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Klondike Fever: The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush

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For those of us whose knowledge of the Klondike Gold Rush comes mostly from the 1950s radio drama, "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon" this is a fine book to read. (Trivia question: What was the name of Sergeant Preston's preternaturally intelligent huskie?) Originally published in 1958, "Klondike Fever" has proven to be a minor classic. (See note below concerning a new edition of the book.)

This Gold Rush, named after the Klondike River in the Yukon territory of Canada, was the last great scramble for gold in the old West. One hundred thousand persons, mostly from the U.S., set out for the Klondike in 1897, 30,000 or 40,000 got there, after an arduous journey through killing winter snows, and a few hundred found gold. The stories of the long, hard journey into this Arctic wilderness are often horrific. In one party of 19 men, 15 died or were killed along the route and the other four had eyes damaged by snow blindness. The gold seekers included author Jack London, Wyatt Earp, and poet Joaquin Miller.

The author tells a compelling tale of the men and women who participated in the Klondike Gold Rush. It was indeed a fever. The characters in this book include crusty old miners who suddenly became rich beyond their wildest dreams, stalwart, incorruptible Canadian Mounties, conmen like Soapy Smith -- who in the dramatic tradition of the West receives his just deserts -- prostitutes, madams, gamblers, angels of mercy, last-chance losers, rich adventurers, Indians, and missionaries. It's a fascinating read, based on research that included interviews with many of the oldtimers who lived to talk to the author in the 1950s. The author's standard of truth telling is high; he identifies a tall tale or an unlikely exaggeration when he finds them.

The maps could be better and the text would be enhanced if there were photographs, but I doubt you'll find a better book about the Klondike Gold Rush. However, "Klondike Fever" was revised in 2001 and the newer edition, called "Klondike" embodies new information and interpretations of the events that once took place in the land of the Northern Lights. All in all, I'd buy "Klondike" rather than "Klondike Fever."

Oh, yes, Sergeant Preston's dog was named "Yukon King."

Smallchief

Berton is one great writer! It was SOOOO entertaining to read the stories of all the different characters involved in the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. This book NEVER GETS BORING!!! Read it for pure enjoyment or for writing a college history paper. This book is one of the greatest history books I've ever read! Check out "Ordeal by Hunger" by George R. Stewart too if you like miner/pioneer/gold rush history. It's fascinating too.

MY STORY HOW I ACQUIRED THIS BOOK:
I was in Skagway, AK (it was a port stop for the vacation cruise I was on) and I had been touring the area (ie, White Pass Train, car, etc.). I had this tour guide who was REALLY knowledgable of Yukon & Alaska history. I thought his storytelling was fascinating and asked him what ONE book would be the one to read concerning the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush. This was the one he suggested. (He also said Pierre Berton was an excellent writer...I must agree this tour guide was telling the truth!) I almost forgot to purchase it! I had to run back to the bookstore in downtown Skagway and buy it so I could enjoy it for the rest of the cruise. I swear I was the last one on the boat! I started reading this book right when I got to my cabin and I was finished with it before the cruise was over!

I'm only about half way through the book, but what fun. It's unbelievable what people went through during this gold rush. Total lunacy. The economy was a disaster and the times were perfect. People risked everything, with no clue what they were in for. Many didn't really risk much because they had nothing. Desperate times. Now I want to take a trip to the Klondike. The writer does well. Written like a story, not history. My favorite.

Found entries for maternal aunt of local pioneer lady who became rich and famous an entertainer in the Klondike area then moved to Hollywood, CA. Book was very helpful to me.

Klondike Fever is a very detailed account of the events in and around the gold strike in the Klondike area and the development of the surrounding area. If you are interested in the history of this area this is an excellent book. For some, this book may be to detailed.

A lost piece of history, this was just as interesting as the California Gold Rush, as the weather was even a greater hurdle to be overcome. Every kind of character imaginable. They don't make men like that anymore!

