Yukon Gold Rush Steamboat Survey, Canada
Project Director: John Pollack MSc FRGS
Team Members: Chris Atkinson, Ken Butler, Doug Davidge, Jim Delgado, Doug Devine, Tim Dowd, Nancy Fletcher, Sam Koepnick, Peter Helland, Donnie Reid, John Seibert, Lindsey Thomas, Robert Turner, Carlos Velazquez, Robyn Woodward
Location: Yukon Territory, Canada
Sites: The Yukon River and its tributaries between Carcross and Dawson City
Project Initiation: 2005
Period: ca. 1898-1910
Synopsis
When the discovery of gold in the Yukon became known to the world in the summer of 1897, an estimated 100,000 "stampeders" attempted to reach Dawson City. Only 30,000 made it. There were two common routes, both of which were long and arduous. One route was entirely by water, first by ocean steamer to St. Michael, Alaska at the mouth of the Yukon River and then upstream to Dawson. The shorter but more difficult route was by steamer to Skagway, over the mountain passes to Lake Bennett, and finally downstream to Dawson. Both routes involve involved vast distances on a swift and shallow wilderness river hence stern-wheel steamboats were an obvious craft for the Yukon River.
When the Gold Rush exploded, forty-three West Coast shipyards responded to the demand, and in 1898, 131 sternwheelers were constructed in yards as far south as San Francisco, and as far north as Dutch Harbour in the Aleutian Islands. In total, 266 stern and side-wheeled steamboats operated on the Yukon River in Alaska and Canada.
When the boom dissipated in 1900, many steamship companies either went bankrupt or were bought out by competitors, and surplus tonnage was abandoned. Often vessels were left derelict on shore along the banks of the river, where they had been winched out of the water in the fall to protect them from ice damage. As a result, the Yukon now contains one of the greatest intact collections of stern-wheel vessels known, and many are in excellent condition.
The Yukon River Survey was initiated in 2005 by John Pollack and Robyn Woodward, and became an INA project in the fall of 2007. Given the many potential sites in this unstudied area, we are focusing our efforts on a specific subset of projects. The over-arching priority is to document the range of construction techniques used on these late 19th century vessels.
Research Foci
Hull documentation is completed or underway on three and possibly four classes of hull design. These benchmark ship descriptions include Evelyn on Shipyard Island, Seattle No. 3 at West Dawson, and Moyie at Kaslo, B.C..
We are documenting the nomenclature of the day for Western Canadian vessels as it differs from (U.S.) western river stern wheeler nomenclature.
The survey of sites continues. With 22 sites catalogued and several more to be investigated, we expect the number of known sites will eventually exceed 30. The survey is fundamental as reconnaissance documentation has provided the opportunity for detailed studies specific instances, as well as allowing for the protection and management of known sites by the Yukon Government.
A new priority is detailed documentation of A.J. Goddard. Further work is planned on both the construction of the ship and its material culture.
In the pages that follow we provide a brief history of the Klondike Gold Rush, summarize the chronology of the past five years of field work, review our initial findings, and provide a list references and resources for further information.
Klondike from the Western Bluff in 2005. photo: John Pollack.