Polly supposedly came to the Yukon in 1898. In the early 1900s, James Alexander, who ran a mine east of Atlin, British Columbia came to own Polly. On a trip to Vancouver in 1918, Alexander left the bird behind with friends. Sadly he and his wife drowned aboard the ill-fated Princess Sophia.

Orphaned, Polly moved in to the Caribou Hotel (later named Carcross Hotel) in Carcross, Yukon, and quickly became its most distinctive resident. From its perch in the hotel’s restaurant, which mainly catered to miners, Polly learned how to sing, bite, drink, spit and swear. Polly would drink whiskey until he got so drunk he fell off his perch. Yet, when around kids, Polly became a new bird and sang sweetly whenever children sat down for homemade pie in the restaurant.

A Canadian Press reporter turned up at the hotel in the 1970s. “The world famous Carcross parrot is probably the oldest, meanest, ugliest, dirtiest bird north of the 60th parallel,” Dennis Bell wrote in an article called Parrot Reformed but Hates Everyone, which was heralded as a story of the year in 1972. “He hates everybody. Which is understandable, because the damned old buzzard has resided within spitting distance of a beer parlour since 1919 and has had to endure 64 years of beer fumes, drunks who mash soggy crackers through the bars of his cage, and phantom, feather pluckers.”

After outliving many of its owners, Polly died in November 1972 and was buried in the Carcross cemetery.

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Berton’s writing style and his depth of subject matter, made this book one of my all-time favorite reads. He looks at history from the viewpoint of the people who lived it. His use of diaries, news stories, and anecdotal moments, make the Klondike Goldrush come alive. His commitment to retelling the history of this unparalleled confluence of events and people has left us with a literary treasure.

Although Pierre Berton is a Canadian writer, the “Klondike” is the recanting of an American gold rush on Canadian territory. And if you are Canadian, Berton has done more to bring Canadian history to the Canadian consciousness than any other writer.

I recommend the “Klondike”. Start reading it – you won’t be disappointed!

A brief biography.
More of Pierre Berton’s books.

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Travel to Dawson City, centre of the Klondike Goldrush of 1897-98, was no easy feat. Thousands of goldrushers, fanned by dreams of incredible wealth for the finding, and without the experience of travel in the wilderness, headed north. The Canadian government realized that there was insufficient food and support to see to the influx of so many people in these northern areas. They made it a requirement, enforced by the Northwest Mounted Police, at the border crossing at the top of the Chilkootand White Passes, for each goldrusher to carry a year’s supply of goods to sustain themselves in this harsh northern environment.Here is a sample recommendation of a goods list:

150 lbs. bacon
400 lbs. flour
25 lbs. rolled oats
125 lbs. beans
10 lbs. tea
10 lbs. coffee
25 lbs. sugar
25 lbs. dried potatoes
2 lbs. dried onions
15 lbs. salt 1 lb. pepper
75 lbs. dried fruits
8 lbs. baking powder
2 lbs. soda
1/2 lb. evaporated vinegar
12 oz. compressed soup
1 can mustard
1 tin matches (for four men)
Stove for four men
Gold pan for each
Set granite buckets
Large bucket
Knife, fork, spoon, cup, and plate
Frying pan
Coffee and teapot
Scythe stone
Two picks and one shovel
One whipsaw
Pack strap

Two axes for four men and one extra handle
Six 8 inch files and two taper files for the party
Draw knife, brace and bits, jack plane, and hammer for party 200 feet three-eights-inch rope
8 lbs. of pitch and 5 lbs. of oakum for four men
Nails, five lbs. each of 6,8,10 and 12 penny, for four men
Tent, 10 x 12 feet for four men
Canvas for wrapping
Two oil blankets to each boat
5 yards of mosquito netting for each man
3 suits of heavy underwear
1 heavy mackinaw coat
2 pairs heavy machinaw trousers
1 heavy rubber-lined coat
1 dozen heavy wool socks
1/2 dozen heavy wool mittens
2 heavy overshirts
2 pairs heavy snagproof rubber boots
2 pairs shoes
4 pairs blankets (for two men)
4 towels
2 pairs overalls
1 suit oil clothing
Several changes of summer clothing
Small assortment of medicines

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The tradition was begun in 1973. Some locals decided that visitors could become honorary sourdoughs by downing an alcoholic drink with a severed toe in it. One of them, Dick Stevenson, had bought a cabin just outside Dawson that had belonged to two brothers who ran booze during the Prohibition. On one such dogsled journey during the winter, one of the brothers had his toe frozen and then amputated by the other brother. For whatever reason, they kept the toe preserved in alcohol until it was discovered by Dick Stevenson. By replacing sourdough with sourtoe, visitors could bypass the traditional method of becoming a sourdough which was by surviving the freezing of the Yukon River in September to its break-up in May. The kicker was that the toe must touch the drinker’s lips.

