennett), in competition with the Chilkoot Trail from nearby Dyea. More than three thousand pack animals perished on this route during the height of the rush.
Yukon Territory—Formed in 1898 from the Northwest Territories in Canada, 205,346 square miles in size, with the territorial capital relocated from Dawson to Whitehorse in 1953. The name Yukon comes from the Athabascan word yukona, meaning “great river,” which was recorded by Hudson’s Bay traders in the 1840s.
JACK LONDON’S WRITING
This is not a complete list of London’s Klondike stories, but it’s a good place to start—in particular where I have put a star after the work.
NOVELS
The Call of the Wild *
White Fang *
Burning Daylight
Smoke Bellew
SHORT STORIES
“To Build a Fire”*
“The White Silence”*
“The Men of Forty-Mile”*
“In a Far Country”*
“To the Man on Trail”*
“The Law of Life”*
“The League of Old Men”*
“A Klondike Christmas”*
“The Night-Born”*
“The Son of the Wolf”
“The One Thousand Dozen”*
“The Wisdom of the Trail”
“Bâtard”
“Love of Life”
“The Story of Keesh”
“All Gold Canyon”
“Up the Slide”*
“Trust”*
NONFICTION
“The Gold Hunters of the North”*
“Through the Rapids on the Way to the Klondike”*
“From Dawson to the Sea”*
“Economics in the Klondike”
“The Husky”*
“Housekeeping in the Klondike”*
JACK LONDON TIME LINE
GLOSSARY
Derived from the Klondike Glossary compiled by Scott Eckberg, Park Ranger, National Park Service, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, Seattle Unit, 1986
http://www.nps.gov/klse/learn/education/upload/Glossary-2.pdf
Argonauts—Those who stampeded north to the Klondike were sometimes called Argonauts by the newspapers of the day, harkening back to the Greek heroes who accompanied Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece.
bedrock—The hard rock or clay-packed underground surface on which placer gold eventually lodged. In the Klondike, this varied from ten to forty feet or more below the surface of the ground.
Bonanza King—A wealthy claim owner on Bonanza Creek; any of the wealthy claim owners in the Klondike (also called Eldorado Kings).
boom—Sudden success; the flourishing of a local economy following a gold strike or other such event.
break trail—To clear a trail with snowshoes, usually in advance of a dogsled.
cabin fever—The restlessness caused by spending a long, cold, and dark winter in close confinement.
cheechako—A newcomer who is ignorant of the terrain, the weather, the animals, the culture, and the necessary survival skills for the harsh Arctic winter ahead.
claim—Plot of land of authorized dimension registered for mining purposes and divided into bench, bar, and creek claims by geography.
colors—Traces or specks of gold remaining in the pan after panning.
cribbing—A structure of notched logs built log-cabin fashion and surmounted by a rope winch for raising pay dirt. The cribbing was usually built before excavation began and kept the growing dumps of pay dirt from seeping back into the shaft.
dogsled—Standard size was seven feet long, sixteen inches wide, and about seven inches high. Journalist Tappan Adney described one: “The bow is slightly upturned, and the top, of four longitudinal pine slats, rests upon four cross-frames of ash, with ash runners shod with two-inch steel shoes.” They weighed about eighty pounds. “On it, lashed with thongs of moose-hide, were the food and gear for dogs and men.”
drift—A tunnel excavated below a vertical shaft along bedrock to locate and remove pay dirt. In drift mining, the frozen ground is thawed in winter by fire (this process is also known as drifting). When a drift reaches fifteen to twenty feet, which is as far as profitable to drag the dirt, another shaft is sunk to meet and continue it.
Eldorado Kings—Any of the wealthy claim owners on Eldorado Creek; generically, any wealthy Klondike miner.
fool’s gold—Iron pyrite, distinguished from true gold by its glittery hue and brittleness.
freeze-up—The time of year when the Yukon River freezes solid.
gold—Soft, yellow, corrosion-resistant, the most malleable and ductile metal, occurring in veins and alluvial deposits. The standard upon which the world’s advanced national economies were based in the late nineteenth century.
Hän People, or Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in—An Athabascan people who speak the Hän language and live around the Klondike River.
King of the Klondike—Nickname of the wealthy claim owner and speculator Alexander “Big Alec” Macdonald, reputed to be the richest man during the Klondike boom, but who died broke.
