THE ENVIROMMlENTAL EFFECTS OF THE YUKON GOtlD RUSH 1896 - 1906: ALTERATIONS TO LAND, DESTRUCTION OF WILDLWEC, AND DISEASE Bruce L. WilIis Department of Ristory Submitted in partial fuifiIlment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Faculty of Graduate Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario Juiy 1997 a Bruce L. Willis 1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, nie Wellington OttawaON K1A CR44 OttawaON KIAON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts ftom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels rnay be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author' s ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF TEE YUKON GOLD RUSH 1896 - 1906: ALTERATIONS TO LAND, DESTRUCTION OF WILDLIFE, AND DISEASE This thesis examines the environmentai effects of the Yukon Gold Rush ti-orn 1896 to 1906. The Gold Rush was the tirst major change occasioned by non-natural forces or human beings to the land and water in the Yukon. Prior to the Gold Rush. the native people followed a wandering existence tied to the seasonai movement of wildlife and tish camps. Suddenly. with the discovery of gold in 1896. thousands of non-natives travelled down various river systems to Dawscn City. The tederal authorities were not prepared to handle the problrrns this intlux created. They permitted the miners open access in the Klondike Valley. Large tires wrre caused along the Yukon River by the incoming rniners who logged vast areas near Dawson City. This resultrd in the imrnediate disappearance of wildlife. Placer rnining. using drrdges and hydraulic trchnology . eliminated plant life. destroyed fish and drove wildlife from the arra. In the Klondike region and along the Yukon River native and non-native hunters reduced the size of the moose and caribou populations. The arriving population brought diseases with them which seriously reduced the size of the Han population. 1 would like to thank the patience and understanding of my wife and the extraordinary assistance 1 have recrived from my thesis advisor. Dr. Gerald Killan, Principal of King's College. Without their support. this thesis would never have been completed. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of Examination Abstract Ac knowledgement Table of Contents Introduction 1 The Yukon Before the Gold Rush Introduction The Naturai Environment The Gold Rush Region Yukon First Nations: An Introduction The Non-native Arrivals Wildlife and Fish D i srsase Mining Conclusion 2 The Gold Rush Changes to the Land Introduction Govemment Policy The Environmental Effec ts of Forest Al terations kgmg Fish and Wildlife Regulation Conclusion 3 The Impact of Placer Mining on Fish and Wildlife Habitat Introduction Government Policies Overview of Placer Mining Hand Mining Hydraulic Mining Dredgcs Transponation Improvements Permafrost Alterations Alterations to Vegetation The Effect on WiIdiife Mercury Fish Conciusion The Environmentai Effects of the Gold Rush on the Indian People Introduction Govemment Policy Populations of the Han and Tutchone Indians Disnipions to the Han People Dawson City Di sease Conclusion Conclusion ~Maps 1 Map of Present Yukon 8 Yukon River near Dawson City, 1896 Tables 3 Changes to the Population of the KIondike and .Moosehide Han Settlements between 1897 and 1906 Appendices 1 Map 2, Dawson Area, Yukon Territory, 1991 2 Map 3. Stewart River Area. Yukon Trrritory. 1988 3 Map 4, Auriferous Gravels. Bonanza and Hunker Creeks, Klondike Mining District. 1906 4 Map 5, Nonhwestern Canada, 1898 5 Map 6, Yukon River to the Peily River. 1887 6 Map 7, Various Routes to the Klondike, 1898 7 Ten Aerid Photographs of the Klondike River. 22 August 1990. between Bonanza and Hunker Creeks 8 Table 1, Death Records for the Han Settlements at Dawson and Moosehide, 1897 to 1906 9 Table 2, Baptism Records for the Han Settlements at Dawson and Moosehide, 1897 to 1906 Bi bliography Vita The Environmentai Effects of the Yukon Gold Rush 1896 - 1906 Alterations to Land, Destruction of Wildlife, and Disease: Introduction Until 1896. the Yukon had undergone little economic development and minimal govemrnental contro1. Suddenly . beginning that year, the Gold Rush transformed the Yukon within a few years from wildemess into an important mining and commercial centre in the Klondike Valley and at Dawson City.' Within one genrration the aboriginal population was transformed from a vigorous society of hunters and gatherers to a debil itated cornmuni ty dependent on a fedrral bureaucracy . The changes to the land and the original people