The Official Guide to the Klondyke Country and the Gold Fields of Alaska With the Official Maps

A treasure hunter’s guide to the gold fields of the Yukon Country.

THE MOST COMPLETE AND THOROUGHLY EXHAUSTIVE COLLECTION OF EVERY KNOWN INFORMATION NECESSARY TO A FULL REALIZATION OF THE IMMENSE RESOURCES OF THE GOLD FIELDS OF ALASKA, AND REPLETE WITH AUTHENTIC INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING HOW TO GET THERE, WHEN TO GO, AND WHAT TO DO WHEN THE NEW ELDORADO OF THE GREAT NORTHWEST IS REACHED.

This breathless introduction reflects the contemporary excitement and publicity surrounding the latest of the great American gold rushes. In August of 1896, a group of prospectors in the Yukon’s Klondike Region (in northeast Canada just across the Alaska border) found gold on a waterway that would later be known as Bonanza Creek. News eventually made its way to Seattle and San Francisco, fueled by a mix of unscrupulous journalists and opportunistic entrepreneurs.

This promotional book was published in Chicago almost a year after the initial strike, and contains all the information necessary for a hopeful prospector to strike it rich. The folding map in the front shows the entirety of the United States and Canada, with transportation routes (railroads and steamship lines) to the gold fields emphasized. The verso includes a number of small maps showing specific regional details along the Yukon and Klondike Rivers.

The pages following are filled with information on the most practicable routes to access the gold fields (many passing through Chicago). Suggestions on which items to bring, methods for mining, and local laws and regulations (including a ban on lawyers) are also detailed in full. Numerous photographs (which appear to be staged) are also included.

The text is mostly frantic in tone, as one notable example highlights,

Klondyke is the new open sesame to Aladdin’s cave; it supplants “Pike’s Peak or Bust” in the gold-seeker’s vernacular. “The days of ’97” may become as celebrated a phrase as “the days of ’49,” but for the same fever that seized upon the people and dotted the Western prairies with emigrant trains bound for the Pacific Coast is now claiming victims by the thousands, all eager to brave the perils of the Arctic circle and wrest a fortune from the frozen zone.

Published in Chicago by the W.B. Conkey Company in 1897.