Bill's Aviation Log

Jack London (1876 – 1916) was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing.

His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in Alaska and the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen".

London was largely self-educated, although he did attend Cal Berkeley but did not graduate. Instead he joined the Klondike Gold Rush.

Jack London’s original log cabin was built on the North Fork of Henderson Creek, 50 miles south of Dawson City, just prior to the gold rush of 1898. London entered the Yukon in September of 1897 as a 21-year-old prospector looking for gold. London’s cabin was abandoned after the Gold Rush. It was re-discovered by trappers in 1936 who noted London’s signature on the back wall. Yukon author Dick North organized a search in 1965 and eventually had the cabin dismantled and shipped out. Two replicas were made from the original logs. One is here in Dawson City, while the other was re-assembled at Jack London Square in Oakland, CA., London’s hometown.

This well-done museum with its panelled wood interior featured lots of artifacts with accompanying informative placards.

Dawson City was founded in the early years of the Klondike goldrush, when prospector Joe Ladue and shopkeeper Arthur Harper decided to make a profit from the influx to the Klondike. The two men bought 178 acres of the mudflats at the junction of the Klondike and Yukon rivers from the government and laid out the street plan for a new town, bringing in timber and other supplies to sell to the migrants. The town, in the beginning simply known as "Harper and Ladue town site", was named Dawson City after the director of Canada's Geographical Survey. It grew rapidly to hold 500 people by the winter of 1896.

In the spring of 1898, the Dawson area population, including the surrounding gold fields, rose further to 30,000 as stampeders arrived over the passes. The centre of the town, Front Street, was lined with hastily built buildings and warehouses, together with log cabins and tents spreading out across the rest of the settlement. There was no running water or sewerage, and only two springs for drinking water to supplement the increasingly polluted river. In spring, the unpaved streets were churned into thick mud and in summer the settlement reeked of human effluent and was plagued by flies and mosquitoes. Land in Dawson was now scarce, and plots sold for up to $10,000 ($377,960 in 2024) each; prime locations on Front Street could reach $20,000 ($755,920 in 2024) while a small log cabin might rent for $100 ($3,780 in 2024) a month.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Dawson City and the Klondike Gold Rush you could learn here.

Modern day prospecting equipment.

July 10, 2025 - Driving from Alaska to Maryland Jack London and Dawson City Museums
Because we had gotten an early start out of Tok, we had the afternoon in Dawson City with which to sightsee. We started out at the little Jack London Museum, pictured here.

Jack London (1876 – 1916) was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in Alaska and the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen". London was largely self-educated, although he did attend Cal Berkeley but did not graduate. Instead he joined the Klondike Gold Rush.

The museum was in this one room log cabin. There were pictures on the walls, but basically we all sat in chairs and a woman told us about Jack London. She was an excellent orator, though. I talked with her afterwards and she told me she had taught school for many years. There was also a 30 minute video. The main thing I remember her saying was that Jack London had wanted to be a writer, and by the time he went north for the Klondike Gold Rush in July 1897, he had perfected his craft as a writer but had not been able to make any money at it. Upon returning to California in 1898 after coming down with scurvey, he discovered that people wanted to know what the Klondike Gold Rush was like. Having just been there, and knowing how to write, he was in the perfect position and his career took off.

Jack London’s original log cabin was built on the North Fork of Henderson Creek, 50 miles south of Dawson City, just prior to the gold rush of 1898. London entered the Yukon in September of 1897 as a 21-year-old prospector looking for gold. London’s cabin was abandoned after the Gold Rush. It was re-discovered by trappers in 1936 who noted London’s signature on the back wall. Yukon author Dick North organized a search in 1965 and eventually had the cabin dismantled and shipped out. Two replicas were made from the original logs. One is here in Dawson City, while the other was re-assembled at Jack London Square in Oakland, CA., London’s hometown.

London lived in the Dawson area from October 1897 to June 1898. Notice the sod roof on his cabin.

Pretty spartan.

Jack London reached Chilkoot Pass on August 30, 1897. Packing up to 150 pounds a load, it took him and his companions four days to get over the summit. London mentions such struggles in his best selling novel "Smoke Bellew".



Our next stop was the Dawson City Museum.

This well-done museum with its panelled wood interior featured lots of artifacts with accompanying informative placards. Dawson City was founded in the early years of the Klondike goldrush, when prospector Joe Ladue and shopkeeper Arthur Harper decided to make a profit from the influx to the Klondike. The two men bought 178 acres of the mudflats at the junction of the Klondike and Yukon rivers from the government and laid out the street plan for a new town, bringing in timber and other supplies to sell to the migrants. The town, in the beginning simply known as "Harper and Ladue town site", was named Dawson City after the director of Canada's Geographical Survey. It grew rapidly to hold 500 people by the winter of 1896. In the spring of 1898, the Dawson area population, including the surrounding gold fields, rose further to 30,000 as stampeders arrived over the passes. The centre of the town, Front Street, was lined with hastily built buildings and warehouses, together with log cabins and tents spreading out across the rest of the settlement. There was no running water or sewerage, and only two springs for drinking water to supplement the increasingly polluted river. In spring, the unpaved streets were churned into thick mud and in summer the settlement reeked of human effluent and was plagued by flies and mosquitoes. Land in Dawson was now scarce, and plots sold for up to $10,000 ($377,960 in 2024) each; prime locations on Front Street could reach $20,000 ($755,920 in 2024) while a small log cabin might rent for $100 ($3,780 in 2024) a month.

The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration by an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of Yukon in northwestern Canada, between 1896 and 1899. Gold was discovered there by local miners on August 16, 1896; when news reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year, it triggered a stampede of prospectors. To accommodate the prospectors, boom towns sprang up along the routes. At their terminus, Dawson City was founded at the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon rivers. From a population of 500 in 1896, the town grew to house approximately 17,000 people by summer 1898. Built of wood, isolated, and unsanitary, Dawson suffered from fires, high prices, and epidemics. Despite this, the wealthiest prospectors spent extravagantly, gambling and drinking in the saloons.

By 1899, the gold rush had ended and the town's population plummeted as all but 8,000 people left. When Dawson was incorporated as a city in 1902, the population was under 5,000. The population dropped after World War II when the Alaska Highway bypassed it 322 miles to the south. The economic damage to Dawson City was such that Whitehorse, the highway's hub, replaced it as territorial capital in 1953. Dawson City's population languished around the 600–900 mark through the 1960s and 1970s, but has risen and held stable since then. Dawson's population is currently around 1,577.

In the early 1950s, Dawson was linked by road to Alaska, and in fall 1955, with Whitehorse along a road that now forms part of the Klondike Highway.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Dawson City and the Klondike Gold Rush you could learn here.

I saw this and it reminded me of Lynnette who makes a baby quilt for every new baby by family or close friends.

Modern day prospecting equipment.

Dawson City in 1903. At bottom left to right (north-south) is the Yukon River. The Klondike River branches off to the east. It was along the Klondike River and its branches where most of the gold was found during the Klondike Gold Rush.


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July 10, 2025 - Driving from Alaska to Maryland Jack London and Dawson City Museums

July 10, 2025 - Driving from Alaska to Maryland
Jack London and Dawson City Museums