Boomtown

FISHING STATION (NUKLAKO )

Up until that time the area now occupied by Dawson City was a mud flat and islands, and the home of the Indian fish camp “Nuklako” (page 46, Gamblers & Dreamers, Chariene Porsild) of the Han people. Once the news of the gold discovery became known, there was influx of the prospectors from along the Yukon River, at Forty Mile, and Circle City in Alaska, it was at this time a town grew up at the junction of the Klondike River and the Yukon river. Nuklako was eventually forced to move from this area by the arrival of those who were hoping for a chance to stake a rich claim, and make their fortune.. A new village, Moosehide was established, for the Han people, a short distance down river from Dawson, (Photo, Moosehide Village, NAC PA-017115,H.J.Woodside photo)

Prospectors through out the north had been searching for just such a rich deposit of free gold, for many years.

Joe Ladue moved his trading post and saw mill from near the mouth the Sixty Mile river to the mud flat at the junction of the Klondike and the Yukon river. Joe knew that this was where a town would grow up if the prospect that Bob Henderson had told him about proved up, little did he realize that it would spark the greatest gold rush in history.

In October 1896 Ladue staked a 160 acre town site. His partner Arthur Harper staked 18 acres, the Northwest Mounted Police staked a 40 acre site as a Government reserve for Police headquarters. Joe Ladue named the new town Dawson, after George M. Dawson, a Canadian Geologist and explorer who had been exploring that part of the country for a number of years.

A total of thirteen lots were staked by the end of 1897, all the flat where Dawson was to the mouth of Bonanza creek, consisting of 830 acres.

Those lots that make up Dawson City to day are;

Lot 1 group 2 Government reserve – Police 40 acres – September 1896

Lot 2 group 2 Harper Estate – 18 acres-November 1896

Lot 3 group 2 Ladue Estate – 160 acres-October 1896

Lot 4 group 2 Smith Addition – 14.3 acres

Lot 5 group 2 Day addition – 42.87 acres

Lot 6 group 2 Menzies Addition – 42 acres

Father William Judge, S J., a Catholic priest arrived in the spring of 1897 and within a short time had a church and a hospital. The Catholic Church acquired 3 acres at the north end of town in late 1896 for this purpose.

BOOM TOWN

Since the word of the fabulous rich Klondike gold discovery hit San Francisco and Seattle in July of 1897, people had been heading north to this new gold field in the Canadian North West. All that winter they had been arriving in Dawson, but it wasn’t until the spring of 1898, when several hundred boats and scows of all description and size left Lake Bennett, as soon as the ice went out of the lake all heading for the Klondike goldfields some 600 mile away down north on the Yukon river. Many of them had a disastrous trip wrecking their boats in the White Horse Rapids, or the Five finger rapids, losing everything, many lost their lives.

By mid summer the new town of Dawson had a population of some 30,000 people. Every one looking for an opportunity to stake a claim and go back home with their pockets full of gold. (need photo of water front with all the boats)

DAWSON STREETS

In 1897 there was nothing but a bog on most of the Dawson streets. The first wheeled vehicle to appear on First Avenue Was a two wheeled cart, which made a serpentine trail along the street. During the summer other vehicles appeared and the street which was worn down to a bog. In the spring of 1898 some work was done to fix up First Avenue, sawdust and slabs were laid in the bad spots. Later in the summer it was common for horses and wagons to be mired on First Avenue.

Considerable work was done in 1900 and 1901. Many places the side walks were two to four feet above the street. In a July issue was the following poem probably prompted by the condition of the streets;

BROTHERHOOD

The crossing was muddy, the street was wide,
The water was running on either side
The wind whistled past with a bitter moan

As I wended my weary way home.
In crossing the street I chanced to pass
A boy in the arms of a wee toddling Lass,
“Isn’t he heavy, sweet little Mother?”

“Oh no,” she replied, “he’s my baby brother.”
Thy load may be heavy, thy road may be long,
The winds of adversity bitter and strong;
But the way will seem bright if you love one another
The burden be light if you carry a brother.

-Anon

©John Gould