Rushing the Klondike

By Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

In this sequel to Romancing the Klondike, it is 1898 and Pearl Owens has been in Dawson City for two years. She’d originally come north with her cousin Emma to write about the people and places along the Yukon River for her hometown newspaper and had stayed to write about the Klondike Gold Rush and Dawson City.

Pearl has been unlucky in love. She fell in love with a man named Joseph Ladue, the founder of Dawson City, but he loved another woman and returned to his fiancée in New York in 1897. Another man, Paul Gamon, has expressed his desire to court Pearl, but Pearl wishes only to be friends with him.

Pearl’s best friend, Florence, and her older brother, Andrew, cross the Chilkoot Trail and arrive in Dawson in search for gold. Pearl remembers Andrew as the scrawny boy who threw snakes and spiders at her and Florence when they were children. She is taken by the handsome man he has become.
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Andrew’s first desire is to stake a gold claim after such a long, hard trip. He feels a growing attraction for Pearl but must decide whether he wants to win her hand or follow his dream.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BWL Publishing Inc.
• Release date: Aug 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9780228622291

Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

I began my writing career with a short story, progressed to travel and historical articles, and then on to travel books. I called these books my Backroads series and in the seven of them I described what there is to see and do along the back roads of British Columbia, Alberta, the Yukon, and Alaska. I have now switched to fiction writing and am proud to be one of Books We Love Ltd published authors. Through BWL, I have had three mystery novels, Illegally Dead, The Only Shadow In The House, and Whistler's Murder published in a boxed set in what I call the Travelling Detective Series. In my fourth novel, Gold Fever I combine mystery with a little romance.I was born in New Westminster, B.C. and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. I married soon after graduation and moved to a farm where I had two children. Over the years I worked as a bartender, hotel maid, cashier, bank teller, bookkeeper, printing press operator, meat wrapper, gold prospector, warehouse shipper, house renovator and nursing attendant. During that time I raised my two children and helped raise my three step-children.I love change so I have moved over thirty times in my life, living on acreages and farms and in small towns and cities throughout Alberta and B.C. I now live on an acreage in the Port Alberni Valley on Vancouver Island with my husband, four female cats, and one stray male cat.I belong to Crime Writers of Canada, Federation of B.C. Writers, the Port Alberni Arts Council and the Port Alberni Portal Players. My short story, A Capital Offense received Ascent Aspirations Magazine's first prize for flash fiction in 2010. I have since turned that story into a stage play and presented it at the Fringe Festival in Port Alberni in 2014.

Book preview

Rushing the Klondike

Sequel to Romancing the Klondike

Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

Digital ISBNs

EPUB 9780228622291

Kindle 9780228622307

PDF 9780228622314

Print ISBNs

Amazon Print 9780228622321

BWL Print 9780228622345

LSI Print 9780228622338

Copyright 2022 by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

Cover art by Pandora Designs

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book

Dedication

To Sarah

Chapter One

Pearl Owens stood on the bank of the Yukon River and gazed out over the frozen water. She was glad to see the dark spots in the ice. Those spots signalled the ice was beginning to change. Everyone in the town of Dawson had been watching the river for a week now looking for signs of break-up. As soon as the ice was gone, the first sternwheeler could come up the river to Dawson with much needed supplies and much wanted mail from family and friends on the outside. There would also be more excited prospectors on board who had made the trip north looking for their fortune.

The boat would leave after a few days laden with rich miners and their gold, and bags of letters going to family and friends from happy or lonely men and women here.

Pearl walked back to the small cabin owned by her cousin Emma and Emma’s husband, Donald. It was the beginning of May, 1898, and she was writing another article to send, along with sketches, to the Halifax Morning Herald. The previous articles she’d written since her arrival in the summer of 1896 told the story of the discovery of gold along Rabbit Creek, later named Bonanza Creek. When word got out about the discovery, men and women who’d been living and prospecting in the north for years flocked to the area and staked claims along Bonanza and Eldorado creeks.

A trader named Joseph Ladue bought up the land of the boggy moose pasture at the mouth of the Klondike River where it entered the Yukon River. He surveyed streets and avenues and named the streets after royalty like Queen Street and Princess Street and gave the avenues numbers like Second and Third. He called the new town site Dawson. He floated his saw mill down from Ogilvie at the mouth of Sixtymile River and made his fortune selling the lots and then selling lumber. He built the first house, which also doubled as a hotel, trading post, and bar, in September of 1896. By the spring of 1897, there were hotels, supply stations, restaurants, bars, and cabins.

