This blog post is part of RBSC’s new series spotlighting items in the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection and the Wallace B. and Madeline H. Chung Collection.
“Dawson is Once Again in Ashes” – The Klondike Nugget, April 27, 1899.
Hastily built using green timber and canvas, the gold rush town of Dawson City, Y.T, was particularly vulnerable to flame and suffered several catastrophic fires in 1897, 1898, and 1899. The fire which took place on April 26, 1899, was by far the worst. Starting in the Bodega Saloon, the blaze rapidly destroyed at least 117 buildings and consumed over 1 million dollars’ worth of property, goods, and gold.[1]
Dawson City fireman after a fire at 45 Below, April 1899. Phil Lind Klondike Collection, RBSC-ARC-1820-PH-1655.
This black and white photo of a fireman after a mining claim fire in April 1899 reveals the hazards of fighting fires in a subarctic climate. After the alarm was sounded on April 26, Dawson’s volunteer firemen were eventually able to halt the flames using water hoses and chemical suppressants, but not before it leapt across cabins and tents.[2] The Klondike Nugget reported that “many of the losers in the fire had but recently rebuilt from the last fire, while some were still more unfortunate and had suffered three fires in three months.”[3] However, local residents remained resilient. In a letter to his brother later that summer, bank employee Thomas Kay described the fire’s aftermath: “I never seen anything like it, before; it came pretty [far] out the town; but some of the people commenced to build again within a few hours after and while the ruins were still smouldering.”[4]
Unfortunately, this conflagration was followed by another fire in January 1900 which once again decimated the city. It wasn’t until the winter of 1900-1901 and the arrival of professional fire protection that Dawson City experienced its first year without a major fire.
This image is currently on display at the Chung Lind Gallery. For more information or to plan your visit, please visit the Chung Lind Gallery website.
[1] Ken Coates and William R. Morrison, Land of the Midnight Sun: A History of the Yukon (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005), 102.
[2] “Worst is Known,” Klondike Nugget vol. 2, no. 34, April 29, 1899, p.2, https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.N_00021_18990429/1
[3] “Extra Edition! Dawson is Once Again in Ashes,” Klondike Nugget vol. 2, no.33, April 27, 1899, p.2, https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.N_00021_18990427/1
[4] “Kay., T. to Jim Kay, His Brother, Regarding His Life in Dawson, Including a Description of the Unemployed in the City and a Disastrous Fire on April 26, 1899,” BC Historical Documents, June 4, 1899, https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0370103