Steven C. Levi - The Clara Nevada: Gold, Greed, Murder and Alaska’s Inside Passage

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2011 by Steven C. Levi

All rights reserved

Front cover image: While the water in the Lynn Canal can be calm, as seen here, when there is a storm, twelve-foot waves and wind exceeding ninety miles per hour are not uncommon. Photo by Peter Metcalfe. Courtesy of the State of Alaksa Department of Commerce and Economic Development.

First published 2011

e-book edition 2012

ISBN 978.1.61423.355.8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Levi, Steven C.

The Clara Nevada : gold, greed, murder, and Alaskas Inside Passage / Steven C. Levi.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

print edition ISBN 978-1-60949-288-5

1. Clara Nevada (Steamboat)--Explosion, 1898. 2. Explosions--Alaska--History--19th century. 3. Shipwrecks--Alaska--History--19th century. 4. Shipping--Washington (State)--Seattle--History--19th century. 5. Avarice--Social aspects--Case studies. 6. Seattle (Wash.)--History--19th century. 7. Lynn Canal (Alaska)--History--19th century. 8. Alaska--History--1867-1959. 9. Inside Passage--History--19th century. 10. Klondike River Valley (Yukon)--Gold discoveries. I. Title.

F909.L434 2011

979.802--dc22

2011010590

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Dedicated to the passengers and crew of the Clara Nevada who may well have been the victims of one of the largest robberies in American history.

Contents

Chapter 1

The Maritime Rush to Skagway and Dyea

The saga of the Clara Nevada actually began in Canada two years before the ship was even launched. In May 1896, prospector George Carmack and his brothers-in-law, Skookum Jim and Tagish Charley, stumbled onto one of the richest gold finds in North American history at Rabbit Creek, one of the numerous small streams leading into the remote Thron-diuck River. Skookum Jim made the discovery while cleaning a dish pan in the waters of the creek. That dish pan yielded four dollars. The next day, August 17, 1896, the three men staked their claim.

The news of the strike spread quickly, and soon the creek banks were packed with men digging for the yellow metal. Rabbit Creek was triumphantly renamed Bonanza Creek, and Dawson City sprang to life at the confluence of the now-renamed Klondike River and mighty Yukon.

About a year later, in July 1897, news of the strike reached the United States in dramatic fashion: Tom Lippy stepped off the steamboat Excelsior in San Francisco with $50,000 in gold dust. Little did he know that he was going to change the face of the agehe set off a clap of thunder heard round the world.

If there was any doubt as to the existence of the Klondike Strike, it was extinguished two days later when the Portland docked in Seattle carrying more gold dustladen prospectors. Though it was only carrying $700,000 in gold, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Chicago Tribune increased the quantity to a ton. There was so much gold on board, a Seattle paper noted, that some gold had been smuggled aboard the Portland to avoid the freight charge. The San Francisco Call declared, Nuggets are reported as big as potatoes. The story was flashed across the country and around the world. Within two weeks, more than 1,500 prospectors had left Seattle for the Klondike, and there were nine more ships in the harbor ready to sail. The greatest gold rush in North American history was on!

Within days of the arrival of the Portland, Seattle streets began teeming with would-be millionaires seeking passage north. Thousands of menand more than a few womenleft their jobs without so much as a days notice. Thousands grabbed their valises and bedrolls and headed to Portland and Seattle, the gateways to the Klondike.

But the era of the Klondike Strike was short, barely sixteen months. What began with the arrival of the Portland on July l7, l897, ended in May 1899 with the news of the gold strike in Nome. Stampeders left Dawson by the thousands for the golden beaches of Nome.

From the four corners of the earth, Argonautsthe name itself coined from the ship of the legendary Greek hero Jason in quest of the golden fleece, the ARGOconverged on Seattle, Portland and Vancouver with a single thought in mind: passage north. All that mattered was getting to the gold fields as fast as possible. Each day was a fortune lost, a day in which someone else might find the Eldorado.

Getting to the Klondike, however, was a bit more difficult than just getting to the Pacific Northwest and catching a ship. The fastest way was by ship, but not everyone could afford passage. Those with less money used whatever means they could afford. Some came by foot, others by bicycles or canoe. Unusual modes of transportation included rowboat, balloon, airplane and even reindeer. No means of transportation was considered too bizarre to be considered.

By far the most popular route was by ship, from Seattle to the twin Alaska boomtowns of Dyea and Skagway. Here the stampeders disembarked and made their way up the infamous Chilkoot Pass ice stairway or the longer but less steep White Pass. Once the passes had been crested and the Argonauts were inside Canada, they would follow the rivers and chain of lakes northward to Dawson, the heart of the gold fields.

The gold route over the Chilkoot and White Passes is best known today courtesy of a band of outlaws who ruled Skagway. A gang led by the nefarious Jefferson Randolph Soapy Smith found that it was infinitely easier to fleece stampeders than to expose themselves to the hard labor of digging for nuggets. Those whom the gang could not roll, they robbed; those they could not rob, they hoodwinked. Soapy Smith and his gang ruled Skagway, despoiling and hoodwinking stampeders with impunity until July 8, 1898, the day Soapy was shot dead on the Skagway dock. Leaderless, the gang scattered and lost its menace.

But the trip to Skagway was often more hellish than dealing with Soapy Smith and his minions. The Clara Nevada was the epitome of what could go wrong on the Inside Passage, the shortest sea route from Seattle to Skagway and Dyea, the salt-water gallery of channels protected from the turbulent storms of the open Pacific.

During the summer, the waters were calm and storms more an annoyance than a danger. To this day, summer cruises up the Inside Passage are one of the most popular summer luxury liner routes. Whales, majestic scenery and quaint fishing villages charm visitors to Alaska, while the weather is mild enough to allow jogging on the open top decks of the pleasure ships.

But during the winter, the Inside Passage can be exceedingly treacherous. Funneled by the islands, ferocious Pacific winds blast through the straits and barrel up the channels. Known as takus, such winds can easily roll a poorly loaded ship. Frigid winds can coat a ship with ice in a few hours. Snow can fall so heavily that whiteout conditions exist, and fog can hang so low that the rugged shoals of the channels cannot be seen until a luckless ship runs aground.