KLONDIKE GOLD RUSH Ep. 1 | “No Turning Back”

Summary

Legends of the Old West

Episode: KLONDIKE GOLD RUSH Ep. 1 | “No Turning Back”

Air date: March 4, 2026
Host: Chris Wimmer, Black Barrel Media
Main Theme:
The gripping, true story of the Klondike Gold Rush as experienced by the famed author Jack London and thousands of others who risked everything on a perilous journey through Alaska and Canada. Episode 1, “No Turning Back,” delves into the feverish pursuit of fortune, the brutal challenges faced along the Chilkoot Trail, and the fascinating origins and backstories that drove Jack London and his companions ever northward.

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Episode Overview

Chris Wimmer introduces listeners to the chaos, hardship, and adventure of the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, centering on the journey of a 21-year-old Jack London. Plunged into a world of desperate fortune seekers, Jack and his group must overcome incredible physical and emotional obstacles on a relentless march to Dawson City—each step shadowed by the threat of failure and the hope of striking it rich.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Rush Begins: Setting Sail for Alaska

[00:45 – 03:11]

• July 25, 1897: Jack London and his 60-year-old brother-in-law James Shepherd leave California after catching “gold fever.”
• The pair are joined by three others: veteran miner Jim Goodman, carpenter Ira Sloper, and court reporter Fred Thompson.
• Eliza, Jack’s stepsister (and James’s wife), mortgages her home to fund the trip, and Jack promises to watch over James—a vow that weighs heavy on him.
• Their journey includes a 1,500-mile steamship ride from San Francisco to Juneau, followed by a 100-mile canoe trip to Dyea, Alaska, and a 600-mile overland trek through rivers, forests, and mountains.

“The promise would haunt Jack through many of the 2,000 miles of journey ahead of them.” – Chris Wimmer [01:56]

2. Desperation, Determination, and Hardship

[03:52 – 06:45]

• The travelers have precious little time: only two months before the Yukon River freezes and they're trapped by winter.
• As they prepare, they encounter defeated stampeders returning from failed attempts—faces "telling stories of torment" after hauling hundreds of pounds of supplies through mud, rivers, and dense forests.

“You ain’t gonna make it, son…it’s already August. You and the rest of them can’t get over those mountains and down the river to Dawson before the river freezes in October. You just ain’t gonna make it.” – Returning stampeder [05:18]

• Despite warnings and adversity, Jack and his companions press on: “What followed was one of the greatest adventure stories ever.” – Chris Wimmer [06:32]

3. America’s Economic Context

[07:10 – 09:07]

• The Klondike Rush is framed as both a chase for riches and a means of survival during economic depression.
• The Panic of 1893 and the collapse of railroad companies drive many to seek fortune out of desperation rather than greed.

“Four and a half years later, when news of a gold strike reached the American west coast, thousands of people thought the journey was worth it.” – Chris Wimmer [08:22]

4. Jack London’s Gritty Backstory

[09:09 – 15:01]

• Jack’s hardscrabble upbringing in Oakland: poverty, shifting family, early labor.
• Teenage years as an “oyster pirate,” then as a seasoned sealer on the Sophie Sutherland.
• Survives a typhoon at 17, wins a writing prize, gets into UC Berkeley but is forced to drop out due to lack of money.

“He tied himself to the wheel to avoid being washed overboard, and he used every ounce of strength to steady the vessel…” – Chris Wimmer [14:10]

• The hardships of his youth prepare him for the ordeal ahead.

5. The Trek Begins: Dyea to Sheep Camp

[17:07 – 22:12]

• Dyea, a Tlingit fishing village turned ramshackle boomtown, is the jumping-off point for the stampeders.
• The Chilkoot Trail: 16 miles that wipe out many before they even begin—first 13 miles to Sheep Camp, then a brutal 3-mile, 1,600-foot ascent to Chilkoot Pass.
• Supplies must be ferried “one load at a time, mile after mile,” making progress excruciatingly slow.

“Every bit of it was an uphill climb and the final phase was the worst…the Golden Stairs.” – Chris Wimmer [19:53]

• James Shepherd can’t go on; Jack must now haul double the supplies, up to 800–1,000 (possibly 2,000) pounds.

