National Geographic Magazine Vol. 09 - 04. April 1898

For history buffs, this is a remarkable artifact: the April 1898 National Geographic, published at the exact moment when tens of thousands of prospectors were streaming toward the Yukon in search of gold. This "Klondike Number" collects dispatches from the frontier's edge, geologists surveying mineral wealth, naturalists cataloging Arctic wildlife, officials pondering Alaska's future. Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore writes on the Northwest passes; Hamlin Garland traces overland routes; William H. Dall profiles the legendary Mike Lebarge and investigates the Metlakatla Mission. Here too are early studies of Eskimo place names and the possibilities of Arctic agriculture. The writing carries the urgency of a territory in transformation, even as it reflects the colonial assumptions of its era. For readers interested in the Klondike Gold Rush, Alaskan history, or the evolution of geographic science, this issue offers an intimate window into how the late-Victorian world understood, and misunderstood, the far north.