VERY RARE! THE ALASKA GOLD FIELDS AND HOW TO REACH THERE
VERY RARE! THE ALASKA GOLD FIELDS AND HOW TO REACH THERE
(ALASKA GOLD RUSH) THE ALASKA GOLD FIELDS AND HOW TO REACH THERE. THE CHEAPEST AND BEST ROUTE TO THE KLONDIKE! We take you to the Gold Fields, supply first-class outfit, all miners’ requisites and provisions for one year at a cost of $375.00. The Tacoma-Alaska Shipping Line. 1st. December issue, 1897. Cloes & Finley Co., General Agents and Shippers. Press of Wm. Schlesinger, New York.
Evidently distributed by the company’s eastern branch, 309 Mail and Express Building, New York, the cover states “Special Arrangements with Baltimore & Ohio, Wisconsin Central & Northern Pacific Railways, through Trains to TACOMA, making direct connections with our vessels.” The schedule of regular sailings from Tacoma to various ports in Alaska once every fifteen days between January 12, 1898 and March 26, 1898 are listed along with the names of the Tacoma-Alaska Shipping Line’s vessels: “Hayden Brown”, “Lucille”, “Helen Dare”, and “Klondike”. The ships stopped at Wrangle, Juneau, Dyea or Skagway, Copper River or Cook’s Inlet, and St. Michaels. Prices for each destination were given which included 150 pounds of baggage free by rail to Tacoma, and one ton from Tacoma to destination.
The brochure details item by item what is included in the prospectors’ outfit and supplies, including clothing, toiletries, provisions, and miners’ requisites – hardware. Penciled additions by one who must have taken advantage of the Tacoma-Alaska Shipping Line’s outfitting offer have been added to several of the lists. Also included is a description of the gold fields; the climate of Alaska; and traveling over passes, down lakes and rivers. Another section titled “An Eldorado of Wealth”, states that “A large area of mineral country is yet unexplored, and even in these portions invaded there is much ground that has not been thoroughly prospected, and which affords grand opportunities to the experienced practical miner… There is ample room for thousands of mining men who will have excellent chances of making money, WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF MAKING A FORTUNE.” One page is devoted to a list of various places in Alaska and the Klondike and their distance from Tacoma. The back page gives distances via Stickene River Route, By Chilcat Pass and Dalton Trail, and Via St. Michael and Up Yukon River.
In conclusion the brochure states “Many people who anticipate reaching this marvelous Golden Country in the spring, will be bitterly disappointed, in consequence of the inadequate shipping facilities to supply the tremendous demand of travel. A conservative estimate of the number of people expected to leave for the various points in Alaska is placed at 300,000, this number being many times in excess of the carrying capacity of all the vessels on the Pacific Coast, and consequently many will be left behind deploring their lack of forethought in not securing their transportation at an earlier date.”
Extremely rare and quite desirable. There are no copies reported to OCLC. Gary Kurutz in his The Klondike & Alaska Gold Rushes – A Descriptive Bibliography of Books and Pamphlets Covering the Years 1896-1905 (San Francisco: Book Club of California, 2021) records a single copy (entry # 557) that being in private hands, most likely in the Ron Lerch Collection, which is the provenance of this piece. In his description of the brochure, which he calls a prospectus, Kurutz writes “Like so many similar publications, this one make the trek seem like a smooth, convenient excursion.”
Stapled brochure printed on cheap paper stock measures 9.25 x 4 inches; 12 pp. Some chipping along the edges; split at margin above and below staples; overall in VG to VG+ condition.
Resources: Cultural Images; Gary Kurutz : The Klondike & Alaska Gold Rushes – A Descriptive Bibliography of Books and Pamphlets Covering the Years 1896-1905