Episode 1 - The Beginning

Welcome to the History of the Klondike Gold Rush podcast, a biweekly series telling the dramatic story of the men and women who lived the greatest gold stampede of all time.

This episode starts with Alaska and the Yukon before thousands of Sourdoughs and Cheechakoes, and a few tons of gold, catapulted the Chilkoot Trail and the Klondike onto front pages around the world.

"The news that the telegraph is bringing the past few days of wonderful things of Klondike, in the land of the midnight sun, has opened the flood-gates and a stream of humanity is pouring through Seattle an on to the golden Mecca of the north." - Seattle newspaper, recorded by Tappan Adney

Sources & reading (some are out of print)

• The Klondike Stampede by Tappan Adney

• The Call of the Wild by Jack London

• Prelude to Bonanza by Allen Wright

• Early Days on the Yukon by William Ogilvie​

Maps

• 1897 Map of Alaska, Yukon Territory, and British Columbia, Showing The Goldfields And Main Routes

• Map of the Goldfields by Tappan Adney

• Penn Museum: The Tlingit Map of 1869 - A Masterwork of Indigenous Cartography

• CBC: Oldest known map of southwest Yukon visits territory for 150th birthday