Why would anyone want to go to the Klondike?

There are strange things done in the midnight sun,
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
— The Cremation of Sam McGee, Robert W. Service

The Klondike is on the edge of the artic, in the middle of one of the largest wilderness areas... well.. in the world. About 30,000 people live in the 180,000 sq/miles of the Yukon wilderness. It's one of the least densely populated places in one of the least densely populated countries.

Dawson City had a population of 1327 in 2006. More people than this that use my cafeteria at work each day. The city has one paved road... front street.... aka the Klondike Highway. Miles and miles and mile of taiga forest... to reach a city that just can't be measured by it's population alone. You have to weigh the mettle men and women who went there 100 years ago.

On July 17, 1897 the S.S. Portland arived in Seattle with 'a ton' of Klondike gold on board. At the time, the country was in a economic depression and the news tranfigured the city. The mayor, hearing the news, immediatly resigned and booked passage to Alaska.

In the year after the Portland arrived, over 100,000 men and women 'Stampeders' risked everything to reach the klondike. Their fortunes... their lives. Their stories, many forgotten, are full of heroism and villany... of hope and dispair. Mostly, they are full of disillusionment... only one in four made it to the klondike. Few got rich.

The push to the klondike was hard. There were no good routes, and most were quickly clogged... rivers were frozen or mountain passes clogged with desperate men and dying aminals.

Jack London was there during the first push over white pass. He's the one who named it the 'dead horse trail'. What he saw changed him... and scared him. His stories are full of his personal experences. He's not the only writer or poet to document the human condition that followed the gold madness.

The news of the gold strike in the north transfigured Seattle... quintupling it's population in the next 20 years. (It's population has yet to quintuple again.) Of the few fortunes that were made, help launch Seattle.... Nordstrom and Bartell. Seattle old money is Klondike money.

The Klondike gold rush not only changed Seattle, but defined it... as the gateway to Alaska; the gateway to the north.

So, why do I want to ride my scooter to Dawson City?