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![Souvenir Mining Spoon Reverse Dawson City Yukon Canada.jpg - SOUVENIR MINING SPOON DAWSON CITY YUKON - Sterling silver demitasse spoon, 4 3/8 in. long, embossed miner figure panning for gold in bowl, handle marked DAWSON with a miner holding a pick at top, ca.1900, reverse with Sterling marking and maker’s mark of P. W. Ellis & Co. Toronto Canada (1877 -1928) later absorbed by Henry Birks & Sons of Montreal in 1928, weight 12 gms. [When news first broke of gold being discovered in the Yukon, what became immortalized as the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896-99 kick started a mass influx of prospectors into the small northern town of Dawson City. Founded in 1897, and fittingly named after noted Canadian geologist George M. Dawson, Dawson City became the heart of the Klondike Gold Rush and the capital of the Yukon, the center of activity for the thousands upon thousands of prospectors who flooded in each year. The hope of striking it rich was more than enough to stir the imaginations of an estimated 100,000 men and women who risked life and limb to make their fortune in the northern capital. Built up seemingly overnight, Dawson City was little more than a remote trade outpost at the dawn of the Gold Rush, with the first settlers forced to sleep in tents and under their own wagons. The town that became Dawson City grew exponentially over the next few years. Constructed mainly out of wood, and where extra expense could be spared, capped in pressed tin, the town included false fronts and wooden sidewalks. Before long, Dawson City had grown into a proper town, complete with hotels, saloons, banks, and more than one theatre. Faced with what by any route, either by land or sea, was sure to be a journey fraught with peril, thousands of fortune seekers made their way to the Klondike via the infamous Chilkoot Pass, an unforgiving mountain stretch that soon became synonymous with the Klondike Gold Rush. Often carrying more than 100 pounds of supplies on their backs, and outfitted in the extraordinarily inadequate winter clothes and hiking gear of the day, travelers were often forced back by the cold, or simply died along the way. The vast majority of those who made it to Dawson City would leave as ruined souls with not a penny, or nugget, to their name. By 1899, the Klondike Gold Rush was all but over, and the last stragglers and determined hopefuls abandoned Dawson City over the course of the next few years. The peak population of 40,000 in 1898 plummeted to well below 5,000 by 1902. Into the first half of the 20th century, Dawson's fortunes continued to slide. In 1953, Yukon’s official capital was moved to Whitehorse.]](Souvenir Mining Spoon Reverse Dawson City Yukon Canada.jpg) |
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| Souvenir Mining Spoon Reverse Dawson City Yukon Canada | SOUVENIR MINING SPOON DAWSON CITY YUKON - Sterling silver demitasse spoon, 4 3/8 in. long, embossed miner figure panning for gold in bowl, handle marked DAWSON with a miner holding a pick at top, ca.1900, reverse with Sterling marking and maker’s mark of P. W. Ellis & Co. Toronto Canada (1877 -1928) later absorbed by Henry Birks & Sons of Montreal in 1928, weight 12 gms. [When news first broke of gold being discovered in the Yukon, what became immortalized as the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896-99 kick started a mass influx of prospectors into the small northern town of Dawson City. Founded in 1897, and fittingly named after noted Canadian geologist George M. Dawson, Dawson City became the heart of the Klondike Gold Rush and the capital of the Yukon, the center of activity for the thousands upon thousands of prospectors who flooded in each year. The hope of striking it rich was more than enough to stir the imaginations of an estimated 100,000 men and women who risked life and limb to make their fortune in the northern capital. Built up seemingly overnight, Dawson City was little more than a remote trade outpost at the dawn of the Gold Rush, with the first settlers forced to sleep in tents and under their own wagons. The town that became Dawson City grew exponentially over the next few years. Constructed mainly out of wood, and where extra expense could be spared, capped in pressed tin, the town included false fronts and wooden sidewalks. Before long, Dawson City had grown into a proper town, complete with hotels, saloons, banks, and more than one theatre. Faced with what by any route, either by land or sea, was sure to be a journey fraught with peril, thousands of fortune seekers made their way to the Klondike via the infamous Chilkoot Pass, an unforgiving mountain stretch that soon became synonymous with the Klondike Gold Rush. Often carrying more than 100 pounds of supplies on their backs, and outfitted in the extraordinarily inadequate winter clothes and hiking gear of the day, travelers were often forced back by the cold, or simply died along the way. The vast majority of those who made it to Dawson City would leave as ruined souls with not a penny, or nugget, to their name. By 1899, the Klondike Gold Rush was all but over, and the last stragglers and determined hopefuls abandoned Dawson City over the course of the next few years. The peak population of 40,000 in 1898 plummeted to well below 5,000 by 1902. Into the first half of the 20th century, Dawson's fortunes continued to slide. In 1953, Yukon’s official capital was moved to Whitehorse.] |  Original Image |
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