The miners worked their claims over the winter of 1896/1897 and when the first supply sternwheelers arrived in the late spring of 1897 many newly rich men and women loaded up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold to take home with them. When the boats reached Seattle and San Francisco, word quickly spread about the new gold strike and thousands of people began preparing to head north to get rich.

By early July, the two big trading competitors of the north, the Alaska Commercial Company and the North American Transportation and Trading Company had built stores and warehouses on Front Street. During the summer of 1897 the population of the Dawson area grew to almost 3,500, most of whom quickly built a shack to live in. Those who didn’t have the money to buy lumber set up tents. A Jesuit priest, Father Judge, who’d had a mission in the town of Fortymile down the river from Dawson, moved to Dawson and built a hospital, church, and residence.

One article Pearl had had trouble writing was about the first fire in the town. It was a cold November day, -58F, when a dance hall girl threw a burning lamp at another girl she considered a rival. The lamp crashed and immediately started a fire. Pearl remembered watching the confusion and activity in the freezing cold as some men initially tried throwing snow on the blaze. That didn’t work, so others set up a bucket brigade passing buckets of water from holes cut in the river up to the buildings. In spite of their efforts three buildings burned down. The stench from the burned out structures hung in the air for days but it was not long before work began to replace them.

Another of her articles was about the miracle on Christmas Day. Three miners, Bill Wilkinson, Johnny Lind, and Skiff Mitchell, had gone to Dawson to buy supplies early Christmas Eve morning. On their way home they stopped to rest their dogs and noticed a light flickering in the window of a cabin. They heard moaning and entered to find a young woman who had just given birth to a baby girl. The woman died a short time after their arrival. Soon after her death, the woman’s husband returned with a doctor and when he found out his wife had passed away, his grief and his own illness of frozen lungs from his dash to find the doctor, was too much and he also died. The doctor checked out the baby, told the men how to look after her then headed to another patient.

The three men wrapped the baby in blankets and went to their own cabin. There they took turns feeding her broth and canned milk during the night. When word spread along Eldorado Creek about the miracle, women from up and down the creek came to help out. One woman, Mrs. Brock, who had lost a baby before coming north, took charge and a collection was taken to raise money for milk. The little girl stayed with Mrs. Brock, all winter and in the spring she was christened Edna Eldorado.

Pearl had finished the article with: Were the three men guided to the cabin by the Christmas Star? It must have been a strange sight, seeing a dog team, a sled full of supplies, three men, and a baby heading along the trail under the dancing waves of the green, blue, and pink northern lights.

There was a haphazard mail system in the north. During the winter, anyone going south over the Chilkoot would carry sacks of mail and deposit them at the nearest outpost or even haul them to Seattle. There they would be sorted and sent on their way. That was also how letters and newspapers and packages arrived in the north. Pearl had sent those articles to Halifax using the overland mail. Her new article was about the arrival of spring and the perseverance of two Dawson residents in contributing to the towns continued growth. It would be sent out on the first supply boat. Pearl picked up her pen, dipped the nib in the ink bottle, and began writing.

In the spring of 1897, Miss Belinda Mulrooney left Juneau Alaska, travelled the arduous Chilkoot Trail, and arrived in Dawson. She’d brought $5,000 worth of rubber hot water bottles, bolts of material, and silk underwear with her and had big plans. Within a short time, she sold those items and had enough money to open a restaurant in Dawson. She also hired men who needed work to build cabins for her to rent to incoming miners.

But she continued looking for business opportunities and decided to construct a two-storey log roadhouse at the junction of the Bonanza and Eldorado creeks, the best paying creeks in the region. The Grand Forks Hotel opened in August of 1897 with a dining room and bar on the ground floor and rooms on the second. Even with the food shortages over the winter, Belinda was still able to offer meals, drinks, and cigars to the miners. She also stored gold, ran a trading post, and allowed church services to be held at the hotel.

