Rushing to the Grave: how stampeders died on the way to the Klondike

The Klondike Gold Rush was the international story of 1897, and tens of thousands of people set out for the Dawson City gold fields in 1897 and 1898. Few had the experience to survive in the North, let alone to prospect, and by and large the victims of gold fever were unprepared men. "Stampeders" was the term of the time for the men and women who rushed to the gold fields. Most were men of Euro-American descent, and the article behind this page focuses on their stories.

Four men dressed for the Klondike Gold Rush. National Park Service, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, Palmer Collection, KLGO 50835.

What killed them

Contagious disease was one of the most common causes. The White Pass and Chilkoot Trails, which ran from Skagway and Dyea to the Canadian interior, carried goods and people, and diseases too. An 1898 meningitis outbreak in Skagway is one example.

Violence was the second most common cause. Skagway was a rough-and-tumble boomtown where new, inexperienced stampeders arrived with every steamer and acts of violence were commonplace. Sam Steele of the Canadian North-West Mounted Police called it little better than hell on earth and about the roughest place in the world. Up to sixty percent of those jailed in Skagway before 1903 were violent offenders, and twenty percent of deaths in that period came from violence-related trauma, a figure that is most likely too low because no records from 1897 exist. Violence also occurred on the two trails.

Typhoid fever was another major killer, often striking at the end of the journey. After paddling up the Yukon River, stampeders reached Dawson City, a boomtown largely built on a swamp with too little water and sanitation. Typhoid, a waterborne illness, brings high fever, diarrhea or constipation and a rash, and its victims could lie delirious and drained in what was called a "typhoid state." Scurvy came from a limited diet of bacon, bread and beans, the "three B's," and one doctor in the Yukon noted that gold rushers ate only what was easiest to cook, sparing little time for meals. Watered-down liquor added to the toll: so diluted in Dawson City that bacteria multiplied in the bottles, and one observer said that by the end of winter 1898 bars had been serving what amounted to whisky-flavored water.

A Yukon makeshift kitchen. National Park Service, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, Hooper Collection, KLGO 0004.005.004.0002.

The Palm Sunday Avalanche

Weather and accidents also killed. The Palm Sunday Avalanche on April 3, 1898 is estimated to have killed sixty-five people on the Chilkoot Trail. Tlingit packers had warned that spring is a dangerous time in the region, but inexperienced stampeders did not heed them.

Digging through the snow to search for the dead after the Palm Sunday Avalanche. Library of Congress.

How deaths were prevented

Stampeders had to cross the Chilkoot Pass to enter Canada, where a group of North West Mounted Police was stationed. In the Yukon, Canada took a more active part in managing underprepared stampeders. The Mounties required each one to bring a year's supply of goods, about 2,000 pounds. That may seem unreasonable, but Dawson City had a harsh winter and limited supplies, and earlier gold rushes had shown that underprepared arrivals starved in winter. A year's supply prevented death from starvation and exposure.

Stampeders waiting at the British Customhouse and Station at the summit of the Chilkoot Pass. National Park Service, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, George and Edna Rapuzzi Collection, KLGO 55803.

The Mounties also helped prevent typhoid. In spring 1898 they and community members improved Dawson City's water and sewer systems, and the outbreak eased. At Lake Bennett, where stampeders bought or built boats for the 550 miles down the Yukon River to Dawson City, every boat had to be registered with the Mounties and inspected for river worthiness. Checkpoints along the river forced stampeders to portage around rapids. A journey that might be expected to be deadly therefore had relatively few fatalities, given the risk.

Boats waiting to be launched at Lake Bennett. National Park Service, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, George and Edna Rapuzzi Collection, KLGO 55690.

Sources

• National Park Service, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, "Rushing to the Grave" (https://www.nps.gov/articles/klgo-death.htm), from a KHNS talk written by Sara Newman and edited by Susannah Dowds and Emily Welch; rewritten in hubnx's own words.