Bonanza Creek and the Klondike

On 16 August 1896 Keish (Skookum Jim Mason), Kaágoo (Dawson Charlie) and George Carmack found coarse gold on Rabbit Creek, renamed Bonanza, and within two years a hundred thousand people had set out for the Yukon. Most never arrived; the Chilkoot required a tonne of supplies per person carried over the pass. Dawson City went from nothing to the largest town north of Seattle and back again. The creeks are still worked today, Discovery Claim is a national historic site, and Dawson is a living town, not a museum piece.