Table of Contents

Illustrations and Maps

Preface and Acknowledgments

1 Early Days: The First Gold Seekers Arrive

2 The Chilkoot Pass and Early Transportation

3 Early Developments on the Yukon River

4 The Miners' Code

5 The Fortymile Stampede

6 Strangers in a Strange Land

7 Years of Change

8 Forty Mile: Anatomy of a Goldrush Town

9 The Arrival of the North-West Mounted Police

10 Death of the Miners' Committee

11 Circle: The Largest Log City in the World

12 The Discovery of Gold in the Klondike

13 Epilogue

Appendices

A. Mining Methods and Terms

B. Roll Call: Names of the Early Yukon Pioneers

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Michael Gates is Curator of Collections for Klondike National Historic Sites in Dawson, Yukon.

Reviews

This meticulous study ientifies the major implications of attempting to “MacDonalize” the delivery of social services.
*Canadian Public Policy (Reviews)*

A fine introduction to the pre-Klondike history of the Yukon River valley, and an excellent primer for historians interested in the years leading up to the great gold rush in the North.
*Western Historical Quarterly*

Gates presents an especially vivid picture of the material and social lives of Yukon prospectors. Piecing together an array of primary sources, the author vividly describes how white miners endured the harsh and remote environment; the struggle to obtain food, heat and shelter; the problem of mining in frozen earth; and the danger of travel in northern winters. Maps and numerous photographs illustrate the anecdotes. Gates succeeds admirably in his goal of showing that “the life of the miners was very difficult indeed (p. xii).” Historians of material culture, especially, will welcome this addition to the growing literature on mining camp life.
*Pacific Northwest Quarterly*