Gold, Gold, Gold! What is it about this amazing mineral that causes people’s hearts to beat faster? A few nuggets and a person can be set for life, right? Not quite. Gold was usually not as easy to find as the rumors reported. But you can be rich in words by reading our stories about the women, children and dogs who lived in the North country during the Alaska and Yukon gold rushes of one hundred years ago. Read about Julian's story from Gold Rush Dogs, find a list of further resources, teacher study guides, and learn more behind the women's and children's stories.

After the grueling uphill travel, the flat terrain of Lake Bennett looked easy. But instead the rough ice and strong winds presented even more challenges for the sled dogs. At this point, the other dogs in Berry’s team were nearly worn out. So Julian pulled the entire sled load of more than a thousand pounds across the frozen lake by himself. With remarkable feats like this, Julian eventually became the best-known dog in the goldfields of Alaska and the Yukon.

Clarence J. Berry - better known as ‘CJ’ - returned from his first trip to the Yukon in 1895 and came back realizing the value of dogs for transporting people and goods. He returned to California to marry his twenty-three-year-old fiancee Ethel Bush - and to train a team of dogs for work in the North. CJ bought Julian in Santa Cruz, California for $110. Then he spent the winter in Fresno, training his team to pull a homemade sled on wheels - a sight that must have struck the locals as odd.

Most of the goldseekers that spring of 1896 camped by the shore of Lake Bennett after completing the Chilkoot Trail. They built boats and waited for the ice to break up so they could float down the Yukon River to Forty Mile, or Circle City. But with Julian in the lead, the Berry party - including Ethel and CJ's twenty-one-year old brother Fred - got a jump on the other gold seekers. They mushed over the lake ice and down the frozen Yukon River, reaching the mining camp of Forty Mile months before the other prospectors.

CJ took Julian up into the hills prospecting, but they had no luck. Thus the Berrys were in Forty Mile in August when George Carmack arrived with news of his discoveries on the Klondike River near Dawson City. CJ and his brother Fred made the sixty-mile trip upriver to Dawson in only two days, bringing Julian and the rest of the team. Beating the crowd to the site, CJ staked Claim No.40 on Bonanza Creek. He later traded it for shares of a rich claim on Eldorado Creek that turned out to be one of the richest in the Klondike. When the snow fell, the team led by Julian hauled cabin logs and lumber for sluice boxes.

And Julian became more famous still. He broke the record for carrying the heaviest loads of any dog in the Klondike. A massive animal, he was coveted by many other prospectors and CJ was offered fabulous sums for the dog. But to him, Julian was a companion on the trail, a member of the family. CJ called him "old boy," and fussed over him, carefully changing the leather socks that protected his feet from the icy trails. He would not part with his faithful servant, and turned down all offers.

By the summer of 1897, the newlywed Berrys, who were $5000 in debt when they left California, had $130,000 of gold dust and nuggets stored in a little shed. If anyone came near, Julian would warn the Berrys with barks and growls. One secret of their wealth was that CJ never stayed long enough in Dawson to get distracted at the saloons and gambling tables. Ethel was waiting back at the mine, and there was always work to do.

In 1897 the couple headed back to Fresno, California, for a much-needed rest, while Fred Berry and Julian remained in the Klondike to look after the claims. But Julian was soon suffering from rheumatism brought on by his labors at the mining camp. In 1898 the Berrys, who had returned to the Klondike, sent him to Fresno for medical treatment - retirement. When the climate in Fresno became too hot for him, he was sent to the Pacific coast, where - as the Fresno paper reported - "he will have an opportunity to try the Santa Cruz beach for his health."

The Berrys spared no expense for Julian’s welfare, but he never completely regained his health. He died in May 1900. "Most Famous Dog in Alaska is Dead," said the headline for Julian's obituary in the San Francisco Call, as the Berry family mourned the loss of their beloved dog.

FURTHER RESOURCES
Check out the reading lists from our three gold rush books for additional books on the northern gold rushes.

Study guides available for download:

Children of the Gold Rush:
www.gacpc.com/gacpc/images/sgchildren_rush.pdf

Gold Rush Dogs:
www.gacpc.com/gacpc/images/sg_rushdog.pdf

Gold Rush Women:
http://www.clairerudolfmurphy.com/gold rush women studyguide.pdf

Claire Rudolf Murphy and Jane G. Haigh

What was life like for women before the gold rush?

