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The Alaska Gold Rush

The Alaska Gold Rush by David Wharton
Review by: Ted C. Hinckley
The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Vol. 64, No. 4 (Oct., 1973), p. 174
Published by: University of Washington
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40489722 .
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videda practicaland realisticsolutionto thedif- GreatBritainfordiscussions on subjectsof mu-
ficulties. tual concernto the UnitedStatesand Canada.
The Kingmissionoverseas accomplished noth- Such smallbeginnings mayhave portendedthe
ing of a concrete nature,but it did record in- spiritof cooperation that wasmanifested in 1922
tangiblegains.Canadiansprofited by a clearer with the abrogation of the Anglo-Japanese
perception of thecomplexity of theproblems as- Treatyof AllianceoverwhichAmericanleader-
sociatedwithemigration in India; theygrasped shipseemedto haveexpendedan undueamount
the futilityof attemptingmultilateralagree- ofanxiety. Indeed,ColonelJohnJ. McCook,who
ments,as evidencedat the ShanghaiInterna- was responsible forbringing Mackenzie Kingand
tional Opium Convention;and, finally,they Theodore Roosevelt together, was even at that
cameto realizethefaultyconceptsin Canadian early date espousing the abrogationof the
policywithrespectto racial and immigrationAnglo-Japanese Treaty.The treaty, ofcourse,as
problems relatingto theChineseand, byexten- Sir Edward Greyadmitted, "in no wayaffected
sion,tootherAsiaticsas well. Canada's to
right legislate in matters concerning
The riotitselfprovideda suitableoccasionfor immigration."65
PresidentRoosevelttomakefriendly overtures to
Canadawiththeobjectoftakingunitedactionin
thematterofJapaneseimmigration. Withsome 65 McCook to King, July 29, 1908, King Papers; "Confi-
Memorandum to AccompanyReport of W. L. Mac-
reluctance and not a littlesuspicion,Canadian dential
kenzie King on His Mission to Great Britain to Conferwith
entertained
officials Roosevelt'swishesto theex- British Authorities on the Subject of Immigration from
tentofcooperating in thedispatchofa missionto India to Canada," C- 15190,King Papers.

TheAlaskaGold Rush
A comprehensive,systematichistoryof Alaska gold mining Wharton's narrativestyleis less thatof a historianthan a
begs to be done. But Alaska is huge- one-fifth writerforHoliday magazine.As he statesin his preface,this
the size of the
contiguous United States. No less intimidating,the Great "is not a historyin thesense of being a factualchronologyof
Land's mining enterpriseshave stretchedfromher Bering events; it is historyin the sense of presentingeventsin their
Sea coast to the southeasternpanhandle. Diverse corporate emotional context" (p. ix). From Francis Parkman to Allan
structuresand remarkable engineering techniques have Nevins, historianshave not found it necessaryto separate
been required to turn"pay streaks"into "pay loads." Justas"emotional context" from"factual chronology."However,
the tools of these argonauts mirroredwhat 19th-century such doyens have neverwrittenabout Alaska.
gold seekershad earlier applied across the Far West, so did For some reason, when writersturn to the Great Land,
Alaska's mining activities bubble with a polyglot broth they seem to lose their sense of proportionand engage in
comparable to California's Mother Lode population. Com- sweeping generalities and tired clichés. Have we not had
plicating and magnifyingAlaska's pioneer mining en- enough of "the last stampede" and the"last frontier"? Other
deavors were logistical nightmares, a vague United portionsof the globe have had miningstampedessince Alas-
States-Canada boundary,and a governmentalvacuum that ka's turn-of-the-century rushes. But was this not the "last
abetted lawlessnessby prospectorand public servantalike. frontier,"as Wharton affirms,the "final example of the in-
David Wharton has limited himself to approximately dividual existing as an individual, succeeding by his own
twentyyears of this historic pageant, the mid-ninetiesto efforts,neither exploiting nor being exploited by anyone"
1915. Those familiarwith Far North historywill recognize (p. 1)? Shades of Thomas Jefferson and the yeoman myth!
the era as one in which individual prospectingreached its Without the steamersand packers to supply them,most of
apogee: Yukon Valley minersfirstsurged u priver to Cana- theseminerscould neverhave survivedin theYukon Valley,
da's Klondike diggingsand thenjust as precipitouslyrushed much less mined there. Ask Alaska's natives whetherthey
down the Yukon to Nome. Ultimately,theydispersedthem- did or did not exploit nature. Indeed, the verysources that
selves all the way from the Copper River country in the Wharton cites are repletewithaccountsof rapacious miners
south to the remoteArcticshore. In recountingtheseevents, exploiting theirfellows.
Wharton has used a varietyof sources: taped interviews, A formernewsman,Wharton has, like othersbeforehim,
governmentdocuments, and manuscript collections. His walked the ground to assay his librarydiggings.For woods-
organizationis essentiallytopical: Skagway,Klondike, For- man no less than writer,Alaska's magnificenceis enthrall-
tymile,Eagle, Circle,Nome, Valdez, Fairbanks,etc. ing, and like the Forty-ninerwho had "seen the elephant,"
the compulsion to be grandiloquent in recountingthe en-
The Alaska Gold Rush. By David Wharton. (Bloomington: counteragain provesirresistible.
Indiana UniversityPress,1972.xiii, 302 pp. Bibliography, TedC. Hinckley
index,illustrations,end-papermap. $8.95) CaliforniaState University, San José

174 PACIFIC NORTHWEST QUARTERLY

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