“If James had tried to continue, Jack surely would have buried him along the trail. James was alive… but his departure felt like a bitter failure.” – Chris Wimmer [20:59]

6. Physical and Emotional Toll of the Trail

[22:12 – 24:53]

• Wealthier stampeders use pack animals, but most, like Jack, carry everything themselves.
• Jack and his team reach Sheep Camp after 14 grueling days, bodies battered but spirits determined.

“Jack strapped a load to his back and trudged forward for as long as he could. Then he dropped the load… and walked back to his stockpile to get the next load… 13-mile trip took 14 days.” – Chris Wimmer [23:46]

• Even at camp, challenges remain: tension in the team, rumors, and physical collapse.

7. Group Dynamics and Ruthless Decisions

[27:58 – 31:24]

• Sheep Camp described as a “depressing pit,” echoing scenes from Deadwood.
• Fights break out among men exhausted and fearing they're already too late.
• Jack’s group nearly fractures but are stabilized by Martin Tarwater, a spry 66-year-old who trades cooking for a spot on the team.
• Supplies are ruthlessly whittled down—only beans, bacon, bread, and true essentials remain (“everything else was considered a luxury item and was cast aside” [30:25]).

8. The Golden Stairs: Chilkoot Pass

[31:24 – 35:13]

• From Sheep Camp (900 ft elevation) to the Scales (over 3,000 ft) is an ordeal itself; beyond that lies a 500-ft near-vertical climb known as the Golden Stairs.

• Wealthier stampeders could use a newly built tramway, but most—including Jack—climb by hand. The side of the trail is littered with abandoned gear.

• Jack pushes himself: “He, like all the others, worked from dawn to dusk, and if dusk fell while he was in the middle of a climb, he laid down in the rocks and went to sleep on the side of the mountain.” [33:15]

• After 3 days, Jack finally reaches the summit on August 31, 1897.

9. The Journey Continues: Into Canada

[35:15 – 37:18]

• From the summit, Jack looks back at Alaska, and forward into the Canadian Yukon.
• The next phase includes a 16-mile descent to Lake Lindemann, after which they must build boats to finish the trek by water.
• Spirits falter with the rumor that there’s no wood left at the lake to build boats. Jack reports: “Men broke down and cried beside the trail…” [37:16]
• Despite heartbreak, Jack feels he cannot possibly turn back after all he’s endured.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “That was the craziest idea since Hannibal led the Carthaginian army and a herd of war elephants over the Alps to attack Rome 2,000 years earlier.” – Chris Wimmer [02:32]
• “You just ain’t gonna make it.” – Unnamed stampeder, warning Jack’s group [05:18]
• “For some people, it was about survival.” – Chris Wimmer [07:13]
• “In the early 1890s in Oakland, armed guards patrolled the oyster beds with rifles. Rival pirate crews attacked each other in vicious battles…” – Chris Wimmer [09:44]
• “He tied himself to the wheel to avoid being washed overboard…” – [14:10]
• “He had actually walked hundreds of miles as he shuttled all of his supplies along the trail.” – Chris Wimmer [34:58]
• “Jack London wrote later that men broke down and cried beside the trail.” – [37:18]

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Important Timestamps

• 00:45 – Introduction: Jack London and James Shepherd set sail
• 02:32 – The scale of the journey likened to Hannibal’s Alps crossing
• 05:16 – A returning stampeder gives a dire warning
• 09:09 – Jack London’s early life and hardships
• 14:10 – Jack survives a deadly typhoon as a teenager
• 17:14 – Dyea transforms into a boomtown
• 19:53 – Description of the “Golden Stairs” and the brutality of the Chilkoot Trail
• 20:24 – James Shepherd can’t go on, Jack left with double supplies
• 23:46 – Logistics of supply hauling and the ensuing physical toll
• 27:58 – Conditions at Sheep Camp and group tensions
• 29:00 – Martin Tarwater joins the group
• 30:25 – Ruthless triage of gear
• 31:24 – The ascent to the Scales begins
• 33:15 – Night spent sleeping on rocks during the climb
• 34:11–34:58 – Jack reaches summit, surveys the carnage behind and the daunting journey ahead
• 37:02 – Rumor of no wood for boats at Lake Lindemann devastates many
• 37:18 – Jack’s resolve: “How could he possibly turn back now?”