Klondike fever—Gold fever. A great desire to get rich by prospecting for gold.
lining, or line down—To assist and control a boat over rough water by a line from the river shore.
miner’s cabin—Small log cabin invariably found throughout the Klondike. Roughly twelve by fourteen feet, with walls six feet and gables eight feet high. The roof was heavily earthed; as a warm but rarely ventilated quarters, it was occupied by as many as four men at a time.
muck—The semifrozen mud just below the surface of the ground, “mucked out” with shovels.
mush, mushing—To travel with a dog team. Mushers are travelers using dog teams.
mush-ice—Soft ice just forming in a river approaching freeze-up, rapidly bringing all water transportation to a halt.
North West Mounted Police (NWMP)—A special constabulary created in 1873 by the Canadian government to establish and preserve the law in the Canadian West and thereby avoid the lawless condition of frontier settlement characteristic of the US West. The “Mounties” helped keep order during the Klondike Stampede. Today’s descendant is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
oakum—A hemp used in rope making combined with pitch to caulk seams in boats—the oakum serving as binder.
outfit—One’s entire supply of food and gear; the acquisition and purchase (outfitting) of supplies.
pan—To prospect with a gold pan.
pay dirt—The layer of soil/gravel which contains gold, hopefully in paying quantities, which ha
s been removed to the surface in preparation for washing out.
pay streak—The ribbon of gold-laden soil deposited over geologic time, usually found at bedrock level and recovered by drifting. The source of pay dirt.
permafrost—In the northern regions of the planet, soil that is perpetually frozen.
placer—An alluvial or glacial deposit of sand or gravel containing particles of gold. In placer mining, one locates and works a placer claim, separating free gold from the uncovered or exposed pay streak by washing in pan, rocker, or sluice. Or dredge, a method developed after Jack’s time in the Klondike.
Saint of Dawson—Jesuit priest William H. Judge, whose self-sacrificing assistance to stricken miners resulted in Dawson’s first hospital and his own premature death.
sawpits—Raised platforms for supporting logs during whipsawing.
scurvy—A debilitating illness characterized by swollen gums and extremities, a yellowing of the skin, and pain in the joints. Untreated it leads to death. Causes are a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables and a vitamin C deficiency in the diet over a prolonged time.
shaft—Vertical tunnel excavated to bedrock, requiring up to two months’ labor depending on the depth. A claim was usually “spotted” with shafts until the pay streak was located and drifting had begun.
sluice, sluicing—The separation of placer gold from lighter dirt and gravel by washing in sluice boxes (box sluicing) or in a trench cut into bedrock (ground sluicing). A sluice box is like a long tray that is open at both ends. Most will have riffles, spaced evenly along the length of the sluice, usually every few inches. Riffles cause small barriers to the water flow, which create eddies in the water, giving the heavier material (black sand and gold) a chance to drop to the bottom, behind the riffles.
Socialism—A political and economic system in which property and resources are owned or controlled by the public or the state. The term socialism also refers to any political or philosophical doctrine that advocates such a system.
sourdough—A longtime resident of Alaska or the Yukon, though after the Klondike Gold Rush, loosely applied to anyone who had lived through a far northern winter. Stemmed from the popularity in the Klondike of using sourdough as a leavening for bread instead of yeast or baking powder, which were less reliable in the harsh conditions.
Stampeder—Someone who leaves home to head for a rumored gold strike.
strike—A gold discovery.
sweep—A long pole-like oar used to rudder or steer a large boat or raft, located at the stern of the vessel.
sweeper—An overhanging tree branch along a river.
Tagish—A First Nations people who lived around Tagish and Marsh Lakes in the Yukon Territory of Canada during the gold rush. Tagish and Tlingit people from the coast have intermarried heavily. Members of the Tagish First Nation made the gold discovery that led to the Klondike Stampede—Keish (Skookum Jim Mason), Shaaw Tláa (Kate Carmack), and Káa Goox (Dawson Charlie). Today, Tagish people live mainly in the Yukon towns of Carcross and Whitehorse.
Tlingit—An indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest coast of North America who traded with First Nations people of the interior by traveling over routes like the Chilkoot Trail. Tlingit traders would travel inland with dried fish and marine products to trade with interior First Nations for furs, clothing, and other goods. During the Klondike Stampede, Tlingit packers, along with the Tagish, charged for carrying supplies up over the summit of the Chilkoot and down to Lakes Lindeman and Bennett.
vein—A regularly shaped and lengthy occurrence of an ore.
whipsaw—The two-man saw used to cut planks from logs; also the act of using this saw—i.e., whipsawing.
Yukon stove—Perhaps one of the most valued fixtures of the Klondiker’s outfit. Often one half of a sheet-iron barrel with a collapsible stovepipe. Sometimes a box made of sheet metal, with collapsible variations, taken north for cooking and heating. Although compact, one could cook and bake for a sizeable party with it.
