Getting There

The Klondike, which is over 1,200 miles up the Yukon River just past the Alaska-Canada border, was a difficult place to reach. One route to the gold fields was the lengthy all-water route. Travelers first went by ocean steamer to St. Michael on Alaska's western coast, then on riverboats up the Yukon River to Dawson City. 

The Yukon River route was the easiest but also the longest and most expensive. The journey was possible only during the summer months when the waters were free of ice. An early freeze could leave passengers stranded on the river until the late spring thaw.

The first steamboat to operate on the Yukon River was the sternwheeler Yukon, which traveled 1,000 miles up to Fort Yukon in 1869. After word spread about the Klondike's gold, 30 steamboat companies formed to operate boats on the Yukon. The average trip took 20 days from St. Michael to Dawson and 10 days for the downstream return. Steamboats could take several hundred passengers and hundreds of tons of freight. With profits over $100,000 possible on each trip, a boat could pay for itself on a single trip upriver. 

Steamboats burned wood. A two-boiler boat needed about two cords of wood an hour, round the clock. Boats had to stop every 10 to 12 hours to replenish their wood supply. A round trip between St. Michael and Dawson cost approximately $15,000 in wood. At first, boat crews cut wood, but soon, wood camps were set up. The camps employed Natives and disappointed prospectors. However, the clear-cutting of forests caused severe environmental damage along the river corridor. 

On the lower Yukon, where the river was broad and flat, boats could go seven miles an hour upriver. Above the Tanana River, progress was slower. Natives who knew the channels and bends in the rivers were hired as pilots to guide the boats through stretches of the upper river. Other Natives worked as firemen and deckhands on the boats.