Now for the reality.
The gold rush, in 1898, was to a place in Canada, that became known as Dawson City, It still exists, in the Canadian Yukon Territory. As this was in Canada, it was subject to Canadian laws and rules. It was NOT Alaska.
This TV show is FICTION, as in made up by a writer. It has very little relation to the actual history of that place, in that time period.
For a start, people coming into the territory, from any where else HAD to have a year's worth of supplies, and that was enforced by the North West Mounted Police, who controlled the entry points to the territory. That years worth of supplies amounted to about TWO tons of goods. This was done so that people didn't starve to death, during the winter, or drown while trying to get down the rivers, to the gold fields. The NWMP made sure that the rafts that the rushers built were capable of making it down the wild rivers, by insisting that every boat or raft was inspected, first by them.
Guns were strictly controlled, and if you were to look at the actual photos from that time period, no body was carrying a hand gun on their hip. A rifle, for hunting, yes, hand guns no. The NWMP had a strict policy about weapons, and if a man showed up with a pistol, he was disarmed, and warned about any further abuse of the peace.
In 1900 Dawson City was the largest city in the western part of North American, except for San Francisco, and it had every modern thing that you could ask for, including schools, opera houses, electricity, banks, and churches, and a electric street car service. What it didn't have was gun fights on the streets, and the kind of crap that this TV show contains.
Skagway, Alaska did have that kind of crime, most of it run by "soapy Smith " a gangster from the lower 48. When he went to Dawson, he was immediately arrested by the NWMP, taken before the Magistrate , banned from the territory, and handcuffed. He was tied to his horse and escorted back to US soil, by a NWMP Constable. He never came back to the Yukon.
This series was shot entirely in Alberta, Canada, and the production and crew were mostly Canadians.
Here is a famous photograph, of hundreds of men carrying supplies up the Chilkoot Pass to get into Canada. The boundary is at the top along the crest of the mountains. It took each man about thirty trips up and back down, again, to get their "grub stake' over the mountain. This is the real face of the gold rush to the Yukon. Hard and tough, and many a dream lost.
https://www.google.ca/search?q=photo...w=1109&bih=596
The program is not at all accurate, but that isn't anything new , is it ?
Jim B.
Toronto.
PS I have lived in Dawson City, in the past.
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