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A LASK A STUDI ES • UNIT 4, Gold Rush Documents 1.

Gold Rush DocumentsUnless otherwise stated, all documents were downloaded from www.library.state.ak.us/goldrush

Contents

■ “Timeline of the Alaskan Gold Rush” .......................................................... 2■ Cost for a miner’s outfit from Miner’s Manual,

United States, Alaska, the Klondike, by Horace Fletcher Clark, 1898.................. 4■ Cover of Brochure: “How to Reach the Gold Fields of Alaska

and the Klondike” produced by the Chamber of Commerce, Portland, Oregon........... 5■ “Chilkat (Klukwan-Haines) Territory” ......................................................... 6

reprinted from Haa Aani, Our Land by Walter R. Goldschmidt and Theodore H. Haas,University of Washington Press 1998, Chart 5.

■ Map of White and Chilkoot Pass Trails ....................................................... 7reprinted from the web site www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/klondike/case5ex.html

■ “Chilkoot Pass Ownership” ........................................................................ 8excerpt from letter by Gov. A.P. Swineford to the President, Oct. 1, 1886

■ Mining Claim Request ................................................................................ 9■ Photographs ........................................................................................... 10

• Dyea Valley, Alaska, c. 1897 • Warning! Poster, March 8, 1898• Photo of a gold pan

■ Form for Location Certificate – Placer Claim, 1898 ................................... 11■ “With the Gold I’ll Bring from the Klondike” Song Sheet Cover, 1898 .............. 12■ Bill requesting justices of the peace and constables in Alaska ................. 13

Nov. 24, 1896

■ Letters from Governor Sheakley about Indian ownership of land .............. 15Feb. 23, 1897, and May 17, 1897

■ Photographs ........................................................................................... 17• Athabascan clothing• Photo of beaded sled bag from Fort Yukon• Badge (lead cast, silver-colored metal) for Indian Police, 1900

■ Will of George Thomas of Dome, Alaska, March 18, 1908 ............................ 18■ Census pages from 1920 ......................................................................... 20

2. A LAS KA S TUDIES • UNIT 4, Gold Rush Documents

Timeline of the Alaskan Gold RushReprinted with permission from

Gold Rush Centennial Task Force, State of Alaska

1849 Russian mining engineer discovers gold and coal on Kenai Peninsula.

1861 Buck Choquette discovers gold at Telegraph Creek near Wrangell.

1870 Gold found at Sumdum Bay, SE Alaska.

1871 Gold discovered at Indian River near Sitka.

1873 Jack McQuestern, Arthur Harper and Alfred Mayo begin prospecting along the Yukon River.

1880 Indians agree to allow prospectors to use Chilkoot Pass.

Joe Juneau and Richard Harris make major gold strike on Gold Creek near Juneau.

1884 Congress passes the Organic Act of 1884, providing a civil government for Alaska.

1886 Howard Franklin strikes gold on Fortymile River in Interior Alaska.

1888 Alexander King discovers gold on Kenai Peninsula.

1893 Gold discovered near Hope, Rampart and Circle.

1896 George Washington Carmack, Tagish Charlie and Skookum Jim make a discovery on Bonanza Creek, setting off the great Klondike Gold Rush.

1897 S.S. Excelsior and S.S. Portland arrive at San Francisco and Seattle loaded with Klondike gold. The stampede begins.U.S. Army establishes Fort St. Michael, first of six Gold Rush posts.

1898 Sixty-five people die in Chilkoot Pass avalanche.

U.S. soldiers arrive in Skagway to maintain order.Construction begins on White Pass & Yukon Railway, completed July 29, 1900.Notorious Soapy Smith shot and killed in Skagway.The “Three Lucky Swedes,” with the help of local Inupiat, discover gold on SewardPeninsula.

1899 Mining begins on the beaches of Nome.Construction begins on Valdez-Eagle Military Trail, later to become the Trans-Alaska Military Road.

A LA SKA STUDIE S • UNIT 4, A Gold Rush Documents 3.

1900 Congress authorizes construction of telegraph lines and submarine cables to connect A l a s k a ’s military posts with each other and with the rest of the U.S.Alexander McKenzie and Judge Arthur H. Noyes arrive in Nome and start afraudulent scheme to seize rich mining claims.Son of the Wolf, Jack London’s first book on the Klondike, is published.