who inhabited the region were devastating and the rnany effects of that devastation remain to this day. The Yukon has aiways been perceived by non-natives from two antithetical viewpoints. Sorne have perceived the region as a pristine wildemess where travellers could rxperirnce frontier Me. Commencing with the Goid Rush. others have seen the Yukon as a land of unlimited potential and enormous wealth based on the extraction of its mineral resources. As well. staning with the railway at the tum of the cenniry and later with the Alaska Highway. the Yukon has been viewed as a place where rapid progres5 could occur without undur interference from govemment bureaucracy and regulation. The focus of this thesis is the negative impact of the Gold Rush dong the Yukon River and in the Klondike Valley. It will examine environmental degradation brought about by rniners and mining practices which rffected imrnediate changes to wildlife habitat. water levels, and water quality. These changes hastened the end of the indigenous peoples' sustainable way of life and decimated their society . '- Harold A. Lnnis. discusses the econornics of the Yukon during and atler the Gold Rush in "Settirment and the Mining Fronüer in Canadian Fronriers of Senlement" W.A. MacIntosh and W.L.G.loerg. d.. (Toronto: Macmîllan Company of Canada. [X, 1936). For more than a century our understanding and awareness of environmental impacts have been improving. but, for one reason or another. environmentai policy invariably lagged behind. This paper will suggest that it is critical to have protective policirs and supportive regulations in place so that environmental darnage of the kind which happened during the rnining frenzy of the Gold Rush will not recur. An anaiysis of the regulation and use of land and water in the Yukon presents various challenges. not least of which is that few studies have bern made of the subject. notwithstanding the fact that native people have inhabited the region for more than 30.000 years2 . At present the environmentai historiography of the Yukon penains to the Indian use of land. the fur trade and the Gold Rush. Catherine ~McClellan'sbook. A Histo~yof the Yukon Indians: Pan of the Land, Part of the WaterqJis more relevant as it describes the use of land and water by native people. In Y~dunWildZife: A Socid Hisro~? Robert McCandless deals with rhe creation and enforcement of wildlifr law in the Yukon. However, McClellan dors not drai with the effect of mining or other industrial activities on the native peoples' use of the land. Two other studies have been of assistance. ~MargarrtCarter's book. A History of the Use of Wood in the Yukon to 2903'. provides an extensive and accurate review of timbrr industry in the Yukon including the number of timber licrnses issued. the areas logged and the amount of timber taken. N. Seigel and C. McEwan provided basic '- A.C. McClellan. A Hirrory of tlie Yukon Indiam: Pan of the Lord, Pan of the Wuter (Vancouver: Douglas & Mclntyre Ltd. I987), p. 17. '. Robert G. McCandless. Ydon Wlife: A Social HLwq (UNvers~cyof Albena Press: Edmonton. 1985). - Margaret Carter. A Hrclog of the Use of Wood in rile YuRon ro 1903 (Ottawa: National Histone Sites Service, 1973). information on fishing in A His~oricalOverview of Fishing in the Yukon."ther general histories have been helph1 in providing reliable information on the Yukon. These include Ken S. Coates. Best Left as Indians Native- White Relations in the Yikon Territory 1840-1973,' and Ken S. Coates and William R. Morrison, Land of the Midnighi Sun. A History of the Yukon." major source of information in relation to the Klondike gold fields was contained in Hugh S. Bostock, Selected Field Repons of the Geologicai Survey of Canada, 1898 to 1933.9 The most valuable information carne from the Anglican Church Diocese of Yukon Records1" which provided significant and reliable evidence for detemining death rates and their causes for the Dawson ami Moosehide srttlements for the Han people between 1897 and 1906. The federal government owned the land and water resources of the Yukon. Ottawa's policies for water and land use during the Gold Rush prrpetuated the frontier mentali ty that the Yukon was wide open for development. Its plan was to utilize these resources for maximum profit and to establish a legal framework for resource extraction. The iack of local input in decisions and policies. combined with Ottawa's drsire to rnaxirniw resource extraction. created a long-term environmental problem. The fiora and fauna of the Yukon, panicularly in the Klondike Valley.