North of 53

by Hunt, William R.

• ISBN13: 9781602230545
• ISBN10: 1602230544
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-05-30
• Publisher: Univ of Alaska Pr

Summary

"Saints and sinners, whores and housewives, swindlers and laborers alike attempted a hasty adjustment to novel conditions in a land that seemed strange and forbidding," writes William R. Hunt in his narrative history of Alaska mining. Hunt offers an exciting anecdotal account that follows hungry prospectors, canny shopkeepers, hopeful hangers-on, and crafty lawyers through the gold mining camps and temporary towns of nineteenth-century Alaska. Hunt has hiked and mined many of the same claims he writes about in the book, andNorth of 53offers a rare glimpse into far-flung communities from Skagway to the Yukon to the deep interior of Alaska to the Ididarod and Nome on the Bering Sea.

Author Biography

William R. Hunt was professor of history at the University of Alaska. He worked as a miner, teacher, and journalist, as well as being actively involved in eight historical societies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction	p. xvi
Early Days on the Yukon
Opening the Land	p. 1
Early Trading	p. 7
Mining	p. 10
Forty Mile	p. 14
Circle, 1893-96	p. 18
The Klondike Era
Seattle Gets the News	p. 29
Skagway and Soapy Smith	p. 35
Chilkoot and White Passes	p. 44
Army Help and Arctic Fraud	p. 52
Yukon Voyage	p. 58
Glacier Madness	p. 63
Overland and River Routes	p. 72
Dawson City	p. 78
Soldiers, Sailors, and Settlers on the Yukon	p. 84
Nome, Fairbanks, and Other Alaskan Camps
Nome-The American Klondike, 1899	p. 95
The Turbulent Scene, 1900	p. 110
Lawless Camp: Nome in 1900-1901	p. 122
Judge Wickersham in Eagle and Nome	p. 129
The Founding of Fairbanks	p. 136
Tanana Valley Style	p. 152
Founder-Swindler Barnette of Fairbanks	p. 166
Restless Camps and Busy Trails	p. 176
Soldier on the Yukon	p. 188
High Rollers and Their Recreations	p. 193
Settling Down: George Pilcher, Will Ballou, and the Lomens	p. 213
The Guggenheims Come to Alaska	p. 222
Other Camps	p. 228
The Different Frontier?
Law and Order	p. 243
The U.S. Government's Role in Alaska	p. 251
Natives and the Mining Frontier	p. 258
Northern Journalism	p. 266
Labor Strife	p. 274
James Wickersham and Gold Land Politics	p. 281
The Literary Frontier	p. 286
Epilogue	p. 294
Notes	p. 297
Bibliography	p. 311
Index	p. 323
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