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Tone and Language

Chris Wimmer maintains a storytelling tone that blends drama, grit, and historical perspective, often framing hardships in vivid, sensory detail. The narrative voices blend urgency and awe, keeping the listener immersed in the relentless pressure of the gold rush trail.

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Conclusion

Episode 1 of the Klondike Gold Rush series launches with a thrilling, unvarnished look at both the spirit and suffering of those who dreamed of Yukon riches — embodied in the saga of Jack London. Drawing from personal histories and the unforgiving realities of the Chilkoot Trail, the episode spotlights not only adventure, but the costs, camaraderie, and desperation that defined one of the American West’s most iconic rushes. The episode leaves off on a tense note, with Jack and his battered team facing the rumor that they’re too late to build the boat that could deliver them to gold—or to safety.

Transcript

[Podcast Host - Advertiser]

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[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

The SS Yuma Tilla churned through the swells of the Pacific Ocean on July

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25, 1897 carrying an unlikely pair of fortune seekers. 21 year old Jack London stood at the rail of the ship beside his 60 year old brother in law, James Shepherd. James was a grizzled Civil War veteran whose body bore the scars of prison camps and whose joints ached with rheumatism.

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The past eight days had been a blur. That's all it had taken for the youngster and the veteran to leave their

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lives in California and race for Yukon

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territory in northwestern Canada.

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News of a gold strike in the

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frozen heart of the Yukon had traveled

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down to America and Jack and James caught gold fever. James shepherd was married to Jack's stepsister, Eliza London, and Eliza caught the fever too. Eliza and James mortgaged their house to bankroll the mad dash to the gold strike and Eliza made Jack promise that he would take care of her husband. Jack had no choice. Without their money, he'd be watching from the docks of San Francisco as other men chased their fortunes. The promise would haunt Jack through many

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of the 2000 miles of journey ahead of them.

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There was a 1500 mile steamship journey up the Pacific coast of North America from San Francisco, California to Juneau, Alaska.

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Then there was another 100 miles of

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river journey from Juneau to Dye, Alaska, during which the travelers would pass the gold rush boom town of Skagway where the infamous Old west swindler Soapy Smith would set up shop. A few months after Jack London passed

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through the area at Dyea, the real fun began. A 600 mile journey through rivers, forests and mountains.

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That was the craziest idea since Hannibal led the Carthaginian army and a herd of war elephants over the Alps to attack Rome 2000 years earlier.

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On the steamship. Jack London needed to be realistic. He would need help to make sure he kept his promise to Eliza that

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he would keep her 60 year old husband alive. As their ship churned up the Pacific coast toward Juneau, Jack recruited three companions. Jim Goodman, a seasoned miner and logger from the American West.

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Ira Sloper, a carpenter and boat builder

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and Fred Thompson, a court reporter from California, who would document their ordeal.

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When their steamer docked at Juneau, the

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five men hired native Alaskans to canoe them 100 miles up the waters of the Chilkoot Inlet to Dye. And they had to do it fast. They were racing against the seasons, and like The Donner party 50 years earlier, they had started their trek too late in the year. When the group of five travelers reached Dyea in their canoes, it was August 7, 1897. That meant they had just two months to cross 600 miles of territory to

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reach the home of the gold rush,

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Dawson City, to stake a claim.

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If they couldn't make it to Dawson City in the Yukon by October, winter

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would lock the rivers in ice and they would be trapped until spring. They had cut it as close as they possibly could, and maybe too close. As Jack's team prepared to leave Dyea to begin the 600 mile trek to Dawson City, other stampeders, as the fortune seekers were called, staggered back down the trail.

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Their faces told stories of torment. Each person, and the vast majority were

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men, had to haul hundreds of pounds

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of food, clothing and equipment throughout the 600 mile journey. The first 33 miles had to be done on foot. Stampeders who had the money could hire men or pack animals to help carry the loads of supplies. But stampeders like Jack and James didn't have the money to hire help.

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They would have to carry or drag

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hundreds of pounds of supplies one load at a time, mile after mile. The task was almost incomplete, incomprehensible, and the defeated stampeders who returned to Dai told tales of lugging their supplies through hopelessly deep mud, across fallen logs, over raging rivers and up narrow trails which

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had been hacked out of the forest. And all those challenges came before the worst part, carrying all the supplies up 500ft of rocks and boulders to Chilkoot

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Pass in the Coast Mountains.

