Old Dominion University ODU Digital Commons History Theses & Dissertations History Spring 2016 Achieving Sourdough Status: The Diary, Photographs, and Letters of Samuel Baker Dunn, 1898-1899 Robert Nicholas Melatti Old Dominion University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/history_etds Part of the Canadian History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Melatti, Robert N.. "Achieving Sourdough Status: The Diary, Photographs, and Letters of Samuel Baker Dunn, 1898-1899" (2016). Master of Arts (MA), Thesis, History, Old Dominion University, DOI: 10.25777/ mrs2-2135 https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/history_etds/3 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the History at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A ACHIEVING SOURDOUGH STATUS: THE DIARY, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND LETTERS OF SAMUEL BAKER DUNN, 1898-1899 by Robert Nicholas Melatti B.A. May 2011, Old Dominion University A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Old Dominion University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS HISTORY OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY May 2016 Approved by: Elizabeth Zanoni (Director) Maura Hametz (Member) Ingo Heidbrink (Member) B ABSTRACT ACHIEVING SOURDOUGH STATUS: THE DIARY, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND LETTERS OF SAMUEL BAKER DUNN, 1898-1899 Robert Nicholas Melatti Old Dominion University, 2016 Director: Dr. Elizabeth Zanoni This thesis examines Samuel Baker Dunn and other prospectors from Montgomery County in Southwestern Iowa who participated in the Yukon Gold Rush of 1896-1899. The thesis explores three min research questions: Why was there such an exodus of people to the Yukon from Montgomery County and the town of Villisca in particular? 2) How did Montgomery County citizens experience the Yukon Gold Rush and furthermore, what meaning did they attribute to the journey and the mining experience? How did they measure success? 3) What particular insights do letters, diaries, and photographs – and in particular Samuel Baker Dunn’s personal documents – provide historians interested in the Gold Rush? S.B. Dunn’s compendium represents a unique interrelated set of sources that include his daily diary, photographs, writings on the versos of the developed photographs and various letters to the editors of the three local Montgomery County newspapers. The thesis focuses on the many influences motivating Iowans and in particular, S.B. Dunn, to sell his business to raise the needed investment for the journey. Among the influences discussed are familial connections to a Gold Rush superstar, the Panic of 1893, meteorological factors such as drought, the value of gold both perceived and real, the influence of the Populist Movement and the power of the pioneer spirit that was particularly strong in Montgomery County. The thesis argues that to Samuel Baker Dunn and his Iowan companions “success” in the Yukon was less dependent on finding gold than it was on the feeling that they had survived over the challenges and experiences of the C journey by employing the pioneer spirit that had been, in part, responsible for pushing them from Iowa to the gold fields. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 AN EXAMINATION OF THE SOURCES .............................................................4 II. THE GOLD RUSH CAST OF CHARACTERS ...............................................................16 III. IOWANS IN SEARCH OF THEIR ELUSIVE EL DORADO .........................................33 POLITICAL CHANGES AND CHALLENGES ...................................................34 THE MINIMAL EFFECT OF POPULISM IN IOWA ..........................................40 METEOROLOGICAL FACTORS .........................................................................45 INTRODUCTION OF YELLOW JOURNALISM ................................................47 IV. FROM VILLISCA TO SEATTLE TO DAWSON CITY .................................................50 TRAVERSING THE WHITE AND CHILCOOT PASSES ..................................59 THE PALM SUNDAY AVALANCHE .................................................................70 FROM THE ENCAMPMENT ON LAKE BENNETT TO DAWSON, Y.T. ........76 V. THE ART OF EXTRACTION AND THE MINING CAMP EXPERIENCE ..................93 VI. CONCLUSION: IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR NEARLY FORTY YEARS LATER .............................................................................................................................108 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................115 APPENDIX ..................................................................................................................................120 VITA ............................................................................................................................................121 v LIST OF PLATES Plate Page 1. Iowa State Precipitation, 1890-1900 ........................................................................................45 2. “Steamship Victorian,” University of Washington Photograph ..............................................55 3. “The Human Chain,” S.B. Dunn, Spring 1898 ........................................................................67 4. “Scene on the Summit of Chilcoot Pass,” S.B. Dunn,1898 .....................................................69 5. “Avalanche Rescue Efforts,” S.B. Dunn, April 3, 1898 ..........................................................72 6. “Avalanche Rescue Efforts,” Verso, S.B. Dunn ......................................................................74 7. “Camp at Lake Lindemann,” S.B. Dunn, 1898 ........................................................................77 8. “Marsh Lake,” S.B. Dunn, 1898 ..............................................................................................80 9. “White Horse Rapids,” S.B. Dunn, June 1898 ........................................................................85 10. “Dawson, Yukon Territory,” S.B. Dunn, July 21, 1898 ..........................................................89 11. “Hand-Drawn Rendering of his Mine,” Basil Austin, 1898 ....................................................94 12. “No. 26 Eldorado,” S.B. Dunn, 1899 .......................................................................................97 13. “Boxing on a Floor of Gold,” S.B. Dunn, 1898 .....................................................................102 14. “Stanley and Dunn Families,” S.B. Dunn, Villisca, Iowa, 1897 ...........................................111 15. “Hand-Drawn Map of the Lake Bennett Region,” S.B. Dunn, 1898 .....................................114 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In his diary, Samuel Baker Dunn, my great grandfather, recorded his impressions after having travelled some 3,000 miles by train, boat and mule from Villisca, Iowa to Dawson, Yukon Territory caught in the fever of the Gold Rush. All along the river bank at Dawson, tents are going up like magic, Seen from the Yukon itself, it is a picturesque sight for despite the indescribable disorder, there is a certain pageantry about the mass of tents and newly built cabins and the throng of human bodies. Dawson is overcrowded and the overflow is spreading itself out over the adjacent country, mad in its insatiable lust for the precious metal that lies below the matted tundra. Day and night the rush goes on. From the Canadian side, a few came by way of Edmonton but the greater number are coming by way of Dyea and the Chilcoot Pass and Skagway and the White Pass. All down the 1800 miles of river patched up old tubs long since out of commission are being requisitioned to carry the heterogeneous community that is gathering from all parts of the world. In the streets of Dawson, well-bred professional men from eastern cities rub shoulders with the dregs of the world. Every saloon and dance hall is thronged. Never was such a stampede. Many are arriving without the financial backing that such an occasion necessitates and must starve in these barren valleys for Dawson isill provided for such an unexpected influx and food is counted gold. After a time, no money can buy it. Faced with the prospect of famine, the authorities allow admission only to those who have a full year’s supply of grub equal to three rounds a day for 365 days. But still they come, evading the authorities by a hundred devices, drunk with the lust for gold and high adventure. And in the end, thousands will go back, heart broken and penniless, cursing the very name of the country that lured them from comparative comfort.1 As one of some 30,000 men and women arriving in Dawson, the portal to the goldfields of the Klondike, Dunn’s verso notation powerfully and poetically captured the emotions of inhabitants of Dawson hoping to strike it rich as gold prospectors. That he begins this entry with words like “magic” and “picturesque,” and ends with words like “heartbroken” and “penniless,” suggests expectations met and expectations unfilled, as the majority of the arrivals, “drunk with the lust for gold,” returned home cold, hungry, and poor. 1 Samuel Baker Dunn, Photograph, Dawson, Yukon Territory, July 21,1898, verso 2 This thesis tells the story of the long, arduous, and emotion