Alaskas Gold Rush

The gold rush era in the United States began in California in 1848 and ended around the year 1900. (Yukon) Although miners searched for the valuable metal into the twentieth century, the Klondike gold rush, which was around 1897 till 1900, was the last of some of the major rushes to occur. People had flocked to the upper part of the Yukon River in hopes of striking it rich. Many people had traveled from the Canadian and American regions to the center of the Klondike gold rush to fulfill their dreams of one day being rich with gold. (Place 48) The Yukon River Valley of Canada and Alaska was once peaceful and isolated, wild animals and a few white trappers and people. The miners had wandered north after the California fields gave out and fulfilled their dreams on a few dollars in gold they managed to eke out of their mines. This loss of gold in California had made the peaceful Alaska into a rampage of greed and envy that would never make Alaska the same.

The United States acquired Alaska in 1867, but it was basically unknown and unsettled until the late 1890's, when a large number people from Canada and America had gathered there in search of gold. (Alaska's Gold) Juneau, Alaska had been established in 1880 after gold was found there, but the major strike occurred in August 1896, when the son of a California forty-niner, John Muir, found gold while panning in Rabbit Creek, which had soon become Bonanza Creek. Several men during this initial period enjoyed gold patches that had brought them all more then one-million dollars. News about this particular gold strike did not reach California and the rest of the West Coast until the summer of 1897. This gold rush had followed the pattern of the California gold rush of 1849. (Poynter 79)

In 1880, one of the largest gold rushes was started. John Muir was one of few men who began the series of Alaskan Gold Rushes, and made Alaska what it is well known for, the last frontier. John Muir was on a canoe trip through the inside passage in 1879, and he had predicted there would be large amounts of gold in Juneau, Alaska's capitol in present day America. In 1886, John Muir, along with two other men, stopped to have lunch by Rabbit Creek, and saw a sight that was to set the world on fire with gold fever.