Again, looking forward and wanting to bring some sophistication to the area, Belinda has begun construction of the three-storey Fairview Hotel in Dawson. According to her plans, the hotel will have steam-heated rooms, brass bedsteads, fine china and silverware, and cut-glass chandeliers. The grand opening will be sometime in July.

Pearl smiled as she finished writing the article. She’d met Belinda selling her wares from her tent just after Belinda arrived in Dawson. They’d become friends and Pearl had left the cabin in Dawson to go work in the Grand Forks Hotel as a waitress and chambermaid, and sometimes a cook. While living there she met many of the men and women who worked the claims in the area. She was also able to spend time with her cousin, Sam, on his gold claim.

Sam had been one of the reasons she and his sister, Emma, had come to the north. He’d been living here five years with two friends, and while they hadn’t made a big strike, they’d found enough gold to keep themselves in money while they continued the search. In his letters home Sam made the north sound so exciting and romantic.

Pearl had attended the Victoria School of Art and Design for two years in her home town of Halifax. There she learned how to write and sketch and she had articles and illustrations published in Collier’s Weekly: an Illustrated Journal, Harper’s Magazine, and the Halifax Morning Herald.

When she graduated, Pearl took Sam’s letters to the Halifax Morning Herald publisher and explained her idea of heading north to live for a year and write articles and draw sketches about life there. He liked the idea, gave her a monetary advance, and she was on her way. Even though Pearl had had a writing assignment and an advance, her parents had been reluctant to let her make the long journey from Halifax to Fortymile on the Yukon River alone. But they gave their blessing and some money to help with expenses once Emma decided to leave her job and come with her. Emma had sent Sam a letter letting him know they were coming.

They’d arrived at the town of Fortymile just as gold was being discovered on Rabbit Creek. She and Emma had expected to be met by Sam and his two friends, but when they arrived, the men were not there. They’d been directed to their cabin where they set up house. When the men returned they were surprised to find the women had taken over their cabin. After the initial shock Pearl and Emma found out Sam had never received Emma’s letter. And they also learned the men had heard a rumour of gold in the Klondike River area and were on their way there.

Pearl and Emma walked along the streets of Fortymile taking in the air of excitement as men rushed from their cabins carrying supplies and bedding to all types of watercraft waiting on the banks of the river. They also met Ethel Berry sitting on the river bank with a huge pile of goods surrounding her. They stopped and talked with her and learned she’d come north as a young bride with her husband Clarence the winter before. He’d gone ahead to stake a claim and she was on her way to meet him.

After listening to Ethel’s delight at chasing the gold rumour, Pearl quickly made up her mind she wanted to see this gold rush. Emma agreed to go with her but they had no idea what to take with them. They walked to the store to look at what was offered and talk with the proprietor. It wasn’t long before they were confused and overwhelmed with all they would need to set up a camp.

Ethel had entered the store at that time and came to their rescue. She went to the shelves and gathered up flour, cornmeal, bacon, coffee, tea, sugar, salt, pepper, beans, candles, matches, canned milk, and dried potatoes, vegetables, and fruit. Then she put a frying pan, some dishes, and cutlery on the counter. Pearl and Emma paid for the supplies and carried the heavier stuff to the river bank, setting it beside Ethel’s pile. They packed up their clothing and bedding and then got four men to carry the stove from Sam and his friends’ cabin to the bank. They also took the table and two chairs.

The three women had waited two days for a sternwheeler to appear, staying overnight on the bunks in the cabin. By the time they were loaded on the already over full sternwheeler the bottom deck barely cleared the water. It had been a shock when they reached the mouth of the Klondike River. It was an empty meadow with a few tents set up and hundreds of abandoned boats, canoes, and rafts on the shore. Everyone on board used those crafts to haul their things to shore. The men heading inland started up the Klondike River carrying some of their supplies on their backs. The rest they left to come back for once they’d staked their claims.

Pearl and Emma set up their tent and stashed their food as best they could around it. They watched as a steady parade of prospectors came from all over the north and went upriver on the Klondike to Rabbit Creek to stake a claim. Pearl had sketched the activity on the shore and wrote about the migration of the prospectors in their search for the next rich gold claim.