Pierre Berton's book is an account of what is considered by many to be the last great gold rush: the Klondike gold rush of 1898. His purpose is to account for the actions of the men and women who participated in this historic experience. Berton's father was one of those who crossed the Chilkoot Trail in 1898. His mother arrived in 1907 as a kindergarten teacher. Pierre was born in Whitehorse and raised in Dawson City. "Why another book about the Klondike gold rush?" Pierre Berton believes that his book represents the "best time [and] . . . last chance anyone will have to cross-examine eyewitnesses to the event" (p. 411).

Berton starts with a brief description of the natural history for the region. He writes about plate tectonics and glacial scouring. He discusses the flora and fauna of the region. He describes the headwaters of the Yukon River and the course it takes to the sea. He writes, "[t]he Yukon is unique among rivers in that it rises fifteen miles from the Pacific Ocean and then meanders for more than two thousand miles across the face of the North, seeking that same salt pacific water" (p. 7). The Thron-diuk (Klondike) River is a Yukon River tributary.

Berton then discusses the first white prospectors that entered the region and the obstacles they had to contend with; plus, how Alaska, in 1869, was a pressure release valve for those who could not sit idle. Prospectors were often "men fleeing away from civilization" (p. 18). The author recalls that Ed Schieffelin, who discovered silver at Tombstone, also ventured to Alaska. Schlieffelin did not find any great wealth and returned to Oregon. Berton also tells about the nature and temperament of prospectors in the Yukon before the god rush. The men shared what they had with everyone. Berton tells how the men would leave their cabins open, and any traveler, usually another prospector, was free to enter and use what he needed. The only courtesy expected was that the borrower would restock the firewood pile. Having fire available in the far north was a life or death matter. The society enjoyed by Yukon prospectors was much more democratic than any in Boston or Philadelphia.

Prospectors voted for everything, and majority ruled. Berton notes the importance of the first established traders, McQuesten, Ladux, Harper and Mayo, and their role in creating the infrastructure in Alaska that permitted the first and subsequent prospectors to work the dirt (p. 14).

Berton describes the indigenous people of the First Nations. Among these were the Chilkoot. The Chilkoot, he writes, were "a cruel race with Mongolian features" (p. 9). Berton also observes that the Chilkoot served as laborers during portages and charged $1 per pound; hence, they became rich themselves without ever sinking a pan. Somewhat later in his narrative, Berton recounts that the Chilkoot "would not accept folding money, for early on a prospector had cheated one of them by paying him in Confederate bills, as a result, they quickly took the gold and silver coinage out of circulation. They treated all stampeders with contempt" (p. 246).

Berton explains that it is unclear whether it was a white man named George Carmack, derogatorily referred to as "Siwash" George or "liar" George, or a Native American named Skookum Jim who actually made the first find, but together they agreed to let Carmack make the claim, because his claim, as a white man, would appear "more legitimate" in the white man's legal system. George Carmack staked the first claim on 17 August 1896. Berton tells the story of prospector named Robert Henderson. Henderson had spoken with Carmack and Skookum Jim and told them of finding gold on the Klondike, but his obvious racism towards Skookum Jim and Siwash George's life style kept him out of the loop of those George would later tell about the discovery.

Berton recounts how George passed the word of his find. Few believed him since he had oft made similar claims before; hence, his nickname "liar" George. Yet, rather than be left out, most prospectors in the Yukon headed to Rabbit Creek where George and Skookum Jim had staked their claim. Berton describes how communities all along the Yukon became veritable ghost towns over night. "Even the drunks had been dragged from the saloons by their friends and tied down, protesting in the boats that were headed to the Klondike" (p. 51). One bartender jumped over his bar yelling, "Boys, help yourselves. I'm off to the Klondike!" (p. 71).

Women made fortunes too as bakers, laundresses, and seamstresses. The `nineties' were awash in the women's movement. Several women's expeditions were proffered in light of the number of bachelor males available in the mining district, and a few were actually organized. However, even fewer actually started the trip, and most did not reach their destination in the Yukon.

