weyerhaeuser environmental books William Cronon, Editor Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books explore human relation- ships with natural environments in all their variety and com- plexity. They seek to cast new light on the ways that natural systems aªect human communities, the ways that people aªect the environments of which they are a part, and the ways that diªerent cultural conceptions of nature profoundly shape our sense of the world around us. weyerhaeuser environmental books The Natural History ofPuget Sound Country by Arthur R. Kruckeberg Forest Dreams, Forest Nightmares: The Paradox ofOld Growth in the Inland West by Nancy Langston Landscapes ofPromise: The Oregon Story, 1800–1940 by William G. Robbins The Dawn ofConservation Diplomacy: U.S.-Canadian Wildlife Protection Treaties in the Progressive Era by Kurkpatrick Dorsey Irrigated Eden: The Making ofan Agricultural Landscape in the American Westby Mark Fiege Making Salmon: An Environmental History ofthe Northwest Fisheries Crisisby Joseph E. Taylor III George Perkins Marsh, Prophet ofConservation by David Lowenthal Driven Wild: How the Fight against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement by Paul S. Sutter The Rhine: An Eco-Biography, 1815–2000 by Mark Cioc Where Land and Water Meet: A Western Landscape Transformed by Nancy Langston The Nature ofGold: An Environmental History ofthe Klondike Gold Rush by Kathryn Morse weyerhaeuser environmental classics The Great Columbia Plain: A Historical Geography, 1805–1910by D. W. Meinig Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Development ofthe Aesthetics ofthe Infinite by Marjorie Hope Nicolson Tutira: The Story ofa New Zealand Sheep Station by H. Guthrie-Smith A Symbol ofWilderness: Echo Park and the American Conservation Movement by Mark W. T. Harvey Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action by George Perkins Marsh; edited by David Lowenthal cycle of fire by stephen j. pyne Fire: A BriefHistory World Fire: The Culture ofFire on Earth Vestal Fire: An Environmental History, Told through Fire, ofEurope and Europe’s Encounter with the World Fire in America: A Cultural History ofWildland and Rural Fire Burning Bush: A Fire History ofAustralia The Ice: A Journey to Antarctica THE NATURE of GOLD An Environmental History of the Klondike Gold Rush KATHRYN MORSE Foreword by William Cronon university of washington press Seattle and London For M & D The Nature ofGoldis published with the assistance ofa grant from the Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books Endowment, established by the Weyerhaeuser Company Foundation, members ofthe Weyerhaeuser family, and Janet and John Creighton. Copyright © 2003 by the University ofWashington Press Printed in the United States ofAmerica Designed by Pamela Canell 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 6 5 4 3 2 1 All rights reserved. No part ofthis publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. University ofWashington Press PO Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145 www.washington.edu/uwpress Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data can be found at the back ofthe book. The paper used in this publication is acid-free and recycled from 10 percent post-consumer and at least 50 percent pre-consumer waste. It meets the minimum requirements ofAmerican National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence ofPaper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48–1984. 8A contents Foreword by William Cronon ix Acknowledgments xv Introduction: On the Chilkoot 3 1 / The Culture of Gold 16 2 / The Nature of the Journey 40 3 / The Culture of the Journey 67 4 / The Nature of Gold Mining 89 5 / The Culture of Gold Mining 115 6 / The Nature &Culture of Food 138 7 / The Nature &Culture of Seattle 166 Conclusion: Nature, Culture, and Value 191 Notes 203 Selected Bibliography 255 Index 275 vii maps 1. Geography ofthe Alaska-Yukon gold rush 5 2. Selected transportation routes to goldfields in the Yukon and Alaska, including the “Rich Man’s Route,” the “Poor Man’s Route,” and the Teslin Trail 41 3. Transcontinental railroad routes in western North America, 1898 46 4. Transportation routes to the goldfields: the Chilkoot Trail, White Pass Trail, Yukon Headwater Lakes, Upper Yukon River, and White Pass & Yukon Railroad (built 1898–1900) 52 5. Transportation routes to the goldfields: the Upper Yukon to Dawson City 54 6. The Klondike goldfields, Yukon Territory 90 7. Yukon River gold creeks in Alaska 91 viii foreword: all that glitters William Cronon the great gold rushes of the nineteenth century are certainly among the most dramatic episodes ofAmerican western history. Their story typically begins with John Marshall’s finding of a nugget in John Sutter’s millrace near Sacramento, California, on January 24, 1848. Although Sut- ter tried desperately to prevent word ofthe discovery from leaking out, the news spread rapidly to San Francisco and proved so electrifying that an aston- ishing portion of the male population headed for the hills. In the harbor, sailors decided almost instantly to trade their maritime work for mining, with the result that abandoned, rotting ships would clog the city’s wharves for years to come. When the news finally reached the East Coast a few months later, the phenomenon repeated itself constantly: with remarkable speed, an amazing number ofpeople abandoned their former jobs and homes to head west in search of fortune. Prospectors fanned out across the Sierra Nevada, intent on striking it rich by finding a telltale streak ofyellow in the gray gravel of a river bed, or perhaps even by locating the fabled mother lode itself. Camps and towns sprang up almost overnight, launching the cycles ofboom and bust that would so characterize the mining West for the rest ofthe century and beyond. This is the stuª ofwhich legends are made, and western history has been marked by romantic narratives ofgold and glory ever since. What happened in California in 1848–49 would happen at places whose names are famous today mainly because ofthe “rushes” that once swept over them: Pike’s Peak, ix