The native women in Alaska and the Yukon lived a subsistence lifestyle. This information is featured in a box in the book on p.29. The women who came up from Outside were mostly poor due to the depressions of the 1890's. They had to scrimp pennies just to keep their children fed and clothed and that’s why they came up to the gold rush. Others were leaving bad marriages or looking for a husband. A few women were rich and in search of adventure.

How did women help other stampeders survive?

Mostly by supporting each other in friendship. Sometimes the women were tougher than the men. Many women cooked along the way and did laundry, often for very good pay. Some even agreed to marry a lonely man.

What ideas and culture did these women bring to the North country?

These women came from all over the world, so each brought her own culture. Many were immigrants from Europe and didn’t even speak English at first. It was mostly the women who saw to it that churches, schools, hospitals and libraries were built.

Ethel Berry was one of the first women to participate in the Klondike gold rush. What were her contributions?

I think our profile of her in the book covers that well. You could also read her book The Bushes and the Berrys which her sister Tot wrote. It is no longer in print but could be available through interlibrary loan or through a used bookstore. Ethel Berry is featured on the book cover because she and her husband Clarence are two of the few people to get rich in the gold rush and hold onto it. Today Ethel’s descendants own an oil company in California and are still wealthy.

What were women like after the gold rush?

The ones who remained in the North helped start cities or build up those like Fairbanks that already existed. Unlike women Outside they still took on many jobs that were considered men’s work - running a bank, owning a restaurant, working a mine.

Did the women of the gold rush have any connection to the women's rights’ movement?

Most definitely. They demonstrated that women could handle almost any job a man could and were tough inside and out. They were too busy up in the North to worry about voting rights and such but they were role models even if they didn't know it.

Claire receiving the 2001 Henry Bergh Children's Book Award given by the American Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) for her book Gold Rush Dogs at the 2002 American Library Association conference in Atlanta.

What gave you the idea to write a book about the children of the gold rush?

Jane Haigh and I had already written a book called Gold Rush Women about all the remarkable women who were involved in the northern gold rushes. When we researched that book, we found kids who had lived up there during that exciting period. We wanted to write about how the children found gold, went to school, played, and sometimes worked as hard as their parents.

When we finished writing about the children, we realized that dogs were important, too. So Gold Rush Dogs came into being. Dogs were more popular than any other animal because they protected the gold rushers from thieves, were loyal companions, pulled freight and even kept humans warm during the cold winters. That was a fun book to write.

If you were a child and you had a choice to go off looking for gold with your father or stay at home with your mother, which would you choose?

Boy, that’s a hard one. It depends on what my father was like. Some of them were gone for months, even years at a time and didn’t care much about their families. If he was a good father, I would have wanted to go. But most of them weren’t very devoted to their family, so I probably would have stayed with my mother and helped earn money to feed the family. Maybe I would have sung for the gold miners or panned for gold during recess at my one-room schoolhouse.

If you were a child in the gold rush, would you rather have traveled by dog sled, boat, or foot into gold rush country?

Definitely by boat up through the North Pacific was the easiest way to go. The other routes you had to hike for weeks over steep mountain passes and then build a raft to float down the Yukon River. All sorts of things could go wrong. People wanting to get to the Nome gold rush from Seattle could take an ocean-going vessel all the way.

Who would you have taken with you to go looking for gold?

Somebody very good in the outdoors like my husband Bob or brother Matt and someone who wouldn’t get wild and spend all the gold we found. Many gold miners didn’t hold onto their riches very long. They spent it all in boomtowns like Dawson, Skagway, Fairbanks or Nome.

Of all the children in Children of the Gold Rush whom do you admire most?

This is a tough question. I came to love them all so much. I would have to say I admire the native Athabascan children in a special way because their traditional lives changed forever when the gold rushers came, mostly for the worse. Athabascans Helen and Axinia Cherosky had to suffer through their parents’ divorce, an alcoholic stepfather and prejudice in Fairbanks where they went to school. But they grew up to become wonderful citizens of Alaska. I admire Crystal Snow because as an adult she become a leader in Alaska, only the second woman to serve in the Alaskan legislature and the first postmistress of Juneau. I hope to write a novel soon based on her gold rush adventures.

Where did you get the information for your book Children of the Gold Rush?

Jane and I read all the books we could find about the gold rush, talked to descendants of the gold rushers, and read diaries and articles that the children wrote when they grew up. It was wonderful to uncover their stories and bring them to readers like you.

Claire climbing the Chilkoot trail in 1995 with family & friends