One of the more remarkable tales that Berton relates is about a Jesuit priest named William Judge. Judge sledded in drugs to support a hospital. He correctly anticipated there would be plague. He earned the epithet "the Saint of Dawson" for his self-sacrifice and his forward thinking.

After briefly relating the personal tales of several prospectors and their rush to the Klondike, Berton takes a moment to reflect on what gold meant in the late 19th century. He tells of the gold scarcity and how people who could afford to hoarded gold coins. Gold coins traded for twice the face value of printed note. Though 730 million in gold coin had been minted, only 190 million were circulating, and this contributed to deflation. He explains this hoarding accentuated the Depression of 1893. Berton also points out that it was the Gilded Age: an "age of millionaires, but also of hoboes" (p. 101).

On July 15, 1897, Berton relates, the first prospectors returned to civilization, i.e, San Francisco, aboard the Excelsior with canvas bags ladened with gold. Two days later, a second gold laded ship, the Portland, made dock in Seattle. The news was finally out: "a ton of gold" was ripe for the picking. Berton describes the sensation caused by "Yellow Journalism" in the absence of any other diverting news. Berton suggests that a year latter the story would have been buried beneath headlines and stories pertaining to the Spanish-American War or, still later, the Boer War. Bertain maintains that Pulitzer and Hearst saw an opportunity to sell newspapers, and they did.

"The gold coins that had lain so long in sugar bowls and strongboxes and under floor boards were now suddenly flung into circulation . . ." (p. 113). The economy was stimulated by thousands of would be prospectors. At one point, two thousand New Yorkers tried to purchase transport to the Klondike in one twenty-four hour period. Pack animals, mining accoutrements, clothing and food were in high demand. There was heavy investment into business ventures that were established to exploit the Klondike. Even as the rush was getting under way, there were some who urged caution and suggested most of those heading to the Klondike that fall would meet with a hard winter, failure and worse. The author reckons that over one million men and women planned to make the trek and at least 100,000 actually left home hoping to find their bonanza (p. 127). The author's sources indicate that the "argonauts spent $60 million" for travel and grub stakes (p. 127). However, the 1898 gold yield from the Klondike did not exceed $10 million.

Berton tells how once the stampede was under way, thousands flocked to Skagway, AK and lived in tents. Canadians promised to tax all merchandise carried into British Columbia to encourage prospectors to buy goods from Canadian merchants. The U.S. countered by promising to tax all Canadian goods brought to the U.S. from the Yukon. "Every man, then, had to pay some sort of tribute to one government or the other" (p. 151).

Berton backtracks somewhat to elaborate on the story of Captain William Moore who, in 1888, built a cabin at the head of Skagway Bay. `The name [Skagway] is derived from the Indian word "Skagus" ' meaning the home of the North Wind' (p. 148). Moore anticipated that eventually there would be a gold rush in the Yukon. He meant to establish himself and capitalize by monopolizing the head of only two passes through the Coast Mountains. He surveyed and marked out the zigzag route known today as White Pass. After the rush started, he was initially ignored and abused by others who sought profit at his expense. He sued and eventually won his reward. He was compensated for his property. The court settlement Moore received was valued at 25% of the original Skagway town site's assessed worth in 1901 (p. 149). Vindicated, Moore died a wealthy man.

There was also a battle between cities, Berton reveals. Which port of call would garner the greatest volume of business: Portland, San Francisco, or Seattle. According to Berton, Seattle won the public relations campaign. One Erastus Brainerd adeptly out maneuvered his competition at every turn, and Seattle was the city to which most prospectors flocked to outfit and embark on a Yukon bound vessel (pp. 124-125). Seattle took in $25 million; whereas, the other ports only took in $5 million (p. 125).

Even the territorial boundary was in question. The U.S. preferred to mark it closer to the head waters of the Yukon. However, Canadians, the Mounties in particular, "using an old international principle that possession is nine points of the law, established a customhouse on the razor's edge of the divide" (p. 169).

