An Alaska Anthology: Interpreting the Past

Gold Rushers North: A Census Study of the Yukon and Alaska Gold Rushes, 1896-1900

Gold Rushers North A Census Study of the Yukon and Alaskan Gold Rushes, 1896-1900 JAMES H. DUCKER United States census figures show that the population ofAlaska roughly doubled beween 7890 and 7900, rising from 32,052 to 63,592. The Native population rose from 25,354 to 29,542, although some of that increase may be the result of more accurate reporting. The greatest growth occurred among non-Natives, whose numbers jumped from 4,298 in 7890 to 30,450 in 7900. One can plausiblyassume that most of those came to search for gold or to provide goods and services to the gold seekers. But who exactly were they? James Ducker works as a planner for the Bureau of Land Management in Anchorage . His doctoral dissertation at the University ofIllinois was published under the title Men of the Steel Rails: Workers on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, 1869-1900 (Lincoln: University ofNebraska Press, 7983). He has been the editor ofAlaska History, the scholarly journal of the Alaska Historical Society, for over a decade. In the following article Ducker used material from the census of 7900 to examine the demographics ofAlaska in the gold rush era. Some ofhis findings can be anticipated. For example, many more men than women came to Alaska, and those men who came were generally young. But Ducker finds much else of interest as well. The principal significance of his work is documenting what is often taken as fact but is based essentially on anecdote. Men from the sands of the Sunland; men from the woods of the West; Men from the farms and the cities, into the Northland we pressed. Graybeards and striplings and women, good men and bad men and bold, This article appeared originally in Pacific Northwest Quarterly 83 Ouly 1994): 82-92; it is reprinted here by permission. 206 Gold Rushers North: A Census Study Leaving our homes and our loved ones, crying exultantly, "Gold!" Never was seen such an army, pitiful, futile, unfit; Never was seen such a spirit, manifold courage and grit. Never has been such a cohort under one banner unrolled As surged to the ragged-edged Arctic, urged by the arch-tempter-Gold.1 207 OnJUlY15, 1897, the Excelsior steamed into San Francisco. Two days later, the Portland reached Seattle. The two ships, fresh from Alaskan waters, carried the first miners returning from an obscure northern river called the Klondike. There had been rumors of a gold strike in the Far North. The mining frontier always generated rumors, which wise men treated with skepticism. But the bundles of bullion that the prospectors hauled down the gangplanks in their suitcases, chests, and bags confirmed earlier stories of the discovery made by George Carmack, Skookum Jim, and Tagish Charlie. The 68 miners aboard the Portland alone carried nearly two tons of gold worth well over a million dollars.2 The magnitude of the find sent some men north immediately, but due to the lateness of the season, the surge of gold seekers did not reach flood tide until 1898. By then all the best ground near Dawson had been claimed, so many of the prospectors overflowed into Alaska, floating down the Yukon in search of their own Eldorado. In the next two years they found a series of moderately successful fields and the bonanza at Nome. Consequently, the territory's population continued to boom. Alaska's population doubled from 1890 to 1900; most of the growth occurred during the summers of 1898, 1899, and 1900. The 1900 u.S. census provides an extensive look at the Alaskans of that year. Published census statistics illustrate the district's demographics. For example, there were 63,592 inhabitants; 46 percent were Indians, Eskimos , or Aleuts. Detailed analysis of census manuscripts, however, permits a much more comprehensive understanding of the characteristics of the men and women who partook of the gold rush. Probing the manuscripts is especially valuable because the 1900 census in Alaska was unique. 208 JAMES H. DUCKER The Census Office was interested in the rush north and asked questions it had never asked during other censuses. In addition to their age, sex, marital status, birthplace, and occupation, Alaskans were to state the month and year they arrived in the district, their "Post Office Address at Home," and their job at home. The answers to these questions not only add depth to a knowledge of Alaskans, but they also are...