557 results for: Alaska
Photograph
Tent city at Lake Bennett, 1898
In early spring 1898, roughly 10,000 gold seekers were camped on the shore of Lake Bennett waiting for the ice to clear. They assembled their supplies and built boats and scows to take them down the Yukon River. Until the railroad was completed in 1900, Bennett continued to be a major jumping off spot for the Klondike gold fields.This 1898…
ID Number:SHS8352
Date:1898
Photograph
People and pack animals on the Chilkoot Trail, April 21, 1898
The Chilkoot Trail, also called the Dyea Trail, had been an Indigenous trade route for generations. Gold seekers followed the old trail north from Dyea along the river towards Chilkoot Pass. Those who could afford it hired people or pack horses to carry their goods as far as Sheep Camp.This 1898 photo shows people and pack animals at a stop…
ID Number:SHS8396
Date:1898
Photograph
Alaska Building under construction, Seattle, August 9, 1904
In 1903, work began on the 14-story Alaska Building. This office building was Seattle's first skyscraper to be built with steel framing. Steel framed buildings could be taller than those in Pioneer Square which were built by earlier methods. This photo shows construction of the Alaska Building, which still stands on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and Cherry Streets.…
ID Number:SHS9373
Date:1904
Photograph
View of Klondike City, circa 1898
On July 8, 1897, an unidentified Dawson woman was quoted in The Seattle Times. She said, "There is a new mining district just discovered, fifty miles up the Yukon from here. It is turning out to be a great thing. There are over 600 claims already staked and a new town started up called Klondike..."This photo shows the town of…
ID Number:SHS9537
Date:Circa 1898
Photograph
Capt. Jack Cawford on horseback, Dawson, Yukon Territory, July 4, 1899
Most of the people who poured into Dawson starting in 1897 were Americans. As a result, the Fourth of July was a big holiday.This photo, taken by Eric Hegg on July 4, 1899, shows Captain Jack Cawford on his horse in Dawson. Cawford was an American and a veteran of both the Civil War and the Indian Wars of the…
ID Number:SHS9539
Date:1899
Photograph
Loading passengers for steamer "St. Paul," circa 1903
There is no harbor at Nome, Alaska, and when the Nome gold rush started in 1899, there wasn't even a city. Even as the settlement grew, it was challenging for passengers to arrive or leave by sea. Vessels anchored in deep water and barges carried the passengers between the ship and the shore. The Sesnon Lighterage Company provided ferry service…
ID Number:SHS9545
Date:Circa 1903
Photograph
Dredge at Solomon River, Alaska, circa 1900
By 1901, many of Alaska's small scale mining operations had been replaced by large industrial mining companies. Many of these companies used large steam-powered dredges to scoop up the gravel from creekbeds. This photo, taken around 1900, shows a dredge belonging to the Three Friends Mining Co. working the Solomon River, Alaska. Original title: Three Friends Mining Co. dredge Solomon…
ID Number:SHS9546
Date:Circa 1900
Photograph
Hydraulic mining at Glacier Creek, near Nome, Alaska, circa 1904
By 1904, many of the gold mining claims around Nome, Alaska, were owned and operated by large mining companies. That year, the Miocene Ditch Company used hydraulic mining techniques at Price Bros. claim No. 2 below the original strike on Glacier Creek.This photo shows the Miocene Ditch Company's hydraulic mining operations at Glacier Creek, near Nome. A high powered stream…
ID Number:SHS9547
Date:Circa 1904
Photograph
Manning a sluice at Bonanza Creek, circa 1898
Miners used water running through sluice boxes to wash the gold out of the pay dirt. Lumber for the sluice boxes was cut from nearby hills and finished in a nearby sawmill. As the hills were cleared, lumber became even more expensive. A typical two-man sluice was fifty feet long, ten inches tall, and twelve to fourteen inches across, with…
ID Number:SHS9548
Date:Circa 1898
Photograph
Second Avenue sidewalk during the gold rush, 1899
After news of gold strikes in the Klondike region reached Seattle in 1897, many local businesses boomed by selling specialty goods to the miners.This 1899 photo shows Seattle pedestrians walking by several outfitters on Second Avenue. Sleds lean against the outside walls of the buildings. Striped woolen blankets are stacked below a sign directing people upstairs to the Mosquito-Proof Tent…
ID Number:SHS9551
Date:1899