The Alaskan Gold Rush Essay, Research Paper

Gold Rush Unit

-In August 17, 1896 George Carmax, Tagus Charlie, and Scootin Jim were washing dishes in Rabbit Creek when they found large nuggets of gold.

-The 3 men bought 4 claims: 2 went to Carmax and Jim and Charlie each got one.

-In the first 5 days of the gold rush 5 claims were staked. In the first month, over 1000 claims were staked.

-Soon after the discovery of gold Rabbit creek was renamed Bananza creek.

-Rabbit creek is located in the Klondike, which is in Northwest Canada on the border of Alaska.

-Soon a swarm of people came from Seattle on the boat the Portland.

-To be able to enter the Klondike the travelers had to have 1 ton of provisions, this was required by the Canadian officials.

-Robert Service-

Robert Service was a famous author of the Gold Rush times. Service wrote a handful of poems including:

The Cremation of Sam Mcgee

The Ballad of Salvation Bill

The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill

The shooting of Dan Mcgrew

-People of the Klondike-

1. Soapy Smith

Jefferson Randolph (Soapy) Smith was the most famed outlaw in the Gold Rush days. Soapy and his gang ran a telegraph station at the beginning of White Pass in Skagway. They charged people to send telegraphs back to Seattle to tell their relations they made it safely. Soapy?s telegraph line went over a hill and then stopped, so the messages never got anywhere. Soapy would also have his thugs spy on returning miners to see if they had any gold. If they did his goons would rob them at night.

2. Frank Reid

Reid was the sheriff of Skagway, and he knew of Soapys operations. One day Reid came up to Soapy and decided to put an end to the villain. Reid raised his six-shooter and fired, his gun jammed, which gave Soapy enough time to raise his rifle. Reid and Soapy fired at the same time. Soapy was hit in the heart and died instantly, while Reid was hit in the groin and died an agonizing 12 days later.

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-Gold Mining Today-

-Fort Knocks is in Fairbanks and it employs 100 people.

-Alaska Gold Inc. Is in Nome.

-Most Gold is found by ‘Hard Rock Mining’ This is where rocks are crushed and run through a sluice.

-The Tredwell mines are located in Juneau.

Info on GOLD

-Gold is maliable which means it can’t be broken.

-Gold is found naturally in streams, bed-rock streams, and steam points.

-Gold is mined by Placer Mining, Hard Rock Mining, and Crush Rock Mining.

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Coal/Copper/Zinc/Lead

-The Visebelli Coal Co. Is located in Healthy AK (Denali), they export to Korea. They employ 300 workers

-Visebelli supplies all Fairbanks electricity in the form of coal by train.

-The Kennicott Copper Co. Is in Mcarthy AK. From 1911 to 1931 Kennicott Copper Co. Found the purest copper in the world.

-The second largest Zinc and Lead mine is the Red Dog mine, its in Kotzebue, AK.

-The Nana Corp. Is in North-east AK. It mines Zinc and Lead also.

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-RESOURCE TERMS-

Natural Resource: A resource that is found in nature; not man made. Ex. Air

Limited Resource: A resource that is scarce. Ex. Oil

Renewable Resource: A resource that renews itself in a relatively short time. Ex. Trees

Non Renewable Resource: A resource that does not renew it self. Ex. Brain Cells

Depletion: The act of depleting a resource. Ex. Killing of the do-do birds.

Degradation: A state of being reduced; lowering the quality of a natural resource. Ex. Whales

Harvesting: The act of harvesting a resource. Ex. Mining gold

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KLONDIKE FEVER NOTES

-Dawson is the city near the mouth of the Klondike river.

-White pass is the swampy pass on the Skagway trail.

-Large excavations made in the earth are called mines.

-The most popular pass in the Klondike is the Chilkoot pass.

-Stampeders needed a years supply of food.

-Skagus is the home of the North Wind.

-Portland was the name of the steamer that sailed into Seattle’s harbor.

-Most stampeders departed from the city Skagway.

-Siwash George was a captain.

-Robert Service was a poet who wrote about the Klondike.

-The Yukon Territory is a part of Canada.

JEPORADY NOTES

-The Chilkoot pass takes you to lake Bennet

-The Whit pass railroad is called the Yukon Route

-The Golden Stairway is the last uphill trail until the pass.

-The train was completed in 1900./ The train goes to Whitehorse.

-The ‘All Water Route’ leaves from Seattle comes around Alaska, down the Yukon and around St. Michael.

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