A prospector pans for gold during the Klondike Gold Rush.
An exhausted prospector takes a rest.
Prospectors pans for gold in a creek.
A rider makes his way up the trail to the mines.
A prospector poses with his massive stack of supplies for the trip to Alaska.
A long line of prospectors wait to get their mining licenses.
A camp grows as prospectors move north.
Miners at the boundary line between Canada and the United States.
Riders make their way across the Chilkoot Pass.
A long line of prospectors and miners make their way, like ants, up Chilkoot Pass.
A dog sled team waits to go out into the frozen wilderness.
Three young prospectors stand in camp.
A prospector and his dog.
Prospectors set up camp with a lean-to at the foot of a nanyon.
Prospectors make their way down White Pass Trail.
White Pass Trail, sometimes known as Dead Horse Trail, at the border of Canada and the United States.
A group of miners make their way across the snowy incline up Chilkoot Pass.
Men slide sleds fitted with sails across a frozen lake.
Prospectors pose in front of a log cabin.
A street scene in Dawson City.
Mail day. Prospectors, separated from their families, swarm around to see what they've received.
Women peer out the doors in a district of the city dedicated to prostitution.
Prospectors, ready to give up, sell their last few possessions to pay for the trip home.
Men make their way through Dyer Trail on a dogsled.
The view from the top of Chilkoot Pass.
A group of miners get caught in a snow storm.
Rescue teams sift through the snow, looking for survivors, after an avalanche.
American ex-pats, still connected with their countrymen down south, celebrate their nation's naval victories in the Spanish-American War.
The Canadians celebrate Dominion Day.
A rotary snowplow clears the way.
Dawson City after a fire burned it to the ground.
The smoldering remains of Dawson City.
A mining camp at work.
Miners hard at work underground.
A shipment of gold from Alaska arrives in Seattle.
A mining operation in a Klondike gold field.
A successful prospector pays for his purchases at the general store with a sprinkle of gold dust.
The Klondike Gold Rush began in 1896 when an American prospector, as well as several Native Americans, found gold in Bonanza Creek, located in Canada's Yukon Territory. The American and his family set up mines there and, nearly overnight, became wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.
However, word soon got out and everyone wanted a piece of the action. Thousands of men signed up for mining licenses, left their families, and risked everything for gold.
Northern towns rapidly expanded due to the massive influx of gold-hungry prospectors. Dawson City, in particular, went from a population of 500 to 30,000 in just two years. It grew fast and often clumsily as it filled up with men who had no better way to spend their free time than drink as well as the prostitutes that followed them there. The city was ravaged by disease and disasters, and, in a span of two years, burned down more than once.
The prospectors of Dawson City and the surrounding area had to struggle to dig their way through the permafrost in order to find any little glimmers of gold that might still be unclaimed. Some would come with glittering prizes that they'd either turn into money or trade for supplies at the general store.
A handful came home rich. More than 400 tons of gold was discovered in the Yukon's mountains and valleys — but most of it came from that first find in Bonanza Creek, in land claimed before the Klondike Gold Rush had even truly begun.
Most prospectors gathered nothing more than a few pennies. By 1899, the excitement had died out. People moved on, most with nothing to show for their time in the Klondike Gold Rush, left only to chase after the next rumor of a real-life El Dorado. They packed their things and left, leaving the old Klondike towns all but empty behind them.
Next, check out these images of the age of Antarctic exploration and of northern Canada's Inuit people.