JACK LONDON BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES
TAPED INTERVIEWS
Earle Labor in Shreveport, Louisiana
Dawne Mitchell in Dawson, Yukon Territory, Canada
David Neufeld in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada
Karl Gurcke, historian at the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, Skagway, Alaska
WEBSITES
An all-around good site for Jack London information and writings: http://london.sonoma.edu/
Jack London Museum (operated by the Klondike Visitors Association) in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada: http://dawsoncity.ca/attraction/jack-london-museum/
Two sites devoted to Jack London’s California ranch where he wrote many books, now a state historical park in Glen Ellen, California: http://www.parks.sonoma.net/JLPark.html
http://www.jacklondonpark.com
BOOKS
Adney, Tappan. The Klondike Stampede. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, 1994.
Berton, Pierre. The Klondike Quest: A Photographic Essay 1897–1899. Erin, Ontario, Canada: Boston Mills Press, 2005.
Dyer, Daniel. Jack London: A Biography. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2002
Haley, James L. Wolf: The Lives of Jack London. New York: Basic Books, 2010
Kingman, Russ. A Pictorial Life of Jack London. New York: Crown Publishers, 1979.
Labor, Earle. Jack London: An American Life. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.
London, Charmian Kittredge. The Book of Jack London (two volumes). New York: The Century Co., 1921.
London, Jack. The Call of the Wild, White Fang & To Build a Fire. New York: Modern Library, 2002.
London, Jack. The Portable Jack London (Portable Library), edited by Earle Labor. New York: Penguin Books, 1994.
London, Jack, and Daniel Dyer. The Call of the Wild: With an Illustrated Reader’s Companion. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995
Morgan, Murray, and E. A. Hegg. One Man’s Gold Rush: A Klondike Album. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1972.
Neufeld, David, and Frank Norris, Chilkoot Trail: Heritage Route to the Klondike. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2005.
North, Dick. Sailor on Snowshoes: Tracking Jack London’s Northern Trail. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2006.
Thompson, Fred. To the Yukon with Jack London: The Klondike Diary of Fred Thompson, edited by David Mike Hamilton. Los Angeles: Zamorano Club, 1980.
Walker, Franklin. Jack London and the Klondike. San Marino, CA: Huntington Library Press, 1966.
Wilson, Mike. Jack London’s Klondike Adventure. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Publishers, 2000.
INDEX
The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
Adney, Tappan
The Alhambra (Irving)
Allan, Allan Alexander (“Scotty”)
alpine lakes
Arctic
spring
summer
winter
Arctic leprosy. See scurvy
Argonauts. See also Stampeders
Atherton, Frank
Atlantic Monthly
aurora borealis
bacon grease
bedrock
Belle of the Yukon
Bennett (lake)
Bennett, Bennett City
Berton, Pierre
Big Alec. See McDonald, Alexander “Big Alec”
Big Jim. See Goodman, Big Jim
Big Salmon River
Black Cat
boats
building
riverboats
steamers
trip home boat
Bonanza Creek
discovery claim
Keish with children at
renamed from Rabbit Creek
Bonanza King
Bond, Louis
boom
boots
Borg, Charlie
break trail
Burning Daylight (London)
cabin
Bond brothers’
cabin living
cooking
dinner
Eldorado Creek
Henderson Creek
Split-Up Island
Stewart
winter cabin living
cabin fever
California Fish Patrol
The Call of the Wild (London)
Carmack, George
Carmack, Kate (Shaaw Tláa)
Carmack strike
Chaney, John Griffith
Chaney, William Henry (father)
Charlie, Dawson (“Tagish”) (Káa Goox)
cheechakos (inexperienced miners)
Chilkoot avalanches
Chilkoot summit
climbing
Chilkoot Trail
death on
Dyea River crossing
near Sheep Camp
overview
pack trains on
resting on
Stampeders on
claims
Bonanza discovery
Dawson filings
Eldorado Creek
Henderson Creek
London’s application for
making
size of
staking
Coast Mountains
colors
cooking
cabin cooking
Coolbrith, Ina
crib
crib mining
cribbing
Daily Chronicle
Dawson
claim filing
commerce
death in
dogs of
famine
founding
Front Street
Klondike Hotel
London’s last days in
mail delivery by dog team
muddy streets
October 16–December 2, 1897
overcrowding
overview
as Paris of the North
present day
prices and wages (1897–1898)
saloons
St. Mary’s Hospital
Stampeders in
storeowners
supplies
Third Street
winter in
Yukon Midnight Sun