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The mountain range was the border between the American territory of Alaska and the Canadian territory of Yukon. Each stampeder had to conquer the challenge and reach Chilkoot Pass in order to continue the journey. Jack's confidence wavered as he listened to the testimonies of the men who turned back. Then one weathered stampeder looked at James Shepard and delivered his verdict. The man said, you ain't gonna make it seem, son, it's already August. You and the rest of them can't get over those mountains and down the river to Dawson before the river freezes in October. You just ain't gonna make it. The man spoke from brutal experience and that would have been the time to turn back. But Jack and his companions didn't. What followed was one of the greatest adventure stories ever. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host Chris Wimmer and this season we're telling stories of the Klondike Gold Rush where famous author Jack London and 100,000 other people raced through Alaska to the Yukon in search of riches. This is episode one, no turning Back.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

When 21 year old Jack London and

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his 60 year old brother in law, James shepherd boarded the steamer from San Francisco to Alaska only eight days after learning of gold. They were by no means alone. The decks were crammed with frantic men, women and children and thousands of pounds of supplies. The travelers stood shoulder to shoulder and had the same feverish dream to find gold in the Yukon.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

And like the world famous gold rush, centered in Deadwood of Dakota Territory 20 years earlier, the Klondike Gold rush wasn't only about getting rich just for the sake of getting rich. For some people, it was about survival. The Dakota Gold Rush of the late 1870s was fueled in part by by an economic crisis called the panic of 1873. Exactly 20 years later, the same type of economic crisis struck again. The Panic of 1893 hit like an avalanche when the nation's railroad empire came crashing down. Throughout the 1880s, railroad barons had gorged themselves on expansion, laying thousands of miles of useless track across the continent. They followed the example set by the godfather of railroad fraud, Thomas Durant. During the construction of the transcontinental railroad, companies borrowed recklessly and sank themselves into debt as their stock prices soared far above the real value of the business. In February 1893, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company, one of America's largest employers, collapsed Like a train driving off a cliff.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

The railroad company at the front of the line of cars dragged down everything connected to it. Investment firms, banks and entire financial networks. Unemployment skyrocketed, poverty ran rampant. And so, four and a half years later, when news of a gold strike reached the American west coast, thousands of people thought the journey was worth it. In August of 1896, a group of four people discovered gold along Rabbit Creek, a stream that fed into the klondike river about 1200 miles north of Vancouver and 250 miles east of Fairbanks, Alaska. It took a year for the news to filter south to cities like Seattle and San Francisco.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

And by that time, 21 year old

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Jack London was already a seasoned explorer. Who was familiar with hardship and hard work. Jack's biological father abandoned his mother, Flora, just before Jack's birth. Flora was shattered and sick, and she couldn't care for her newborn son. A neighbor named Virginia Prentice, who was a former slave, stepped in to help care for the infant. When Jack was eight months old, Flora married John London, a struggling grocer and Civil War veteran who brought two daughters, Eliza and Ida, to their makeshift family in Oakland, California. Jack was young enough to believe John was his biological father, which provided some stability. So with the help of Virginia Prentice and John's two daughters, the Londons cobbled together a family dynamic. Despite living in crushing poverty, by 13 years old, Jack was grinding through odd jobs at 10 cents an hour. At 15, desperation drove him to take bigger risks. He borrowed money from Virginia and purchased a small sailboat. Then he joined the ranks of the oyster pirates. The young raiders illegally dug up oysters after nightfall. It might sound a little comical, but it was serious business. In the early 1890s in Oakland, armed guards patrolled the oyster beds with rifles. Rival pirate crews attacked each other in vicious battles as they raced their stolen cargo to market before dawn. After two years as an oyster pirate, Jack was ready to step it up a notch in risk. At 17, Jack London earned a spot on the Sophie Sutherland, a schooner that hunted seals in the frigid waters of the North Pacific. The demand for seal skins was insatiable, and the pay promised a life beyond the docks.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

The captain was initially hesitant about Jack's age.

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The ship wasn't hugging the car coastline

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like a little oyster boat.

