The Nature of Gold: An Environmental History of the Klondike Gold Rush

Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books

by Kathryn Morse, William Cronon (Foreword)

In 1896, a small group of prospectors discovered a stunningly rich pocket of gold at the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon rivers, and in the following two years thousands of individuals traveled to the area, hoping to find wealth in a rugged and challenging setting. Ever since that time, the Klondike Gold Rush--especially as portrayed in photographs of long lines of gold seekers marching up Chilkoot Pass--has had a hold on the popular imagination. In this first environmental history of the gold rush, Kathryn Morse describes how the miners got to the Klondike, the mining technologies they employed, and the complex networks by which they obtained food, clothing, and tools. She looks at the political and economic debates surrounding the valuation of gold and the emerging industrial economy that exploited its extraction in Alaska, and explores the ways in which a web of connections among America's transportation, supply, and marketing industries linked miners to other industrial and agricultural laborers across the country. The profound economic and cultural transformations that supported the Alaska-Yukon gold rush ultimately reverberate to modern times. The story Morse tells is often narrated through the diaries and letters of the miners themselves. The daunting challenges of traveling, working, and surviving in the raw wilderness are illustrated not only by the miners' compelling accounts but also by newspaper reports and advertisements. Seattle played a key role as "gateway to the Klondike." A public relations campaign lured potential miners to the West and local businesses seized the opportunity to make large profits while thousands of gold seekers streamed through Seattle. Thedrama of the miners' journeys north, their trials along the gold creeks, and their encounters with an extreme climate will appeal not only to scholars of the western environment and of late 19th-century industrialism, but to readers interested in reliving the vivid adventure of the West's last great gold rush.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

[sdw · Rating 4 out of 5]

I almost always enjoy the books I pick up from the Weyerhauser Environmental Series. Morse’s environmental history of the Klondike Gold Rush was not an exception. Morse examines the variety of contexts in which Klondike Gold rushers related to the natural world - from the food they ate and the animals they consumed to the modes of transportation they employed and the gold they extracted. In each of the chapters, Morse contends that “the miners’ diverse ways of moving themselves through the world jumbled together both consumption and the contrasting intimacy of production. It exemplified the mixture of diverse possible connections that made up the emerging industrial human relationship to nature” (45).


Morse begins by asking why Gold is considered wealth, a question she situates in the gold standard debates of the late 19th Century. I thought Morse did a particularly exceptional job making monetary policy debates accessible and interesting. Although I’ve known why I should care about Williams Jennings Bryant since AP US history, I’ve had a hard time actually caring. Morse asked the right questions to engage me.
I found the second chapter’s discussion of transportation particularly engaging. Morse writes, “Below the surface, the dichotomy between rich men’s travel and poor men’s travel represented the difference between two modes of transportation: transportation as production, and transportation as consumption. Transportation as production meant the bodily production of movement through walking, hauling, and rowing. Transportation as consumption meant the purchase of movement within a market economy. Production and consumption, in turn, constituted two very difference relations to nature” (43). This passage was perhaps my favorite in the book as it combined two interests of mine: 1) the relationship between production and consumption 2) An examination of mobility and transportation.

Similarly, Chapter 5, “The Culture of Gold Mining” did an excellent job contextualizing the industrialized relationships to production and consumption emerging in the Klondike Gold Rush. Morse links her argument to The Strenuous Life, US imperial ventures in the Philippines, and the changing nature of work historians like Lears detail.

Her work prioritizes the words and experiences of the miners themselves. I started the book without much interest in the Gold Rush or those who participated in it. At the end of the book, I still had a hard time getting excited about those who rushed to Alaska in pursuit of escape, wealth, and independence. This is a statement of my own interests rather than Morse’s writing or the story she tells. I suppose an enhanced discussion of race and gender may have engaged me more n the miners’ lives.

[Daniel Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read

The author has a good thesis, but it is weakened by overuse. The number of times she repeats her connections conclusion is a bit mind numbing.
There is one serious factual error. The NWMP did not force the relocation of the Han people. This was a decision taken by Chief Isaac with the assistance of the Anglican priest stationed in Dawson at the time, the Rev. Flewellyn.

[Jason S · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting environmental history of the Klondike Gold Rush. Relies heavily on the work of William Cronon from Nature's Metropolis.