1902 Felix Pedro discovers gold on Pedro Creek. Leads to the founding of Fairbanks.

1903 Boundary Tribunal settles boundary dispute between Alaska and British Columbia.

1906 Robert Service writes his first two poems, “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” and“The Cremation of Sam McGee.”Nome Kennel Club organizes to promote sled dog racing.Gold discovered in Chandalar District.

1908 Alaska Road Commission surveys route from Seward to Nome, later called theIditarod Trail.

1909 Iditarod discovery made.

1910 The “Sourdoughs,” four Kantishna miners, make first ascent of Mt. McKinley’sNorth Peak.Stampede to Ruby.

1911 Kennicott copper mines begin production.

1912 Congress passes Organic Act of 1912, giving Alaska Territorial Status and aLegislature.

1913 Gold found at Marshall.Sidney Laurence completes his first monumental painting of Mt. McKinley.

1914 Gold discovered at Livengood, near Fairbanks.


Miner’s Manual, 1898Cost for a miner’s outfit


Brochure, Chamber of Commerce, Portland, Oregon


Chilkat (Klukwan-Haines) Te r r i t o r yShowing Aboriginal Use and Ownership, and Present (1946) Uses


Map of White and Chilkoot Pass Tr a i l sEn Route to the Klondike, 1898.


Chilkoot Pass OwnershipFrom a letter from Governor A.P. Swineford to the President, October 1, 1886

Background:

An archbishop and members of his party journeying to the Yukon Territory in 1886 werestopped by a chief of the Chilkat Tlingits and told to pay a fee for passing through their area.When the archbishop protested, the chief reportedly assaulted him. Upon hearing of the com-plaint, Governor A.P. Swineford (along with 12 men) traveled to Chilkoot village and arrestedthe chief, who

“boldly asserted the right to exact payment for the privilege ofpassing through the country he claimed as belonging to him and hispeople.”

Swineford then talked with the Chilkats, warning them that they

“must abandon their pretentions of right to collect toll from white men passing through the country inhabited by but not belonging to them in a political sense. . .”

from Robert D. Arnold’s Alaska Native Land Claims 1976, p. 67.


Karta Bay, Alaska, July 17, 1902

Governor BradySitka, Alaska

Dear Sir:

I am a native born of Fort Wrangell and would like to know ifthere is any chance of getting papers for holding mineral lands inAlaska. I was educated in the East, in Philadelphia, and at CarlisleIndian School. I was almost brought up as a white person, and I havelived up to it ever since I left school.

If you want to find out about my reputation you can find it outfrom my brother-in-law, John Kelly, who has lived in Killisnoo andSitka for a good many years. Also, you can inquire of any merchant inWrangell.

I like to prospect, but as a native have no right to hold a claim,and I never know what to do with the prospects that I have found, andthere are only a few white men that can be trusted, to my knowledge, ina case of this kind.

I am 26 years of age, and I think I could do well if I could suc-ceed in getting my citizen papers or rights for holding mineral lands inAlaska. I want you to advise me what to do to get it, or if you can doanything for me let me know it soon and oblige.

My address will be Loring, Alaska.

Yours very truly,

Thomas Jackson

Reprinted from Robert D. Arnold’s Alaska Native Land Claims 1976, p. 73.

Mining Claim Request

10. A LASK A STUDI ES • UNIT 4, Gold Rush Documents

Dyea Valley, Alaska c. 1897

Gold Pan from the AlaskaState Museum

This warning card was issuedand distributed by the“VigilanceCommittee”appointed bythe citizens ofSkaguay to ridthe communityof the SoapySmith Gang inthe spring of1898.

A LAS KA S TUDIES • UNIT 4, Gold Rush Documents 11.

Location Certificate—Placer Claim 1898


Song Sheet Cover, 1898


Bill requesting justices of the peace and constables in Alaska,Nov. 24, 1896


Letters from Governor Sheakley, 1897


Photo of Athabascan summer clothing, tunic andleggings. Finely tanned light-colored caribou skinwith geometric patterns made from porcupinequills, dentalium shells and seeds.

Indian Police Badge, ca 1900.

Beaded sled bag from Fort Yukon.Native tanned bag with floral beadworkon the front panel. “Sled Bag” beadedin the upper right corner, ca 1920.


The Will of George Thomas of Dome, Allaska, March 18, 1908


Addendum to the Will, December 1, 1908


Census, 1920