In 1980, a local miner was trying for the sourtoe record. After many glasses, he accidentally tipped his chair backwards and swallowed the toe. It was not recovered, a dread that many contemplating the tradition fear may happen to them. Thanks to the generosity of other amputees there is a healthy reserve of toes should further accidents occur.

For the brave among you, the ritual is played out nightly at Dawson City’s Downtown Hotel’s bar during the summer months. Initially it was required that the human toe be placed in an alcoholic drink, but times have changed. Nowadays you can enjoy the ritual with a Coke. By having the toe touch your your lips sometime during the process entitles you to membership in the exclusive “Sourtoe Cocktail Club” and one of over 60,000 brothers and sisters.

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Fred Clayson, a Skagway gold buyer and  Lynn Relfe, a young bartender from Dawson City were leaving the Yukon and travelling together. They had stopped at Minto, one of the roadhouses built to feed and shelter travellers between Dawson and Whitehorse, Yukon. There they met Ole Olsen, a telegraph lineman, who invited them to join him for Christmas dinner with his friend, Corporal Ryan of the NWMP at Hootchikoo. They left Minto on Christmas day, 1899 . They never arrived at Hootchikoo.

George O’Brien, an unsavoury character with a criminal background, and an accomplice, were waiting in ambush to rob unsuspecting travellers. Relfe, Clayson, and Olsen became their victims. They were shot, belongings stolen, their clothes burned, and their bodies stuffed through a hole in the ice of the Yukon River.

After the murder, O’Brien is believed to have killed the only witness to the crime, his accomplice. He then slowly continued on his way up the Yukon River. At Tagish he was arrested for theft, but not for the yet unknown murders of Relfe, Olsen, and Clayson.

The failure of Olsen to arrive at Hootchikoo caused suspicion to grow that something bad had happened. Telegraph communication between various NWMP posts confirmed that the three men had not been seen. At about the same time, Clayson’s family had hired a private investigator, Philip Maguire, to search for the missing and overdue Fred.

NWMP Constable Pennycuick and Maguire teamed up to find some evidence of what could have happened to Clayson.

They made their way to the area that the three missing men were last seen and to where O’Brien was seen at about the same time.

They located O’Brien’s camp and began a meticulous piecing together of a terrible murder and the accumulation of evidence that would convict the murderer. They found:

-       Remnants of burned clothing

-       Frozen blood on a trail to the river

-       Receipts in Olsen’s name

-       A tooth which later matched Relfe’s shattered jaw

-       Business keys belonging to Clayson

-       Shell casings that matched O’Brien’s rifle left behind

-       An axe that the murders used to create an ambush blind

They carefully catalogued all the evidence. There was enough here to charge O’Brien with murder, but locating the bodies and confirming that a crime had taken place,  would cement their case. Finally the ice on the Yukon River melted and the bodies were found, confirming the brutal nature of the crime.

O’Brien, who was being held in a cell at Tagish, was arrested  in June 1900 for the murders of Olsen, Clayson, and Relfe.

The trial took place the following July in Dawson City. It was covered nationally by newspapers. A very strong case was presented by prosecutors in the form of physical evidence and testimony of over 60 witnesses. Together they painted  a complete picture of what happened.

After less than two hours of deliberation O’Brien was found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang on August 23, 1901. He maintained his innocence to the end, cursing all those who had a hand in his forthcoming execution. It was 7:35 a.m. when the trapped door opened  and O’Brien was executed for murder of Clayson, Relfe, and Olsen. A small, silent group of men watched his final moments. There were no tears.

Do you think you could rise to the level of the detective work of Pennycruick and Maguire? Sgt. Higgins of the NWMP needs assistance in solving the dastardly murder of George Olsen at his claim. See the evidence.

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The Klondike Goldrush was a magnet for men and women driven by need, commerce, or adventure. Of those who did triumph over the hardships of the Chilkoot Trail and the Yukon River, and reached Dawson City, very few realized their dream of fabulous wealth. One who did, was a flamboyant character named Swiftwater Bill Gates.

Swiftwater Bill left his work as a boatman (hence his nickname) in Idaho and worked his way north to Alaska. His first bit of good fortune was to be there in 1896 when word arrived that gold had been found in the Klondike. He quit his job as a dishwasher and immediately set out for Dawson City.

Claim “Thirteen Eldorado”, not far from the original discovery claim, had not lived up to its expectations. Bill partnered with six other prospectors and was able to lease it. After digging and working shaft after shaft, the group became quite dispirited and ready to abandon all hope. Then, they hit paydirt. Bill became a millionaire by today’s standards.

