YUKON-CHARLEY RIVERS Yukon Frontiers Historic Resource Study of the Proposed Yukon-Charley National River

¹The Klondike gold rush has been told countless times. The best primary account is Tappan Adney, The Klondike Stampede; the best secondary narrative is Pierre Berton's The Klondike Fever: The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1958). David Wharton, The Alaska Gold Rush and William R. Hunt, North of 53°: The Wild Days of the Alaska-Yukon Mining Frontier, 1870-1914 (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1974), handle the rush in a more interpretive manner.

²Berton, The Klondike Fever, pp. 146-288; and Edwin C. Bearss, Proposed Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Historic Resource Study (Washington: National Park Service, 1970).

³Berton, The Klondike Fever, p. 176; and Capt. P. H. Ray and W. P. Richardson, "Suffering and Destitute Miners in Alaska and What Was Done for Their Relief - 1898", in Compilations of Narratives of Explorations in Alaska, p. 521.

⁴Alger to Ray, 4 August 1867, in Compilations of Narratives of Explorations in Alaska, p. 9.

⁵Ray, "Suffering and Destitute Miners", p. 531; other contemporaries report the hold up sympathetically to the miners: Adney, The Klondike Stampede, pp. 191-92; Dunham, "The Alaskan Goldfields", p. 366; Walden, A Dog-Puncher on the Yukon, pp. 98-9; while Kitchener, Flag Over the North, p. 200 views it from the point of view of the companies.

⁶Ray, "Suffering and Destitute Miners", p. 531.

⁷Ray, "Suffering and Destitute Miners", p. 553.

⁸Ibid., p. 551; Capt. P. H. Ray, "Alaska, 1897—Relief of the Destitute in the Gold Fields", in Compilations of Narratives of Explorations in Alaska, p. 501; and Alaska Mining Record, 2 March 1898, p. 6.

⁹Ray, "Suffering and Destitute Miners", p. 539.

¹⁰The Alaska Weekly, 8 June 1923, p. 3.

¹¹Ray, "Suffering and Destitute Miners", p. 550.

¹²Alaska Mining Record, 16 February 1898, p. 4.

¹³Ray, "Alaska, 1897—Relief of the Destitute", p. 503.

¹⁴Dunham, "The Alaskan Goldfields", p. 356; Adney, The Klondike Stampede, p. 457; and Goodrich, "History and Conditions of the Yukon", p. 119.

¹⁵Spurr, Through the Yukon Gold Diggings, p. 156.

¹⁶Dunham, "The Alaskan Goldfields", p. 356; Goodrich, "History and Conditions of Yukon", p. 119; and Lt. Harry Graham, "Military Historical Sketch of Fort Egbert, Alaska" written for Garrison School for Officers, Department of the Columbia, 31 March 1909, p. 2.

¹⁷Goodrich, "History and Conditions of the Yukon", p. 125.

¹⁸Dunham, "The Alaskan Goldfields", p. 356.

¹⁹Josiah Edward Spurr, "Geology of the Yukon Gold District, Alaska", Eighteenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey to the Secretary of the Interior, 1896-97, p. 3 (Washington, 1898), p. 389.

²⁰Berton, The Klondike Fever, p. 192.

²¹Chester Wells Purington, Methods and Costs of Gravel and Placer Mining in Alaska, U.S.G.S. Bulletin 263 (Washington, 1905), pp. 41, 43-4.

²²"Short Story of Alaska and the Yukon as told by the Mount Wrangell Company's Explorer", promotional pamphlet (Boston: The Mount Wrangell Company, 1897-98), p. 12.

²³Adney, The Klondike Stampede, p. 457; and Kitchener, Flag Over the North.

²⁴E. C. Barnard, "Report of the Forty Mile Expedition," Maps and Description of Routes of Exploration in Alaska in 1899, U.S.G.S. (Washington, 1899), p. 80.

²⁵Dora Elizabeth McLean, "Early Newspapers on the Upper Yukon Watershed, 1894-1907" (M.A. thesis, University of Alaska, n.d.), p. 38.

²⁶Samuel C. Dunham "The Yukon and Nome Gold Regions", Bulletin of the Department of Labor No. 29 (Washington, 1900), p. 839; Records in possession of Eagle, Alaska, copies in State Division of Parks, Anchorage, Alaska, Yellow File #2, 1898, Yellow File #13, 1900.

²⁷Alfred Hulse Brooks, "A Reconnaissance from Pyramid Harbor to Eagle City", Twenty-first Annual Report of United States Geological Survey, 1899-1900, pt. 2, p. 337; and Alaska Mining Record, 20 July 1898, p. 4.

²⁸Dunham, "The Alaskan Goldfields", p. 356.

²⁹Alfred Hulse Brooks, "General Information Concerning the Territory by Geographic Provinces: The Yukon District", Maps and Descriptions of Routes of Exploration in Alaska in 1899, U.S.G.S. (Washington, 1899), p. 80, names Seventymile City and Star City in that order and Topographer E. C. Barnard maps them in that order; Donald J. Orth, Dictionary of Alaska Place Names, U.S.G.S. Professional Paper 567 (Washington, 1967), p. 913, has followed the U.S.G.S. names; but Adney, The Klondike Stampede, p. 457 and map opposite p. 460, has the names reversed; Lt. W.P. Richardson to Quartermaster-General, 12-26 February 1899, "Records of the Office of the Quartermaster-General" Record Group 92, National Archives, Washington, records the Post Office in lower Star City but most of the population in upper Seventymile City; and Wickersham, Old Yukon, p. 62, discusses only Star City. It is conceivable that eventually the remnants of the town at the mouth and the one two miles upriver became known collectively as "Star City".

³⁰Alaska Mining Record, August 1898, p. 3; and Melvin B. Ricks, Directory of Alaska Postoffices and Postmasters (Ketchikan: Tongass Publishing Co., 1965).

³¹Richardson to Quartermaster-General, RG 92, National Archives (hereafter indicated as NA); and Dunham, "The Yukon and Nome Gold Regions", p. 840.

³²"Rules for Organizing a Town - Nation City", 6 June 1898, Records in Eagle, Alaska, Yellow File #8, 1899, Claims.

³³Richardson to Quartermaster-General, RG 92, NA.

³⁴Dunham, "The Yukon and Nome Gold Regions", p. 840; and Records in Eagle, Alaska, Yellow File #8, 1899, Claims.

³⁵Richardson to Quartermaster-General, RG 92, NA.

³⁶Ibid.; Dunham, "The Yukon and Nome Gold Regions", p. 840.

³⁷Dunham, "The Alaskan Goldfields", p. 360.

³⁸Osgood, The Han Indians, p. 138.

³⁹Ibid., pp. 138-44.

⁴⁰Alfred Hulse Brooks, "The Mining Industry in 1909", Mineral Resources of Alaska: Report on Progress of Investigations in 1909, U.S.G.S. Bulletin 442 (Washington, 1910), p. 33.

⁴¹Lt. J. C. Cantwell, Report of the Operations of the U.S. Revenue Steamer Nunivak on the Yukon River Station, Alaska, 1899-1901, U.S. Congress, Senate, Doc. No. 155, 58th Cong., 2d Sess., 1904, p. 173.