1. What Do You Know About Gold ?
THINK PAIR SHARE
(History of gold on earth)
(Why gold is so valuable)
Why is it valuable ?
How much gold is there in the world?
Who were the first people to appreciate it?

2. The Klondike Gold Rush REASON why I am asking about Gold…..
Over the next 4 classes we are going be looking at the KGR.

3. History of Gold and Gold Rushes
Humans have valued gold and searched for it for thousands of years.
From ancient times to the present, gold has been a precious metal and treasured.
Before we can get into the Klondike GR, we need to briefly look at the HIST of gold itself, as well as a few of the GR’s the came before it.

4. Historical Example King Tut’s Tomb and Treasures
Skillful Egyptian artisans use of gold over 3300 years ago.
If we go way back in time, we can see that gold has been appreciated for thousands of years.
A good example of this is ancient Egypt.

5. How Gold is Found / Extracted
Gold is found in 2 kinds of deposits: Hardrock gold and Placer gold
1) HARDROCK GOLD:
- Found in minerals that must be crushed to extract the treasure.
- Expensive process that requires significant work.
- Location in Canada= Yellowknife and Kirkland Lake.
Gold extraction in these areas requires large companies to put up large sums of money.
They then blast the area, dig out the rock, and crush it to extract the gold.

6. How Gold is Found / Extracted
2) PLACER GOLD:
Has been naturally extracted over the ages by erosion or by glaciers grinding the rocks.
When this happened, the original rocks were washed away as sand and pebbles leaving the pure gold at the bottom of creeks, or trapped in mud and gravel.
Easy to extract. All you really need to do is “pan” it.
Has been found in many areas in both North and South America.
Rocky Mountain Chain = Major source of placer gold.
PLACER GOLD is the gold involved in the Klondike GR.

7. Leading up to the Klondike
16th and 17th centuries:
Spanish conquistadors discovered that the Incas of South America hag huge quantities of gold, and stole as much of it as possible.
First Major Gold Strike in U.S. :
Occurred near Sacramento, California in 1849 ( about 50 years before Klondike Gold Rush).
After the Spanish in South America we can skip forward in our timeline to the 19th century> many groups searched north along the mountains for gold.
U.S. Rush in Cali

8. Leading up to the Klondike
Fraser River Gold Rush (1858):
Attracted approximately 30,000 people to the areas spanning from Hope to Lillooet.
Mostly American Prospectors (Threat of U.S. invasion…)
After the

9. Leading up to the Klondike
Cariboo Gold Rush ( ):
The town of Barkerville became the gold capital of BC in 1862.
While the gold lasted it was the biggest town in Western Canada.
By 1865 the surface placer gold was basically gone.

10. Barkerville Gold Fields

11. Klondike Gold Rush
Discovery = August 16, 1896, a few KM east of present town Dawson City on a creek that flowed into the Klondike River (Yukon Area).
People Involved = George Carmack (American prospector), Skookum Jim Mason, and Dawson Charlie (Tagish First Nations members whom married into the Carmack family).

12. Klondike Gold Rush Why This Rush Was So Special:
Prospectors who found gold in this area claimed it was “thick as cheese”.
There was a tremendous amount found.
Took place during one of the worst economic recessions in North American history.
The chance at sudden wealth lured thousands of men and women to the remote area of the continent.

13. Klondike News Spreads
When word of the discovery reached the outside world in July 1897, it sparked an unprecedented stampede .

14. Klondike News Spreads

15. Journey to the Klondike
The stampede towards the Klondike was an epic journey that included many difficult challenges and obstacles.
The voyage north along the Pacific coast from coastal cities such as Victoria, Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco (ending at Alaskan ports of Haines, Skagway, and Dyea).
Dyea = Starting point for the Chilkoot Pass
Chilkoot Pass Conditions=
53 KM of Icy and treacherous terrain
Cold Weather and high altitude
Crowds of people
Disease, exhaustion, failure

16. Chilkoot Pass Thousands of people made that journey
Kicker = North West Mounted Police had specific requirements for each person to bring (enough supplies to last an entire year). Therefore, people had to make the ascent across the rocky summit 30 or 40 times to get all of their supplies over.
By the time they had finally done this some had trekked as much as 4000 km !

17. Chilkoot Pass

18. Dawson City, 1898

19. City Tour - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0cCgNWor7c
City Web Page -
EXIT SKIP QUESTIONS
1) What is something new you learned today?
2) What was the most interesting thing you learned?
3) What is something you would like to learn during this unit?