The Conspiracy: The Canadian Response to the Order of the Midnight Sun and the Alaska Boundary Dispute

• Main Author: Dumonceaux, Scott
• Other Authors: Waiser, Bill, Deutscher, Tom, Smith-Norris, Martha
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Saskatchewan 2013
• Subjects: Order of the Midnight Sun; Alaska Boundary Dispute; North-west Mounted Police; Klondike Gold Rush; British Columbia; Canada; Yukon; Skagway; Alaska; midnight sun
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2013-09-1234

In September 1901 the North-West Mounted Police learned that a group of American miners, calling themselves the Order of the Midnight Sun, were planning to take over the Yukon. The Conspiracy, as the plot to overthrow the Mounted Police and establish an independent republic in the Alaska boundary region was known, appealed to Americans in the region. The location of the Alaska boundary was not set when the Klondike Gold Rush (1897-1899) brought thousands of miners and traders into the Yukon, northern British Columbia, and Alaska. The Canadian government’s efforts to maintain order and protect its interests in the Alaska boundary dispute angered American miners and businessmen and led them to support the Order. After the Conspiracy was discovered, the Mounted Police and the Canadian government launched a full scale investigation and response. To fully investigate the Conspiracy during the Alaska boundary dispute, the Mounted Police, a domestic force, had to operate in Canada and the United States and cooperate with American authorities in Skagway. The Dominion Police were also involved in the investigation and they too had to work with American authorities in Seattle and San Francisco. But the Mounted Police did not view the Conspiracy as a serious threat. Their experience in the north had shown that such threats rarely amounted to anything. The Canadian government, however, responded differently. Canadian officials in Ottawa feared that the Conspiracy would cost Canada in the Alaska boundary negotiations and they took steps to ensure that the Mounted Police could defend the region and prevent further unrest. This thesis examines the Mounted Police and Canadian government responses to the Conspiracy and the reasons for these different responses, within the context of the Alaska boundary dispute.