Some adventurers like John Frey and William
Bruce of Sidney chose to leave Juneau and head to the area known as 'Sunrise,' thus
avoiding the arduous trek over the mountains. Frey told relatives that wages in Sunrise
were only $1 a day (and not the $12 per day they had heard), and that "...last winter
the people staked off everything they could find," thus leaving no ground on which to
stake a claim. When moving to another location nearby, they had to ascend a 2,000 foot
hill which required the use of block and tackle and four days of effort. Out of money and
disillusioned, Frey and Bruce returned to Sidney.Over
the Chilkoot Pass
From Juneau, most of the men headed across the border into the Yukon Territory
of Canada in pursuit of the gold strikes along the Klondike River. After a stop in the
mining town of Dyea, the gold hunters had to ascend the 3,739 foot Chilkoot Pass. The
Northwest Canadian Mounted Police stationed on the pass insisted each man have a year's
supply of food before entering Canada (about 1,000 pounds). Together with his mining gear
and other possessions, each man had to move about 1,700 pounds over the mountain. Because
the climb was nearly vertical in spots, each man could carry only about 50 pounds per
trip. As the summer streams on either side of Chilkoot would make such a passage
impossible, the miners had to cross the pass in the winter.
William Kirtland of Sidney and his three friends hauled their supplies up and over the
pass by on foot in March of 1898. They encountered thousands of people clawing their way
up the mountain as well. In a letter home, Kirtland wrote: "You have no idea the
number of people here working to get over the summit. From the bottom to the top there is
not more than a step between men and some few women; it is no place for them." A
month after Kirtland made it over the pass, an avalanche buried one hundred unlucky souls.
It took Joe and Dan Staley three weeks to move their goods over the same pass the year
before. Joe later commented that "A number of men froze to death (there) last year.
Kirtland noted that "There are probably nine or ten hundred dead horses in the
Chilkoot River." After conquering the Chilkoot Pass, the men had to cross White horse
Rapids, where the swiftly surging water covered three quarters of a mile in one minute.
Back in the states, concerns were raised about the dangers of such an ordeal. The Sidney
Journal editor wrote on July 30, 1897, that most of the gold seekers "are totally
unprovided for the trip...there is every reason to apprehend frightful mortality among the
gold seekers from starvation and cold." Such words fell on deaf ears. The stampede
continued. Those reaching the gold fields after 1898 stood virtually no chance of
hitting a strike. Sidney residents Thomas Emley, George Kraft and John Berkshire arrived
in the summer of 1899. In Emley's first letter home, he reported they had been told that
"some claims are paying as high as $500 a day." He and his partners found
nothing.
The Staley brothers eventually made the trek to the village
of Dawson in the Northwest Territory. Even in the summer of 1897, hundreds crowded in to
compete for the claims. Joe and Dan Staley reported meeting "All kinds of men-
physicians, lawyers, sea captains, college professors, all professions and from every
country except for China."