Berton recounts the numerous mechanical devices that were employed to transport prospectors to their claims. Most failed miserably. There were collapsible boats, bicycles, and even hot air balloons; but balloonists' dreams of reaching the Yukon by air were deflated when Swedish engineer and polar explorer Salomon Augustus Andrée's expedition to the North Pole sailed into oblivion. The author also discusses the number of dilapidated water vessels reincarnated to transport prospectors to the Yukon. One steamship, the Philip B. Low, "sank so many times that the wags referred to her as the "Fill-up Below" it became the Eldorado. Even so, Berton says, demand was great. He relates that one individual who had waited in line for berthing, bought a place for $150, and turned about and sold it for $1,500. He describes the horrid condition of sailing on these over crowded vessels.

"Of all the routes to the Klondike, the Skagway trail across the White Pass, more than any other, brought out the worst in men. None who survived ever forgot it, and most who remembered it did so with a sense of shame and remorse. It looked so easy: a jaunt through rolling hills on horseback, not much mote. And yet the men who traveled it were seized by a kind of delirium that drove them to the pit of brutality. Like drug addicts, they understood their dementia but could not control it" (p. 152). Berton describes how thousands of horses were sacrificed to appease the greed of men. This greed, coupled with ineptitude, was mirrored in the carcasses of the mangled, dead and dying horses seen on the Dead Horse Trail. Here, Berton quotes Jack London. "`The horses died like mosquitoes in the first frost . . . . and they [the dispassionate, coldhearted gold seekers] became beasts, the men on the Dead Horse Trail'" (p. 156). Mules, dogs, oxen, and men also died along the trail. Their carcasses, like those of the horses, were ignored or tossed out of the way by men focused solely on making their way to a fortune. "[R]otting horseflesh was the tell-tale perfume of the Klondike stampede" (p. 236).

Berton next discusses the lawlessness of Skagway. Skagway could boast 142 bars and saloons and five breweries; yet, Alaska was dry - it had laws that banned the sale, importation, and manufacture of spirituous libations. There were prostitutes: Mollie Fewclothes, Ethel the Moose, etc. There were thieves, cutthroats, and murderers. `"There was no law whatsoever; might was right, the dead shot only was immune to danger"' (p 162). Plus, there was Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith; "his [criminal] sway extended along both the Dyea and Skagway trails to the very summit of the passes, where the North West Mounted Police installed Maxim guns to keep him at bay" (p. 162). Berton devotes Chapter 10 of his book to Jefferson "Soapy" Smith and his notorious operation. Soapy Smith's story ended when he and Frank Reid shot each other. Soapy died immediately, and his body laid for hours unclaimed. Only one mourner attended his funeral. Frank Reid died of his wound a few days later. He was a town hero.

If a potential prospector survived Skagway and "Soapy" Smith, there was still the trail. The North West Mounted Police required that all prospectors entering Canada bring a grub stack large enough to last one year: "Roughly eleven hundred and fifty pounds" (p. 165). Berton states that an average prospector could carry a pack weighing about sixty-five pounds. That meant a man without partners or beast of burden would need to make multiple round trips along the forty-five mile trail to portage his gear through the pass. Following that course of action, Berton calculates, one man would have portaged equipment over twenty-five hundred miles before he reached the shore of Lake Bennett. Many made it and many more did not.

Despite the precautions enforced by the North West Mounted Police, there were many who made it to the Yukon without proper provisions. "[Charles] Constantine of the Mounted Police viewed the situation with foreboding. As early as August 11 [1897] he had written bluntly to Ottowa that `the outlook for grub was not assuring for the number of people here--about four thousand crazy or lazy men, chiefly American miners and toughs from the coast towns'" (p. 172). Company stores in the region were also aware of probable shortages. "The company clerks admitted only one man at a time, locked the door behind him as they would the door of a vault, sold him a few day's goods, and sent him on his way. A man could have half a million dollars in gold--as many of them did--and still be able to buy only a few pounds of beans, but it was sometime before the newcomers could understand this. They found it hard to comprehend a situation in which gold by itself was worthless" (pp. 172-173). By Christmas, 1897, the last restaurant in Dawson had closed, and the police would not arrest someone unless he had his own rations. Famine and scurvy took hold of Dawson that winter. Fortuitously, William Judge, the Jesuit priest, had by himself sledded in drugs to support the hospital he built on his arrival at Dawson. During "Starvation Winter," Judge earned the sobriquet "the Saint of Dawson".