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It was going to go all the way out into the Pacific Ocean, toward the Bering Sea and beyond. The captain brought Jack on board, and Jack proved his worth during the storm of a lifetime.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

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[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

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[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

on April 10, 1893, after 51 days at sea, the Sophie Sutherland had crossed the Pacific Ocean and was near the coast of Japan. The sky turned black, the sea rose in a fury and a typhoon roared through the ocean. The ship groaned under the assault of monstrous waves and lashing rain for two hours. In the middle of the storm, 17 year old Jack London took his turn at the helm.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

He tied himself to the wheel to

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avoid being washed overboard, and he used every ounce of strength to steady the vessel as it whipped and bucked in the wind and waves. Jack didn't falter. He and the crew survived the typhoon and Jack received praise for his heroics. Jack also used the experience to take the first step into the career that would make him famous. When the ship returned to California, he entered a descriptive writing contest with an account of the ordeal called Story of a Typhoon off the coast of Japan in November 1893. He submitted the story under the name John London, and he, with only a primary school education, beat out entries from students at Stanford and UC Berkeley to win the $25 prize.

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The contest lit a spark. As an avid reader and a natural

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writer, he threw himself into his studies to make up for lost time. He crammed four years of high school into one and he earned a place at the University of California, Berkeley. He headed to college, but the dream was short lived. After just one semester, his money ran out. At 19 years old, Jack was thrown into the suffocating grind of factory work. The economic crisis in America was in its third year and it showed no signs of improving. Jack London didn't like the work, but any job was better than no job. He toiled for more than two years until the magic word drifted down to California in the summer of 1897. When the news of gold in the Yukon reached San Francisco on July 17, it took little more than a nudge for 21 year old Jack London to agree to another adventure. Jack was 5 foot 7 and 160 pounds. And his experiences since the age of 13 had steeled him against the dark rumors of the Klondike Gold rush. The stories of the Yukon's unforgiving conditions didn't scare him. They called to him. All he needed was money for supplies. His stepsister Eliza and her husband James shepherd, took a big risk to provide for the venture. They mortgaged their house to finance the expedition.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

The process happened fast. Just eight days after learning of the gold strike, Jack London and James Shepard

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were on a steamship heading north to Juneau, Alaska. On the ship, they teamed up with three more fortune seekers, Jim Goodman, Ira Sloper and Fred Thompson. When the ship reached Juneau, the five men hired local guides to take them farther north by canoe to Dye, Alaska. Like Independence, Missouri 50 years earlier for people racing to California during the first big gold rush, Dye was the official starting point for people heading to the Yukon for the Klondike Gold rush.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

Dye had been the site of a seasonal fishing village for the native people of the area, the Tlingit. And now it was a raw, bustling

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hamlet that would expand into a full

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boom town within a year. Crudely built shacks rose above the shallow

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waters of the Tighe river, the waterway that took Jack London's canoes to Dyee.

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The hastily built town was a chaotic surge of humanity.

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Lawyers, teachers, doctors, politicians, farmers and fishermen all converged on the muddy strip of land that was the beginning of the 600 mile trail to Dawson City, ground zero for the gold rush.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

Many were well acquainted with hard physical labor, but some were not. As Jack London looked at the group of stampeders he saw plenty of men who had never hauled a fishing line or plowed a field or swung an axe. They were average everyday people. None of them, including Jack, who had

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already seen his fair share of adventure,

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had any clue about the monumental challenge

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they were about to undertake. In the days long before strength training, endurance training, elite military training and professional athletics. These average everyday people would have to Transport upwards of £2,000 of gear per person across 600 miles of terrain that featured every natural obstacle imaginable.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

The stampeders who had just arrived at Dyee had no idea what they were in for. But a stampeder who had returned from Dawson City did.

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The man took one look at 60 year old James shepherd and said he's

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not going to make it. Just the first 16 miles of the

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trip would wipe out many of the hopefuls.

