Yukon Gold Dredging photographs, circa 1905-1915

The Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon Territory of Canada began in 1896 with news of a gold strike on Bonanza Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River. By 1899 the first gold dredge began working in the area around Dawson City. Dredges, barge-like processing machines that operate in rivers and creeks or float in ponds of their own making, became popular because they allowed the deeper, more gold-rich soil of river- and creek beds to be mined. Without dredges, miners were restricted to gold panning, using sluice boxes, or excavating the claims themselves. Dredges move by using a rotating series of buckets, scooping up material in the front, processing it, and expelling the "tailing," or waste, behind them. In effect, they are able to gradually move the pools in which they float.

Due to the success of this heavy machinery, entrepreneurs pushed to gain land concessions from the Canadian government and to consolidate the claims of individual miners in the area. As a result, gold mining grew into a corporate venture, performed on a larger scale with the backing of investors. Corporations engaged in fierce competition for prime claims, water, and power, which often led to lawsuits and governmental disputes. Dredging operations required a large and consistent supply of water as well as laborious ground preparation.

Well in advance of the actual dredge, teams of workers cleared the ground of brush and moss, hydraulically washed away or "stripped" the top layer of silt, and thawed the underlying gravel by injecting water. Only after this intensive preparation process could the dredge itself come in and mine the area. Dredges would operate within feet of competitors' claims and buildings, sometimes tailing the waste into another's land. Lumber was often cut and stolen from competing claims. In one instance a Yukon Gold Company dredge was destroyed with dynamite. In efforts to recover greater quantities of gold, larger dredges with higher capacities were constructed and launched.

The two major competing corporations in the Yukon were Joe Boyle's Canadian Klondyke [sic] Mining Company, 1905, and the Guggenheim-backed Yukon Gold Company, 1906. In 1897 Joseph Whiteside Boyle (1867-1923) was a manager and promoter for the boxer Fred Slavin when he heard of the Klondike Gold Rush. He and Slavin traveled to the Yukon Territory, worked as laborers for others, then staked their own claims. Eventually Boyle decided that dredging, rather than hand panning, would be more profitable. After consolidating claims and obtaining approval from the Canadian government, he formed his own dredging company named The Canadian Klondyke Mining Company. In April of 1913, Boyle obtained the Granville Power Company's power plant on the north fork of the Klondike River. In May of 1913, the construction of the two largest dredges yet built, Canadian No. 3 and No. 4, was complete.

Canadian No. 4 eventually became a National Historic Site of Canada. One of the most successful dredges ever constructed, it sank in 1924, was refloated and refurbished in 1927, and operated until 1940. The dredge was then rebuilt by the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation and continued to work from 1941 until it ceased operations for good in 1959. In 1967 the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada decreed that dredging in the Yukon was of national historic importance, and the dredge was donated to Parks Canada by the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation. Canadian No. 4 was excavated and underwent restoration and conservation from 1991 to 1992. It re-opened to the public in 1993.

Jerry (Jeremiah) D. Doody was a photographer in the Dawson and Whitehorse areas of the Yukon Territory. According to Alaska-Yukon Postcards: An Historical Review by Ken L. Elder and John H. Grainger, Doody is noted as having a varied career that included work for the Smithsonian Institution in Central America and service to the U.S. Army in Texas in 1882, as well as employment as a Kansas cowboy. Doody moved from California to the Yukon Territory in 1898 and worked with H.C. Barley's photography studio in Whitehorse.

Wolfe Photo was the commercial photograph studio of Frank E. Wolfe, thought to be active in the Yukon/Klondike River area from the late 1890s to around 1920.

Based on handwritten labels on many of the photographs, unsigned photographs are probably attributable to J.D. Doody.