Klondike Gold Rush

Dawson City was the heart of the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon

To experience the location of the beginning of the Klondike Gold Rush, you should take a trip to Dawson City, Yukon Territory. You can learn about the origin and development of Dawson City from the town’s Walking Tour, but to find out about the actual beginning of the Klondike Gold Rush, take a trip to the Bonanza Creek Road and visit the site where it all started. The Discovery Claim Site has a nice interpretive trail that gives you all of the history and has equipment that was used in the early mining days. You can also visit Dredge #4, just a short distance down the road.

Discovery Claim Site

The Discovery Claim Site introduces you to the man who found the first major gold in the Klondike region, Skookum Jim Mason and his two partners, George Carmacks and Dawson Charlie. The story goes that on August 16, 1896, the three had been invited to tour an area mine that had not had any real success and then were returning home. Skookum Jim had shot a moose for their food source, cleaned it and went to the nearby Bonanza Creek to wash up, where he found the placer gold that started the Klondike Gold Rush. The three men quickly filed claims for the immediate area.

Skookum Jim Mason

Other local miners followed suit. As word spread, the Klondike region became flooded with tens of thousands of people from numerous countries looking to strike it rich. In the early days, mining was dangerous and back breaking work. Miners used hand tools and crude implements. Over time the tools and techniques became more advanced. The interpretive tour has a range of equipment including wheel barrows with wooden tires, to a steam engine and even an early Caterpillar Bulldozer.

Early mining equipment

Early Caterpillar bulldozer at the Discovery Site

For a more modern example of mining practices, just a short distance down the road is a display and tour of the Dredge #4 of the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation, the largest wooden hulled dredge in North America. It used a large bucket line to dig up more dirt in a shorter period of time. The large machine also used water to separate the gold from the dirt & rocks. Parks Canada manages this site. A similar dredge can be viewed on Discovery Channels “Gold Rush“.