Klondike, Yukon
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The Klondike or Clondike is a region of the Yukon Territory in northwest Canada, east of the Alaska border. It lies around the Klondike River, a small river that enters the Yukon River from the east at Dawson.
The Klondike is famed because of the Klondike Gold Rush, which started in 1897 and ended the following year. Gold has been mined continuously in that area except for a hiatus in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The name "Klondike" actually evolved from the Gwich'in word thron-dyuk, which means "Hammer River". Early gold seekers found it difficult to pronounce the Inuit word, so "Klondike" became the result of this poor pronunciation.
Many people died during the Klondike Gold Rush. 1 million planned to try and find gold. 100,000 actually set out to do so. By the time people reached Dawson City 60,000 people had died. Of the 40,000 at Dawson City only 4,000 found gold. The gold searchers washed many goldnuggets out of the Rivers. For this, they took a kind of plate or net and stood in the cold water. Many of them died of the flu. In the sand and soil the river washed into the men's plates, some very tiny goldnuggets were found. Another method to get gold was digging into the soil. The Goldrush was the origin of the "claim war" which resulted in the deaths of several "sourdoughs" or inexperienced miners.
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