There was nothing inconspicuous about Bill. He enjoyed the luxuries and attention that instant wealth brought him. He would walk the streets of Dawson dressed in top hat, white shirt, and coat.

Managing his wealth was not in his constitution or perhaps, even, his ability. He loved women and he loved to gamble, both anathema to holding on to wealth. He would make large impulsive bets that he lost. He would invite dance hall girls to the claim to pan for all the gold they wanted. Whether legend or truth, Bill’s love for women gave rise to one of the great stories of the Klondike Goldrush.

Bill fell for Gussie Lamore, a dance hall entertainer. He wanted to marry her and even promised her weight in gold if she would oblige him. He found out that Gussie was not completely faithful to him. Gussie loved eggs and Bill would seek his revenge by purchasing every, short in supply, egg in Dawson City just to deny her. Gussie eventually left Dawson and returned to San Francisco. Bill would seek her out there in 1897.

Here’s an abbreviated version of Bill’s love life after searching out Gussie: he found that Gussie was married with a child, so he married her younger sister Grace. He couldn’t get over Gussie, so they divorced. Not long after, he impregnated and married a 16 year old named Bera Beebe. Just as she was expecting their second child, he abandoned her and sought Gussie once again, this time in Montana. Gussie was still unavailable, so he took up with another Lamore sister, Belle, although there is no record of them marrying. In 1901, he married his 14 year old step-niece Kitty while still married to Bera. He was arrested in San Francisco for bigamy but charges were stayed. He divorced Bera and remarried Kitty. He divorced Kitty in 1906. Two years later he married an 18 year old, Sadelle. In 1915, Bera‘s mother eventually caught up to him and had him arrested in Seattle for bigamy. He managed to avoid jail time by bribing key authoriries.

While all this love stuff was happening, Bill was spending prodigiously, and eroding his fortune. Bill, however, had a knack for landing on his feet. He found time during all this to gain further fortune in the Nome and later Fairbanks goldrushes.

After avoiding jail in Seattle, he sailed for Peru. Not much is known about his years there. Apparently he continued to search out gold and ended up owning a huge silver mine. He was murdered there in 1937, circumstances unknown, but one would have to assume it was over a woman!

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It took exceptional men and women to challenge the north. To be a member of the North West Mounted Police was to accept both the worst and the best that the Yukon offered. Reward came in the form of service and the visceral freedom of space and landscape.

I learned of William John Duncan Dempster from his granddaughter, Beth. Beth guided with, and for me, for over 20 years. The more I heard of his story, the more I saw the same qualities of quiet resolve, caring, and professionalism in Beth that made WJD Dempster’s tenure as a North West Mounted Policeman in the Yukon very special.

Dempster came to Canada from Wales. He joined the NWMP in 1897 and was posted, over the years, in various Yukon communities. He served exclusively in the Yukon, retiring with the rank of Inspector in 1934.

It was incumbent on each NWMP post to provide written details of official business to headquarters periodically. In so doing, they also provided a source of mail delivery and outside news to locals. It was with this responsibility that Dempster was elevated to national attention in 1910.

One of the mail runs was from Fort McPherson in the MacKenzie Delta to Dawson City, a distance of about 800 miles each way. Countless rivers, creeks, treeless valleys, mountainous terrain, and snow cover made the route complicated at best during the winter. In 1910-11, Inspector F.J. Fitzgerald, with three constables, left Fort McPherson in late winter for Dawson City. They died on the trail. Their story is remembered as the “Lost Patrol” and is worth the read. (See bottom of post).

Corporal Dempster, along with two other constables and a First Nations’ guide, were charged with finding what happened to Fitzgerald’s patrol. Dempster’s patrol left Dawson in February, 1911 in an extremely cold period where temperatures dropped well below freezing (he recorded one day at -80 degrees F with wind chill). Signs of a tragedy began to appear as he discovered abandoned campsites, gear, and dog remains. It became evident that Fitzgerald had become hopelessly lost. On March 21 and 22 he discovered all four bodies.

Dempster was ordered to make the route a safer one. During 1912-13 he established food caches, shelter cabins, and trail markings for future travel. In 1920 he covered the route in 14 days by dogsled, a record held to this day.

When he retired in 1934 he was the most well-known and respected Mountie in the Yukon. He died in 1964 at the age of 88.

In 1958 the Canadian Government decided to build an old weather road across the Arctic Circle from Dawson City to Inuvik. In honour of his contribution in the north, the road was to be named the Dempster Highway. Construction was stopped in 1961 but renewed again and officially opened on Aug 18, 1979.

Although he did not live to attend the opening, William John Duncan Dempster knew before his death that the highway would be named for him.

Bibliography:
NORTH, DICK. 1978. The Lost Patrol. Anchorage: Alaska Northwest Publishing Company.

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