Women Make Their Mark

Among the tens of thousands of stampeders who flooded Yukon was a small stream of women. Women numbered no more than one for every 10 men in the Klondike goldfields, but their presence made a difference. It created a sense of social order in the rough, uncivilized world of male prospectors.

Miners’ wives replaced simple campfire meals of hardtack and beans with home-cooked suppers. They kept clean beds and rooms in roadhouses for miners accustomed to sleeping in rough tents and shacks. They washed and mended clothes and sewed new ones.

Wives in the Klondike faced special hardships. Everyday chores, such as washing and cooking, were drudgery, especially in winter. Loneliness and isolation plagued them. Wives often were