A great deal of gold rush history is wrapped up in the Yukon are of Alaska and Canada. The Klondike Gold Rush occurred in 1897-98, and brought miners over the Chilkoot trail from Dyea, over the Chilkoot pass, and to Lake Bennett in British Columbia. Hiking the Chilkoot trail to this day remains a fantastic way to learn more about gold rush history.

Gold Rush History and The Chilkoot Trail
The Chilkoot trail spans approximately thirty-three miles from Dyea, in Alaska, to Lake Bennett, in British Columbia. This trail was the primary route for prospective miners to get to the gold fields in Canada that were the epicenter of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98. Gold was actually discovered in the area in 1896, but because the river was frozen solid, word did not reach the rest of the Pacific Northwest until around July of 1897.

Once ships started arriving in Seattle and San Francisco, thousands of people began to mobilize for the trip. It has been estimated that about a hundred thousand people began the trip in all seriousness, destined for the Yukon. Only about thirty thousand are supposed to have made it all the way to Dawson, the city at the center of the Klondike rush.

If you go on a trip across the Chilkoot trail, you will get a series of firsthand glimpses into gold rush history. There are relics of the equipment the miners brought with them and had to cast aside on the "golden staircase" to the Chilkoot summit, rusted along the side of the trail. There are ghost towns where miners and the people that supplied them stopped or settled along the way. And the best part, you'll get to see the pristine wilderness that thousands of "stampeders" passed through over a hundred years ago, dreaming of riches.

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