Can you recommend sources on the Klondike gold rush and northern frontier?

by GeauxWine

I am looking for sources of information on the Klondike gold rush and the northern frontier in general during that time. Particularly on the lives of the pioneers, and native peoples including their clothing, equipment, and vernacular. Essentially I want to learn more about the life and times surrounding Jack London novels.

Any books, websites, texts, you can recommend would be appreciated.

The_Alaskan

Happy to help! About 10 years ago, the Alaska Historical Society published The Alaska 67: A Guide to Alaska's best history books, and that contains a lot of what you're after. Using that as a guide, here's some recommended works:

  • Pierre Berton's The Klondike Fever: The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush

  • Terrence Cole's E.T. Barnette: The Strange Story of the Man Who Founded Fairbanks

  • Hudson Stuck's Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled

  • Terrence Cole's Old Yukon (Make sure to get the annotated version, published a few years ago.)

  • Stroller White's Tales of a Yukon Newsman

  • Ken Coates' and Bill Morrison's The Sinking of the Princess Sophia: Taking the North Down With Her

  • Ted Hinckley's The Americanization of Alaska, 1867-1897

  • William Hunt's North of 53: The Wild Days of the Alaska-Yukon Mining Frontier, 1870-1914

  • Donald Craig Mitchell's Sold American: The Story of Alaska Natives and Their Land, 1867-1959

  • John Muir's Travels in Alaska

  • Claire Rudolf Murphy's Gold Rush Women

  • David Neufeld's Chilkoot Trail: Heritage Route to the Klondike

I'd also add Lael Morgan's Good Time Girls of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush and Michael Gates' Gold at Fortymile Creek: Early Days in the Yukon. I've put this list in order, and my own two recommendations would go alongside Old Yukon in terms of priority. Berton's at the top of the list and is the easiest to get by far.