One point of irony Berton relates pertains to one relief expedition that was mustered to save Dawson City. In December, 1897, the U.S. government appropriated $200,000 to purchase and transport five hundred and thirty-nine reindeer from Norway to Dawson. The herders were trained Finns, Norwegians, and Laplanders. What remained of the herd, one hundred and fourteen, arrived - one year late - in January, 1899. The herd itself had been decimated by starvation once the animals were deprived of their native food: reindeer moss.

Berton points out Dyea and Skagway were perhaps the most popular routes chosen by the stampeders in 1897, but there were other routes. There was the all water route that was taken by the rich who imagined they would not need to hike a step towards Dawson, but rather would just stroll down the gangplank at the dock. Berton points out the perils of this journey. "Eighteen hundred stampeders took the all water route in the fall of 1897, but only forty-three made it to the Klondike before winter and thirty-five of these had to turn back again because in the last frantic moments they flung outfits aside and could not replace them in Dawson" (p. 205). None who embarked after August 1, 1897, made it to the Dawson that season. One group arrived on June 25, 1898; they had left San Francisco on August 16, 1897 - it had been a harrowing, "three hundred and fourteen day journey" (p. 207).

There were also the "overlanders." These stampeders attempted to reach the Klondike along "All-American Routes" which started primarily at Valdez, Alaska above the Alaskan panhandle. There were also the "All Canadian Routes" originating in Victoria B.C., Vancouver B.C, or Edmonton, Alberta. Berton describes the pitfalls that embraced these pioneers, e.g., glaciers, cataracts, snow-blindness, frostbite, amputations, more starvation, scurvy, and death. Berton notes that of one hundred men who are known to have tried to cross the Malaspina glacier in the spring of 1898; forty-one died, and many others were crippled for the rest of their lives. Along the Edmonton trail, the story was much the same. Berton relates that one Dr. Kristian Faulkenberg, a dentist from Seattle, left Edmonton in September 1897; he arrived in Dawson in July 1899. Very few who started these routes finished their journey. One suicide note read: "`Hell cannot be worse than this trail. I'll chance it'" (p. 233). On the Edmonton trail, as along the White Pass trail, "rotting horseflesh was the tell-tale perfume of the Klondike stampede" (p. 236). To those few who did reach Dawson along the Edmonton trail, the goal of gaining a fortune in gold no longer mattered: "survival had taken its place" (p.241).

Berton says nothing openly about American imperialism in the 1890s but wryly notes that Canadian soldiers were dispatched to ensure that the foreigners did not wrest the North West from Canada. He points out that at its height, Dawson was one of Canada's largest cities, and yet its population was 80% American. In 1898, Mounties tactfully conceded to have Dominion Day celebrated on the 4th of July rather than on the prescribed 1st of July. This assuaged the many Americans in the camp who otherwise could not legally celebrate the 4th.

Berton describes how enterprising entrepreneurs built a tram system using two steam engines and a continuous coil of rope; it could haul nine tons of cargo to the summit each hour. He also recalls the single greatest tragedy to occur during the stampede: the April 2, 1898, avalanche that killed over 60 stampeders. The Chilkoot Pass was a boon in 1898, but by 1899, a railroad had been built over Skagway's White Pass. Gone was the image of stampeders, lined up in domino fashion, climbing over the snow covered Chilkoot Pass.