Over the winter Emma had fallen in love with one of Sam’s friends, Donald Miller. They’d married in the spring of 1897 and left on one of the stern wheelers to visit family in Nova Scotia. They’d promised to come back and Pearl expected them on one of the early supply boats this year. Another friend who had said she would return was Ethel Berry. Pearl hoped she would keep her promise.

Pearl shook her head. Quit remembering and get on with your article, she said out loud. You want it to go out with the first mail.

Pearl dipped her pen nib in the ink and began writing again.

Mr. Alexander (Big Alex) McDonald was born in Antigonish Nova Scotia. Before he was considered a full adult he headed to the Colorado gold fields where he worked in the silver mines for fourteen years. In the late 1880s he went to Juneau, Alaska, and when he heard of the gold found along Rabbit Creek in 1896, he hiked over the Chilkoot Trail to Dawson.

Mr. McDonald is a large, powerful man with a huge bushy moustache and is known as the ‘Moose from Antigonish’. However, he is not to be underestimated. Behind that slowness of speech hides a clever and crafty businessman. Rather than stake a claim when he arrived at Dawson he bought a share in another man’s for the price of a sack of flour and a slab of bacon. Instead of working the share himself, he hired two men and offered them half of what they found. That claim was very profitable and in the first forty-five days the men took out $33,000 in gold.

Mr. McDonald used his half of the gold and even borrowed more money to put down payments on other claims, promising the rest of the payment during spring clean-up. He continued to buy claims until by the end of 1896 he owned shares in twenty-eight. When spring arrived the gold shafts began to fill with seepage so it was time for clean-up of the piles of muskeg and dirt that had been dug out over the winter. During the spring clean-up of 1897 there were bets taken amongst the prospectors as to whether Mr. McDonald would make enough money to pay the debts he’d accumulated in buying shares of the full claims. Would he be bankrupt or rich? He came close to not making a few payments but in the end he paid up all that he owed.

‘Big Alex’ McDonald now owns around seventy-five partial or full claims and is known by a different title, the ‘King of the Klondike’.

Pearl set her pen down and reread what she’d written. These were her first drafts and she would let them sit for a few days while her mind decided if she wanted to change anything. And she had to sketch portraits of Belinda and Alex to go along with the article.

* * *

Andrew Beckwith looked at the boat, or scow as some men called it, he’d just finished building on the shore of Lake Bennett. It sat with hundreds of others, some four and five deep back from the ice. He was proud of it since he’d never built anything before. Actually, he was proud of everything he and his sister, Florence, had done since leaving home in Halifax last fall. They’d travelled across the country by train to Seattle, bought all the supplies they needed, and then taken a ship north to Dyea, Alaska.

They’d been surprised at the number of watercrafts in the water when they arrived at Dyea. The waters teemed with everything from freighters, to steamboats, to canoes. It was snowing when their boat anchored a mile off shore due to low tide. Their cargo, along with the supplies of all the other passengers, was unloaded haphazardly into scows to be taken to shore. There everything was unceremoniously dropped on the rocky beach to be sorted. He and Florence dragged, hoisted onto their backs, or carried their bags, sacks, and boxes over to an open area, needing to move them to higher ground before the tide came in. They cleared a small patch in the snow and set up their tent on the frozen ground.

They had around 4,000 pounds of food, clothing, bedding, and various other goods, like his black leather, medical bag full of his equipment, some medicines and medical supplies, and Florence’s painting materials. Over the next month they hauled packs of between 25 and 80 pounds from one of their caches to another, camping at night and continuing the next day. They stayed at Pleasant Camp and then at Sheep Camp, where they’d been trapped for three days by a snow storm. But it had ended and the sun returned and they made it to the foot of the Chilkoot Pass. The whole area teemed with activity. Piles of provisions were everywhere and men and women were hauling packs up the steps carved in the snow of the Chilkoot Pass.

He and Florence each took a pack and got in line for the climb. At the top they set up their cache site and then slid down the improvised slide beside the steps on their backs and started the process over again. He’d quit counting the number of times they’d carried a pack up the steps, dropped it off on their pile, and slid back down, but eventually they had all their possessions at the top. And then they started the downhill trek to Lindeman Lake. Many of the prospectors camped at Lindeman Lake for the winter and were building boats to cross the lake in the spring when the ice melted. Others, though, had headed to Bennett Lake to build their boats. After much discussion he and Florence decided they would be closer to the