By
Paty Jager
Caroline, thank you for having me on you blog during
my tour.
As was the case in most gold rushes, the
entrepreneurs who followed the thousands who rushed to get claims in the gold
fields were the ones who walked away with money in their pockets. In the case
of the Klondike rushes, there was more money to be made providing warm beds and
meals along the nearly 600 miles from Skagway and Dyea to Dawson City and the
1300 miles from Dawson to St. Michael, on the eastern shore of Alaska.
From Dyea and Skagway going over Chillkoot and White
Pass to Lakes Lindemann and Bennett there were small communities set up every
twenty miles. The need for the stops every twenty miles had to do with the fact
the men and women who came to seek their gold usually had barely enough money
to get the provisions required by the Northwest Mounted Police (NWMP) to enter
the Yukon and couldn’t afford to hire a packer or purchase a horse to haul
their goods. The NWMP required each person to have 1,000 to 1,200 pounds of
provisions to cross the summits and enter into the Yukon. Most men were only
able to carry fifty to one-hundred pounds at a time on their backs. This meant
making, if they could carry one hundred pounds, ten trips on each twenty mile
stretch. They would get up in the morning, pack their first one hundred pounds
to the next stop, cache it with someone, then go back and get the next one as
many times as it took to get all their provisions to the next stop.
Having to move back and forth so much made getting
over the summit and down to the lakes a long process. Add to that, getting to
the summit meant hiking from sea level at Dyea to the 3,500 summit at Chilkoot
in fifteen miles. Chilkoot had stairs cut in the frozen snow the last 1500
feet. Skagway to the White Pass summit was 40 miles with not such a drastic
climb but more harrowing conditions. White Pass had narrow rock ledges for the
trail, deep crevices and switchback trails only wide enough for one man to
pass, making the hikers heading back
down the trail have to find alternate routes.
The two trails had their advantages and disadvantages.
But the one thing they both had were tent cities where a weary traveler could
pay a $1 for a bunk where they could throw down their own bedding or use the
same bedding thousands of other travelers used. A dollar also got them a hot
meal. It wouldn’t be more than beans, soda bread, canned fruit, and possibly
fresh game, but it was better than the hardtack and jerky they used for fuel
while climbing.
The tent
cities also had saloons, gambling tents, and even a tent or two of soiled doves.
Thieves and swindlers lived in the cities preying on the gullible. Most of the
gold seekers were men and women who had scraped together their money and
sometimes even a town would go together and send several men to find gold to
help. Even office workers caught gold fever and headed to the Klondike. All
these naïve travelers made excellent marks for the people in the tent cities
too lazy to pan for gold but willing to use knavery to get it from others.
Prices on the Skagway and Dyea side of the summits
were double what a person paid in the lower forty-eight and on the Yukon side,
they doubled the Skagway and Dyea prices. If the eager prospectors were smart
they purchased their supplies in Seattle and San Francisco before heading by
ship to Skagway and St. Michael.
A year’s outfit for one man purchased at the Alaska
Commercial Company in Dawson in 1897 cost $550.25. This included food and
clothing needed to stay alive.
In my newest release, LAYING CLAIM, Clara Bixbee arrives in Skagway, believing she can
easily find a packer or guide to take her over Chilkoot Pass. She soon learns
the journey may be more than she’d expected.
LAYING
CLAIM Blurb:
Jeremy Duncan commits to haul one last load of supplies across the great interior of the Yukon before heading home. But, he has to trade his pack animals for sled dogs and leave Skagway in the middle of a blizzard due to one strong-willed, business-minded beauty.
Determined to find her older brother, Clara Bixbee doesn't care how she gets across the pass, as long as she does, and soon. Hiring handsome pack guide Jeremy Duncan seems to be her best choice. Especially after she saves a young girl being beaten by the local gang leader and needs to escape Skagway fast.
LAYING
CLAIM Excerpt:
Someone
roughly shook Clara. She shoved her arms out of her sleeping bag and opened her
eyes. The lanterns were glowing, backlighting the dark, furry head so close she
could smell his sour breath.
“Get
away from me!” she said loudly. Where is
Jeremy? She shot a glance to the floor. His sleeping bag was empty.
“What
have you done with Jeremy?” She sat up, forcing the body looming over her to
have to back up.
“We
decided you ain’t goin’ with him.”
She
stared at the man in front of her. It was one of the first men they’d been
introduced to. And one of the men who’d made her nervous the way he stared at
her.
“You
have no say over what I can and can’t do.” Inside her body quivered and her
stomach squeezed with fear. Outside, she scowled and clenched her fists.
Working at the warehouse, she’d learned to be strong on the outside no matter
what she felt on the inside. Men always thought they could bully her.
Clara
dropped her arm over the side of the cot and groped the floor for something to
use as a weapon. Her trusty umbrella was packed in one of the sleds.
“It
ain’t right for a young thing like you to be goin’ into the wilderness. You
could get ate by a bear or worse.” The man nodded his head.
Several
voices behind him agreed. She looked beyond the man in her space and spotted
four more. Panic clamped her jaw shut. Jeremy,
where are you?
Her
hand found something long, round, and cold. She grasped it and pulled Jeremy’s
rifle onto her lap. Before the man could move to take it from her, she swung
the business end toward him.
“Back
off!” She glared at all of them. “All of you. Get back.”
They
all backed up, apologizing and glaring at the back of the man she held the
rifle on.
“Where
is Jeremy? Did you do something to him?” She quickly scanned the room. “Where’s
Snooker Pete?” She clicked the pointy thing on the top of the rifle just like
she’d watched Jeremy do when he prepared to shoot a rabbit on the trail.
“Don’t
go shooting me. They’re both fine.” The bearded man’s eyes moved in his head
like bubbles in a pot of boiling water.
Clara
nodded to the others. “Bring Pete and Jeremy here, or in five minutes I’m going
to shoot this man in the foot.” She let the end of the barrel drop enough to
see the man’s big boot.
They
others scattered out of the tent, leaving her with the rifle aimed at the man’s
foot.
“There’s
no reason to be so ornery,” the man said, his voice shaking.
“There
was no reason for you to meddle in my life. That’s one thing I don’t take
kindly to— men meddling in my affairs.” She glared at the man and hoped Jeremy
arrived soon. She didn’t know how to keep the gun from firing.
 |
| Paty Jager, Author |
With sixteen published
books, three novellas, and an anthology, award-winning author, Paty Jager is never at a loss for story
ideas and characters in her head. Her rural life in central and eastern Oregon,
and interests in local history and the world around her, keeps the mystery and
romance ideas flowing. She not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives
it.
You can learn more
about Paty at her blog; www.patyjager.blogspot.com her website; http://www.patyjager.net
or on Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/#!/paty.jager
and twitter; @patyjag.
GIVEAWAY
This
post is part of a week-long blog tour. I love to give and you could be the
winner! I will be giving away an e-copy of my Christmas novella, Christmas Redemption, to one commenter
at each blog stop where there are at least ten comments. You can find the blog
tour hosts at my blog: http://www.patyjager.blogspot.com or my website: http://www.patyjager.net
Thanks for stopping by!