As Berton brings his story to a close, he recalls that Dawson burnt down twice - and though it was rebuilt and improved: it was not the same. Berton states that $300 million in gold was taken out of Dawson since Carmack's find, but the old Klondike of `98 is gone. Berton relates that a gold strike at the mouth of the Yukon "almost two years to the day" ended the stampede to Dawson. It was abandoned just like other mining camps had been in 1897. Berton is nostalgic about the gold rush. He likens the bonds between those who had participated to those of soldiers had served together in war. They were forever changed, and only others who had made the trek could understand.


Pierre Berton was a well respected Canadian author and journalist. He wrote primarily nonfiction and extensively on topics of Canadian concern. At his death, on November 30, 2004, at the age of 84, he had authored some fifty books and was the recipient of numerous literary awards.

As mentioned above, Mr. Berton was born and raised in the Yukon. In his "Notes on Sources", he describes how it was for him as a child to rummage around the old buildings and go through chests, pictures, and papers long abandoned by the stampeders who came before him. He garnered his expertise through personal interviews with surviving witnesses, not to mention the immeasurable influence his mother and father had on him as a child. It would be hard to find someone more imminently qualified to write a book on this subject.

There are minor weaknesses with his book. Even though Berton covers primarily just one three-year period, I had considerable difficulty keeping the years straight. Each chapter focuses on a topic related to the overall story, and each topic had its own timeline. All of the timelines necessarily overlap, and this creates confusion. For instance, when the author writes, "May 29" on page 276, I find I have forgotten that he is writing about an event in the year "1898" which he last mentions on page 268. I believe his narrative would flow more smoothly had he merely entered the year with each date he cites.

Another weakness involves his use of footnotes. Mr. Berton does not use footnotes. This, of course, hinders academic use of his work. Yet, I did not find this to be a serious problem. After all, Berton uses much that he learned as a child and from personal interviews he transcribed: he is one of the principal sources.

The author includes an extensive bibliography and includes a section entitled "Notes on Sources"; wherein, his passion for this topic exudes. In this section, he describes what he learned from his personal interviews with surviving witnesses to this historic event. He also describes his use of period newspapers, personal letters and diaries. He notes, "A man sitting on riverbank with a stub of a pencil and a tattered notebook after a hard day's travel has neither the time nor the inclination to write an essay . . . . Yet you cannot read these wavering pencil entries without catching something of the spirit of those men and those days. Here and there, in the brief story of a bitter quarrel or a death or a sacrifice, the theme of the Klondike rush emerges" (p. 445).

Pierre Berton's book is an excellent monograph on an exciting chapter in American and Canadian history. I found it highly enjoyable as well as informative. Indicative of its popularity, Berton's award winning book has been in continuous print for almost fifty years. I recently saw his book still being prominently displayed and advertised on my visits to Skagway, Juneau, and Vancouver. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone for both knowledge and enjoyment.

A wonderful variety of stories about those who followed the lure of gold - some who actually panned for gold, others who made a living supporting the gold hunters. Sometimes tragic, sometimes inspiring, always amazing!

I recently read this book for my economics class. This books gives a new dimension to what happened during the gold rushes. This book focuses on the Klondike, one of the last great gold rushes. It gives great details into the way people lived and survived in the destructive climate that is the Klondike. It gives the reader an opportunity to read about the many people who "made it" and the many people who "failed". From poor factory workers who find thousands of dollars in gold to the people that were standing upon a fortune and didn't even know it. You will learn about the rise and fall of the "dictator" of Skagway. It gives you a glimpse into the mindset of a person going off to find his or her fortune. Overall I think it was a very well written book. I found many parts interesting. There was one thing that I didn't like though. This was the fact there were so many little stories mixed in with the bigger picture. I felt that at the end of the book I didn't really remember the people mentioned in the beginning of the book. I give this book a four. Hats off to Mr. Pierre Berton

This is an amazing book containing thrilling stories based on the "last great gold rush". Berton tells these stories in so much detail, that you'd think that you were traveling the Klondike, looking for treasure. It makes you realize that these prospectors were playing a real-life game of "hot or cold" when they got so close to a strike and left to search somewhere else. A must read for anyone who likes adventure stories.