Three Years in the Klondike

Between 1896 and 1899 around 100,000 people migrated to the Klondike region. But why were people so willing to risk everything they had to venture to the freezing and inhospitable conditions of north-western Canada? Men and women from cities across north America made treacherous journeys in the hope of finding a few ounces of one precious material: gold. On June 11, 1898, Jeremiah Lynch decided that it was time for him to try his hand at mining the land of the Klondike as he set out on a steamship from San Francisco bound for the northwest. Lynch’s remarkable account of three years spent in the Klondike provide a vivid depiction of what life was like during the famous gold rush. Through the course of his years in the Yukon he meets some remarkable characters, some who have struck a rich vein and are enjoying the joys of success and others who are struggling to make ends meet in the bitter conditions that they now live in. Lynch provides brilliant insight into what places such as Dawson City, that had sprung up in the short period of the gold rush, were like and how the city developed from a dirty, crowded settlement filled with rough, swashbuckling adventurers to a sophisticated cosmopolitan entrepot in a relatively short amount of time. Of particular interest are the details that Lynch provides on how the mines operated during this period and how prospectors would lay claim to a stake of land. "It is more impressive than fiction could be, the narrative having both light and shade." Globe Jeremiah Lynch was a prominent businessman and politician from San Francisco who joined the Klondike Gold Rush two years after the first gold was discovered. He had previously written a book about his experiences of travelling in Egypt. His account Three Years in the Klondike was first published in 1904 and he passed away in 1917.