Dreams of Gold and Ice : Local Miners Head North to Alaska
Why settle for lead and zinc when you could be hunting for gold nuggets? That's what some Cuba City-area men thought, anyway. By the late 1800s, although a zinc mining boom was underway in southwestern Wisconsin, several locals had their sights set on a different color metal three thousand miles away in Alaska and Canada's Yukon Territory. Prospective miners climbing up the Chilkoot Pass in 1898. Image available on Wikimedia Commons . The "stampede" to the Klondike region in search of gold officially began in 1897 when a steamship loaded with newly mined riches docked in San Francisco. Word was published in American newspapers and it took no time at all for folks to start packing their bags, whether they had mining experience or not. One need only look to population statistics to see the impact of the news: the number of White settlers in Alaska grew from 4,298 in 1890 to 30,293 in 1900. [1] Winn family While the Alaska gold rush garners most of the attention, many ...
