Chilkoot Pass This is a link to a video that is very informative and has lots of old pictures of this historic event. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dcsYMTyZcE. The Klondike gold rush began in July of 1897. Miners came back from the Yukon showing off their bags of gold. So the stampede began. It is very interesting to read the routes and journeys of regular folk that knew nothing about mining, Alaska weather or how to prepare for an adventure. Lots of lives were lost and a lot turned back. In 6 months 100,000 started and only 30,000 completed the trip to the Yukon. There were several routes and the most common was by boat to Skagway, then over the Chilkoot Mountain. They had to have a year supply of food so sometimes they had to go up and down the mountain 40 times. After that they had to hike 14 miles to Bennet Lake. Then they had to build boats for the 500 mile trip to Dawson City. This is truly amazing just to see what these people went through.