Michael Gates

2 weeks ago | yukon-news.com | Michael Gates

The Yukon has a history of fostering colourful and interesting characters: Swiftwater Bill, Klondike Joe Boyle, George Carmack, Chief Isaac, and all the Colourful Five Per Cent characters featured by Yukon artist, Jim Robb. But not all have achieved the notoriety bestowed upon such interesting individuals I have mentioned above. Take Richard Andrew Fox, for example. R.A. Fox was an American who came to the Yukon during the gold rush of 1898, and remained in Dawson for the next 52 years.

Dec 2, 2024 | ourcommunitynow.com | Michael Gates

Share On December 1, 1894, a large crowd had assembled in George Snow’s opera house in Forty Mile, on the Yukon River, not far from today’s international boundary. Opera house implies more than this building had to offer. It was a two-storey log structure amid a jumble of other log shacks at the mouth of the Fortymile River. The days were shortening as the winter solstice approached, and the interior was dimly lit by candles and kerosene.

Jul 25, 2024 | canadiangeographic.ca | Michael Gates

Le chef Isaac de la Première nation Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, dont le territoire traditionnel englobe la région du Klondike, a dénoncé l’impact de la ruée vers l’or sur son peuple, alors que les prospecteurs affluaient dans la région. Auparavant, le territoire regorgeait de gibier et son peuple était heureux et bien nourri. À l’arrivée de l’homme blanc, raconte le chef Isaac, son peuple a aidé à nourrir et à vêtir les nouveaux arrivants.

Jul 25, 2024 | canadiangeographic.ca | Michael Gates

Panning gold during the Klondike Gold Rush, circa 1897-1908. (Library and Archives Canada/C-005389)Expand Image I wanted the gold, and I sought it,I scrabbled and mucked like a slave. Was it famine or scurvy – I fought it;I hurled my youth into a grave. I wanted the gold, and I got it –Came out with a fortune last fall, –Yet somehow life’s not what I thought it,And somehow the gold isn’t all.

Nov 12, 2023 | yukon-news.com | Michael Gates

While in the Vancouver area recently, I visited a spectacular new archival collection in Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Library. This one had a direct link through three generations to the Klondike gold rush – and before. John Grieve Lind made his fateful decision to look for gold in the Yukon on a coin toss. In 1894, he arrived in the mining camp of Forty Mile, situated about 80 kilometres below the future site of Dawson City on the Yukon River.