Yukon & Klondike History
The Klondike Gold Rush, Dawson City's storied past, the Alaska Highway construction, Yukon First Nations, and the generations of lives shaped by the North. Deep history written from the inside out.
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- The Klondike Gold Rush: How It Started and Why It Changed EverythingOn August 16, 1896, gold was discovered in a tributary of the Klondike River. Within two years, the Canadian North would explode — and an entirely new city would emerge from the wilderness.
- Dawson City at Its Peak: Life in the Paris of the NorthAt its height in 1898, Dawson City had a population of 40,000. It had electricity, running water, telephones, and an opera house. How this impossible city emerged from the wilderness.
- Dredge No. 4: The Machine That Ate the KlondikeAfter the individual prospectors came the corporations — and the dredges. Dredge No. 4 on Bonanza Creek is the largest wooden-hulled gold dredge in North America.
- The North-West Mounted Police and the Making of the YukonWhen gold was discovered in the Klondike, Canada had one crucial advantage: the NWMP were already there. How a handful of red-coated officers helped prevent the chaos that consumed earlier rushes.
- The Yukon's Historic Sites: A Complete Visitor's GuideFrom the gold rush boardwalks of Dawson City to a sternwheeler frozen in time on the Whitehorse waterfront — here is a region-by-region guide to the Yukon's most significant historic sites.
- Tracing Family Roots to the Gold Rush: A Research GuideMillions of people have ancestors who made the journey north in 1897 and 1898. Here's how to research whether your family was part of the Klondike Gold Rush — and what you might find.
- Jack London in the Klondike: How the Yukon Made a WriterJack London arrived in the Klondike as a 21-year-old adventurer looking for gold. He found something more valuable: the material that would make him the most widely read American author of his generation.
- The Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in: The Original People of the KlondikeLong before the first prospector set foot in the Klondike, the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in lived at the confluence of the Yukon and Klondike rivers. Their story is inseparable from Dawson City's — and far older.
- Displacement and Survival: How the Gold Rush Changed Yukon First NationsThe Klondike Gold Rush brought 30,000 newcomers to Indigenous lands. The consequences for First Nations communities were devastating — and the story of how they survived is one of the most important in the Yukon's history.