Original metadata (https://open.yukon.ca) (English, HTML)

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Publisher-reported update

2026-09-09

Gold was first reported in the Yukon region by fur traders and missionaries in the mid 1800s. Fur trader Robert Campbell noted the presence of gold near the site of Fort Selkirk in the early 1850s but neither missionaries nor fur traders were interested in gold. Nevertheless, miners drifted into the region. Economic depression pushed some prospectors northward. In 1880, the first miners were allowed to travel through one of the less important Tlingit trade routes, the Chilkoot Trail. Gold was discovered In 1896 which led to a staking rush and an influx of prospectors the following summer. Construction and staking resulted in the occupation of the land of the Han First Nation people. The Han were removed to the Moosehide reserve, five kilometres down river from Dawson where they became legal charges of the Federal Department of Indian Affairs. The growth of mining in the Klondike was supported by an expansion of commercial supply services. The Canadian government's maintenance of administrative powers and the dispatch of Mounties into the Klondike fulfilled the conditions for secure commercial capital investment. Increased flow of capital into the Klondike led to improvements in…

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