“There’s Gold in Them Thar Hills!”

As news of the discovery of gold got around, the Canadian government put an end to the benign neglect it had shown for its possessions in the North. Prospectors had been working the area for years, striking gold at such places as Fortymile in 1886. But the major discovery was made in the summer of 1896, by George Carmack, Skookum Jim and Tagish Charley on the Klondike River. When news of the discovery reached the outside world in 1897, it seemed as though half of North America dropped what it was doing to head for northern Canada. A few miners took Canadian routes, such as the trail through Edmonton. But most of those heading to the Klondike took passage to the town of Skagway in Alaska, crossed the Chilkoot Pass or the White Pass into Canadian territory, then travelled from Lindeman Lake or Bennett Lake down the Yukon River to Dawson City.

A great many gold seekers were American. Not only did they establish towns on their own territory that had a reputation for lawlessness -- such as Skagway and Dyea -- they also settled in Canadian territory. Instead of calling on authorities, miners enforced their own justice. They organized informal meetings, to which all members of a community were invited, to hear disputes, pass judgements and decide on punishments. Many miners felt that they, not the Canadian government, were the ones developing the territory, so they should not have to bend to the laws and regulations of Canada. As a result, customs duties on gold from the area often went unpaid. All of these factors represented a challenge to Canadian control of the region.