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And there were still 584 miles to go after that. For the survivors, The first 16 miles of the Chilkoot Trail ran from Dyea to the Coast Mountains which marked the border between Alaska and Canada. Those 16 miles were divided into three phases. The first 13 miles were packed with rough terrain and obstacles. But the trail only rose a gradual 900ft between Dyea at sea level and a staging area called Sheep Camp. From Sheep Camp, the last three miles to the mountains were brutal. The trail rose another 1600ft during those three miles. Every bit of it was an uphill climb and the final phase was the worst. The stampeders had to muscle their supplies up the side of the mountain to reach the summit called Chilkoot Pass. In the summer months when Jack's group did the trek, the process was basically a hand over hand climb upward through giant boulders.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

In the winter when the side of the mountain was covered in snow and ice, the stampeders carved 1500 crude steps into the ice so they could trudge up to the top in a long single file line. The steps quickly became known as the Golden Stairs.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

And as the stampeders frequently heard, there were plenty of people who never even made it to the first stop at Sheep Camp, let alone to Chilkoot Pass at the top of the mountain. As the man returning from the gold strike predicted, James shepherd was one of

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

those who didn't make it. After 9 of the 13 miles from Dyeed to Sheep Camp, James surrendered to the inevitable. It wasn't a bad effort for a frail 60 year old man, but his dream of Yukon gold was done. It was a somber moment for James and Jack. They had envisioned returning home together as rich men with the honor of a shared family triumph. But it wasn't to be, though in the long run, it was for the best.

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Jack had promised his stepsister Eliza that he would take care of James. If James had tried to continue, Jack surely would have buried him along the trail. James was alive. But as Jack watched him limp back down the trail toward Dai, alone and defeated, his departure felt like a bitter failure. James and Eliza had stretched their finances to the limit to fund the trip and Jack couldn't turn back.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

Though now he would have to do something that was unthinkable to most stampeders. He would have to haul two outfits of supplies, all of his gear and all of James's gear. They had bought the supplies and Jack couldn't let them go to waste. In the summer of 1897, the Canadian

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

government had not yet placed a minimum required on the amount of supplies that

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stampeders had to transport in order to

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go to the Yukon. A few months later, in the early spring of 1898, Canadian authorities required each person to haul 2,000 pounds of supplies. There were two reasons. After the brutal winter of 1897, the authorities wanted to make sure people didn't starve on the trail and they wanted to stop bandits.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

There were a few merciless, parasitic fortune seekers who climbed the trail with nothing more than a gun, a knife and a bedroll.

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On the other side of Chilkoot Pass,

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

after some poor, exhausted stampeder had transported his outfit over the hardest part of the journey, the bandit robbed the stampeder of his supplies in August of 1897. It's hard to know how many pounds of supplies Jack London transported after James shepherd left the group. There are references to Jack hauling 800 pounds of supplies, which would have been his outfit plus James outfit. Other estimates place the total at a little over £1,000. Some go as high as £2,000. Whatever the amount was, it was probably a minimum of 800 pounds of food and equipment. Wealthier men used pack animals, horses, mules and donkeys to carry their outfits the first 13 miles of the trail to Sheep Camp.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

Even then, the trip was treacherous.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

Many of the animals suffered injuries or died, and the ones that survived had to stop at the camp.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

From there, the trail to the coast mountains was too steep for animals. From that point forward, every man had to carry or drag his supplies.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

True to his stubborn nature, Jack refused to use animals.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

For those like Jack, who carried every load of supplies on their backs, the

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

13 miles to sheep Camp was an agonizing, slow motion, never ending relay race. Jack strapped a load to his back

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

and trudged forward for as long as he could.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

Then he dropped the load, stashed it in a hidden spot, and walked back to his stockpile to get the next load. He repeated the punishing methodical cycle as many times as necessary to move all of his supplies mile after mile from Dyea to sheep camp. The 13 mile trip took 14 days.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

On August 23, 1897, Jack and his

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

three companions staggered into Sheep Camp and joined a thousand other exhausted stampeders.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

Their backs were torn up, their shoulders

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

throbbed, their leg muscles cramped and burned. Jack had grown stronger during the trek

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

to the point where he carried an

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

average load of 100 pounds per cycle

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

and sometimes up to 150 pounds.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

But he was still smoked like the

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

rest of the stampeders, nearly all of whom were many years older than he was.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

And yet there was no time to rest. Sheep Camp was just a pit stop.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

In an episode of the podcast Expedition Unknown from Discovery, explorer and adventurer Josh Gates poses the question, what happened to the stolen money the Dalton Gang reportedly buried before their final ride into Coffeyville, Kansas in 1892? Josh heads to Kansas and Oklahoma with treasure hunters to try to find the lost fortune of the Dalton Gang, and the podcast episode takes the audio directly from the TV show. In other authentic roughshod journeys, Josh hikes through the jungle to try to find El Dorado, the fabled city of gold, the city at the center of the famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe, which serves as a through line for one of my favorite John Wayne westerns. Josh rafts through tunnels in search of treasure stolen by the Third Reich. In truly epic adventures, he retraces the steps of Moses and examines some of the mysteries in the biblical story of Exodus. For those investigations and many more, listen to Expedition Unknown wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

