Klondike
(KLAHN-deik), region of Yukon Territory,
Canada, just E of the Alaska border. It lies around Klondike R., a
small stream that enters the Yukon R. from the E at Dawson. The
discovery in 1896 of rich placer gold deposits in Bonanza (Rabbit)
Creek, a tributary of the Klondike, caused the Klondike stampede of
1897-1898. News of the discovery reached the U.S. in July 1897, and
within a month thousands of people were rushing N. Most landed at
Skagway at the head of Lynn Canal and crossed by Chilkoot or White Pass
to the Upper Yukon, which they descended to Dawson. Others went in by
the Copper R. Trail or over the Teslin Trail by Stikine R. and Teslin
L., and some by the all-Canadian Ashcroft and Edmonton trails. The rush
continued by these passes all the following winter. The other main
access route was up the Yukon R.,
c.1,600 mi/2,575 km, by steamer. Many of those
using this route late in 1897 were caught by winter ice below Fort
Yukon and had to be rescued. With unexpected thousands coming in, the
region was threatened by a food famine, and supplies were commandeered
and rationed. The number in the Klondike in 1898 was c.25,000.
Thousands of others who did not find claims drifted down the Yukon and
found placer gold in Alaskan streams, notably at Nome, to which there
was a new rush. Others went back to the U.S. Gold is still mined in the
area.
Capital city or county seat is shown by the symbol
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