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Women have made significant contributions to Alaska's National Public Lands. Courageous women from all walks of life joined the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98. Some were poor, some were professional; some wives joined their husbands and other women left their husbands at home. When the San Francisco newspaper of 1897 reported - "Sacks of gold from mines of the Klondike," gold fever swept the land. Many stories told of how men and women had worked on their own for less than a year to bring out great riches. Many people were faced with the economic depression of the time, and the idea of finding treasure and sacks of gold filled up everyone's imagination.
A few women came from desperation to support themselves and families; others sought out adventure and excitement from their boring routine life. Among the mix were miners, businesswomen, journalists, shopkeepers, cooks, nuns, entertainers, teachers, physicians and hotel proprietors. Some came to see what the Klondike Fever was all about. Everyone was hoping to improve their fortunes if they could. These women faced no ordinary circumstances. Most stampeders, male or female, were not physically conditioned to the strenuous life that was required. Some died along the way, and others turned back. As dreams gave way to harsh realities, some women found themselves in situations they never imagined.
Women from all walks of life looking for an opportunity to break out of the traditional norms and gender roles of the late 1890s were among the many stampeders. Learn more about their stories from the NPS links below.
Women of the Gold Rush - Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
(U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
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Women of the Gold Rush
"Women pioneers hold an honored place in the history and development of the west and great northwest; and when the history of the development of Alaska, and the great interior region, known as the Yukon country, shall have been written, it will be found that women have played no inconsequential part therein.
There are two sides to the life of a women pioneer. One represents hardships and privations - hope deferred, which maketh the heart sick, trials and disappointments. The other presents fuel for the spirit of adventure, and its attendant excitement, leading one on and on in the hope - in this case - of golden reward, and the fondest fruitions of one's most cherished dreams."
- Before and After Taking. What I Expected to Find and What I did Find
in the New Metropolis, by Annie Hall Strong. Reprint of The Skagway News in
One Woman's Gold Rush by Cynthia Brackett Driscoll
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Annie Hall Strong (U.S. National Park Service) | Article Written By Ellie Kaplan The life of Annie Hall Strong, a white woman who spent decades in Seattle before pursuing wealth in Alaska with her husband, highlights the connection between those two places during the Klondike Gold Rush. | | | |
Bessie Couture (U.S. National Park Service) | What did life look like for respectable women in the Skagway of 1896? What professions were available? Even though Skagway was a male-dominated society, there were economic opportunities for reputable women. Often these opportunities would be in traditional settings as a cook or housekeeper, catering to men's domestic needs. | | | |
Ella Wilson (U.S. National Park Service) | It is undeniable that vice played a big part in the gold rush days of Skagway. Saloons, gaming halls, and prostitution were revenue machines. Women in the sex industry came from all walks of life. Some professional women followed the migration of thousands of stampeders and their money. | | | |
Emma Kelly (U.S. National Park Service) | Emma Kelly was a reporter from Topeka, Kansas. The daughter of an ex-Kansas Senator, H.B. Kelly, Emma was one for adventure. She was working for a Chicago newspaper as a reporter in the summer of 1897. | | | |
Harriet Pullen (U.S. National Park Service) | Harriet Pullen is a great example of women who honed their business skills to succeed during the Klondike Gold Rush and seized opportunities that came along with the chaos. Harriet arrived in Skagway with early fortune seekers in the fall of 1897, and started out like many others, broke, but optimistic and ambitious. Shop "Ma" Pullen AK Geo merch! | | | |
Mollie Brackett (U.S. National Park Service) | During the top years of the Klondike Gold Rush Mollie Brackett documented her life in Skagway, Alaska through photographs. Her album, once lost, presents many photos of everyday life at home: hanging up the wash, interior and exterior views of their home, picnics, her father-in-law asleep on the couch. Shop Mollie Brackett AK Geo merch! | | | |
Mollie Walsh (U.S. National Park Service) | Unlike the established trade route of the Chilkoot Trail, used by Alaska Native Tlingit, the White Pass Trail was less steep. This trail became a wagon road on more solid ground and attracted pack animals and horse traffic. The lucrative freight and passenger White Pass trail supported businesses and services for stampeders on their way to Lake Bennett. | | | |
Nellie Cashman (U.S. National Park Service) | At first glance, Nellie Cashman's life reads like an adventure novel: immigrant, prospector, miner, self-promoter, businesswoman, philanthropist. Nellie was all of these and more. Ellen "Nellie" Cashman was born in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland in 1845. After the disastrous Irish Potato Famine, the Cashmans joined the great migration out of Ireland to the United States, initially settling in Boston in the early 1850s. | | | |
Shaaw Tláa (Kate Carmack) (U.S. National Park Service) | The first woman of the Klondike was Shaaw Tláa, also known as Kate Carmack. Shaaw Tláa spent her childhood in south-central Yukon. Native Tagish, Shaaw Tláa was one of eight children born into an arranged marriage between the coastal Tlingit people and the Tagish to formalize trading partnerships. | | | |
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