Sheep Camp was a depressing pit Photos from the time make it look like the earliest days of Deadwood. A mile long tent city stretched across churned up mud that was broken only by tree stumps and large rocks. It was populated entirely by rugged, dirty men who hadn't bathed in weeks. The smell would have been unsavory and tensions flared as rumors persisted that the stampeders were already too late to make it to Dawson City by winter. Arguments exploded into brawls and Jack's team wasn't immune.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

On the trail, Jim Goodman and Fred

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

Thompson had clashed over their duties. Goodman hunted while Thompson cooked, and Thompson always felt he drew the short straw in camp.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

Jack intervened, but he saw fractures forming in their bond. He worried that the situation was not sustainable and they had precious little time to fix it. Their savior of sorts was 66 year old Martin Tarwater.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

Jack met Martin in camp and Martin offered wisdom, companionship and a willingness to cook. Martin proposed a deal. He would cook all their meals in exchange for a spot on a stable team. The others were hesitant. Martin was six years older than James shepherd, but Martin seemed to have boundless energy and since there was no minimum requirement on supplies at that time, Martin was traveling light. He wasn't going to add hundreds of pounds of gear to the effort. Martin's energy and upbeat attitude and his promise of consistent meals earned him a place in the group, they were back to a five man team. And they had just one night in Sheep camp to prep their gear and fortify themselves before they tried to conquer the coast mountains. During their only night in camp, Jack's group had to be ruthless when sorting their gear. The three Bs, beans, bacon and bread were sacred. They had to be included. Fur lined coats, waterproof boots, wool socks, tents, blankets, cookware and rifles were necessary for basic survival. Whipsaws for building boats and tools for mining. Axes, shovels, picks and pans were non negotiable. Virtually everything else was considered a luxury item and was cast aside.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

Cookies, cakes and cheeses were the first to go. A second coat was an indulgence. Extra pairs of socks and boots were jettisoned. Even forks and spoons were too much. The men could eat with their hands. At dawn, the five companions, along with hundreds of others, shouldered the first load and began shuttling their supplies three miles up the trail to the base of the mountains. Base camp was eventually called the Scales, the place where Canadian authorities weighed each man's outfit and approved him to continue. The journey from Sheep camp to the Scales was a deceptive 3 miles. Stampeders dubbed it the Long Hill, which was a sarcastic understatement about the unforgiving gain in elevation.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

Elevation. Sheep camp was at about 900ft of elevation.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

Base Camp at the Scales was at

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

about 3,000ft of elevation.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

It took Jack London three to four

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

days to haul all of his supplies

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

up the three mile slope to the Scales. And his reward for completing phase two

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

of the first leg of the journey

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

to the gold strike was to immediately begin phase three, the hardest part of the trip. At the Scales, the stampeders were above the tree line. They were pummeled by wind and frequently drenched by rain. And they stared up at a towering wall of rock that rose 500ft above them. They would have to climb up that

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

with heavy packs on their backs, then climb back down and do it again and again and again. Just the thought of it drove some men mad. Frustration, desperation and exhaustion turned to rage. Rage led to shouting and then fighting.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

A few months later, enterprising businessmen built

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

a gasoline powered tramway, a cable car

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

to carry supplies to the top of the mountain. But of course, the extravagance was only affordable to people who were already well off. It wasn't an option for most stampeders,

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

which undoubtedly added to their frustration.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

For Jack London and the stampeders of 1897, they had to do it all

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

by hand, which prompted another round of

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

ditching supplies that had seemed vital before,

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

but were now disposable.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

Random pieces of gear littered the ground at the Scales and all the way

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

up the rock wall to the summit.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

On August 28, 1897, Jack and his crew joined the long line of stampeders, whom Jack later called a column of ants, and started to tackle the mountain. Some of Jack's companions, likely Jim Goodman, Fred Thompson and Ira Sloper, had enough money to hire local packers to help them haul their hundreds of pounds of

