| Summary: | Street scene showing advertising for the Aurora Dock, the Yukon Flyer Line (to the left along the Yukon River), and numerous businesses and restaurants including the Monte Carlo Theatre, the Aurora Hotel and Cafe in center and signs for the Northwest Trading Company and the Martony Cafe to the right. Caption on image: Street Scene, Dawson City, Aug.17, 1899, by H.J. Goetzman. PH Coll 246.327 Following the historic discovery of gold on Bonanza Creek in August of 1896, Dawson City grew out of a marshy swamp near the confluence of the Yukon and Klondike Rivers. The townsite was founded by Joseph Francis Ladue and named in January 1897 after noted Canadian geologist George M. Dawson, who had explored and mapped the region in 1887. The area's creeks were quickly staked and most of the thousands who arrived in the spring of 1898 for the Klondike Gold Rush found that there was very little opportunity to benefit directly from gold mining. Many instead became entrepreneurs to provide services to miners. Dawson City served as the Yukon's capital from the territory's founding in 1898 until 1952.
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