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

supplies from the base camp at the

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

Scales to the summit of the mountain at Chilkoot Pass. Jack London did not have the money to hire help. Jack hefted loads of up to £100 onto his back and started climbing up through the boulder field toward the summit. He, like all the others, worked from dawn to dusk, and if dusk fell while he was in the middle of a climb, he laid down in the rocks and went to sleep on the side of the mountain.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

For some, the effort was literally backbreaking work. Men suffered serious injuries and died during the climb.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

As Jack scaled the heights, he was

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

battered by constant wind and soaked by frequent rain. At the summit, it was cold enough for the rain to turn to snowflakes.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

The weather was on a constant rotation of extremes, which seemed designed to punish the stampeders for believing the trip was a good idea. For three full days, Jack climbed up

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

and down the mountain.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

On the fourth day, August 31, the last day of the month, Jack completed the challenge. He dropped his final load of supplies at the summit. Thick fog blanketed the summit, but when it cleared, he took in the view on both sides of the mountain. In one direction, he looked at Alaska, at the stampeders who still struggled their supplies to the summit, to the graveyard of supplies at the bottom of the

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

mountains, to the path through the trees that led to Sheep Camp and across

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

the distance toward Dyee, which seemed impossibly far away. Yet it was only 16 miles down the trail. He had finished all three phases of the first leg of the journey, and

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

though it was only 16 miles of

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

distance, he had actually walked hundreds of miles as he shuttled all of his supplies along the trail. At the summit, when he turned turned in the other direction, he looked at Canada and the second leg of the journey. Jack and his companions had to carry

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

their supplies down the backside of the

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

mountains and then cover about 16 miles

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

of ground to Lake Lindemann.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

At Lake Lindemann, they needed to build

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

a boat from the materials around them. When they completed the project, they needed to sail or paddle the boat up

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

to the larger Lake Bennett and then into the Yukon river, which fed the lake. On the river, they needed to tackle

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

the final leg of the journey. They needed to travel 500 miles north

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

to Dawson City before the river froze and winter forced them to stop. Earlier, stampeders said Jack and his crew needed to be in Dawson City by October to avoid being trapped by winter. October 1st was 30 days away. They were cutting it very close, which meant there was no time to to waste. Taking in the view, Jack and his companions immediately began the long process of

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

hauling their supplies down the mountains toward Lake Lindemann.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

The first 13 miles were basically the mirror image of the 13 miles from Sheep Camp to the summit. They carried their supplies down the barren rock of the mountain and into the trees below 3,000ft of elevation. They slogged through more mud and endured more drenching rain, which increasingly mixed with spitting snow, which was not a good sign. On the Canadian side of the divide,

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

the equivalent to Sheep Camp was called Happy Camp.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

It took three to four days of

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

relays to move the supplies to Happy Camp. And the travelers dropped from exhaustion just

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

as they had when they made it to Sheep Camp two weeks earlier.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

And as Sheep Camp had been three miles from the mountains, Happy Camp was three miles from the Lake Lindemann. The weary companions just had to lug their supplies three more miles before they could build a boat to carry their supplies the rest of the way to the gold strike. And that was when they heard the

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

news that crushed the spirits of many of the stampeders.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

A man who had just returned from Lake Lindemann said there were no trees left near the lake from which to build boats. Every chunk of wood worthy of construction

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

had already been used up.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

Jack London wrote later that men broke down and cried beside the trail. But for Jack, after all he had been through, how could he possibly turn back now?

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

Next time on Legends of the Old West. Jack London's team continues to trek to Lake Lindemanna while praying. The rumor of no wood for boats isn't true. But even if the journey can move forward, time is growing very short to reach the gold strike. Back along the Chilkoot Trail, stampeders are

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

still braving the winter weather to make

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

it over Chilkoot Pass. And in the spring of 1898, the men on the golden stairs suffer a deadly disaster. That's next week on Legends of the Old West.

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

To binge all the episodes of a new season and to listen to every

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

episode of the podcast. With no commercials, subscribe in Apple podcasts

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

or sign up through the link in

[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

the show notes or on our website blackberrymedia.com this series was researched and written by Mandy Wimmer. Additional research and writing by me, Chris Wimmer Original music by Rob Valiere thanks for listening.

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[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

And breathe.

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[Narrator - Chris Wimmer]

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[Narrator - Chris Wimmer (continued or secondary narrator)]

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