"The Floor of Heaven" by Howard Blum

Above: "The Floor of Heaven - A True Tale of the Last Frontier and the Yukon Gold Rush." by Howard Blum. 414 pages.

I completed reading this book today.

I needed a book to complement my recent motorcycle ride from Park City, UT (and back) to Dawson, Yukon Territory (YT), ground zero of the great Yukon Gold Rush, 1897. I found the book in a convenience store in Carmacks (yes CarmackS, not Carmack), YT. Carmacks, 120 miles down river on the Yukon from Whitehorse, YT is named after George Carmack, the first to strike it big in the Klondike River valley near Dawson.

By 1897, the American west having been tamed, the larger than life, independent, and often violent players of the wild west... cowboys, gamblers, con men, trappers, Indian fighters, and lawmen were on the verge of disappearing from the American scene.

But, then came 1897 and the discovery of gold in Yukon territory, Canada.

In what many consider to be "one of the greatest human endeavors in history," over one hundred thousand people worked their way from all parts of the world to Seattle and San Francisco with the idea of catching a steamer to Juneau or Skagway, Alaska, which would put them in reach of striking it rich at the Klondike bonanza in the Yukon.

Thirty thousand people would make it to Dawson, Yukon... even more to way points Juneau and Skagway. But, only four hundred people would strike it rich in the Klondike gold fields.

At the time of the Yukon gold rush, in newly sprung up towns such as Juneau, Skagway, and Dawson, con men and vigilantes lived side by side in a state of uneasy tension before law and order and civil society could be established.

The Canadians bolstered their force of Mounties in the Yukon (remember Sergeant Preston?) and the US sent federal marshals to Skagway and Juneau, but in the early days of the gold rush, these lawmen, often as not, were bought off by con men who controlled the settlements with muscle and bribery (Sergeant Preston excluded. On king! On you Huskies!)

The "wild west" had returned, bringing with it new, larger than life characters of the type only recently thought to be obsolete. The lives of three of these characters intersect in Skagway as Howard Blum tells their story.

GEORGE CARMACK. the first to hit the mother lode in the Yukon. Modesto, CA young man joins the Marines. His ship goes to Alaska circa 1880 where Marines are supposed to keep testy Tagish Indians in check.

Carmack loves Alaska... wants to stay... but, knows he'll never ever be able to survive in such hostile territory without more survival skills. So, he befriends the Indians to learn their ways.

Carmack's sister in Modesto becomes ill. Carmack is refused a leave of absence and deserts his Marine unit.

Carmack returns to Alaska circa 1890 to look for gold. Takes up with the Indians. Has a common law Indian wife. Fathers a daughter. Good buddies with wife's brother Skookum Jim.

In 1897 Carmack is prospecting with his brother in law Indian, Skookum Jim, Bonanza Creek, Klondike tributary, and hits paydirt.

Abandons his Indian wife and Skookum, moves to Seattle, marries, and lives rest of life as wealthy man.

CHARLIE SRINGO. Texas cowboy rubs shoulders with Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp... in Dodge City and along the Chisolm Trail. Finds young Mamie, the love of his life. Marries, has a daughter.

Finds cowboy life and family life incompatible. Settles down and becomes a successful merchant.

Finds merchant and family life constrains, moves to Denver to take a job with the Pinkertons. Meanwhile, Maime passes away. Daughter lives with relatives. Apart from dalliances, Sringo finds no other life long female companion, and thinks of and "talks to" Maime for the rest of his life.

Becomes one of the top Pinkerton detectives. Sent to Alaska to solve a theft of gold at a mine near Juneau.

While working undercover at Juneau mine operation, clothing gets caught in machinery... in imminent danger of losing his hand, is saved by a mine employee... a white man dressed like an Indian.... George Carmack.

Sringo asks too many questions. Carmack fears Sringo is a federal agent looking to bust him as a deserter from the Marines so heads back to the hinterlands to join his Indian "family."

Several years later, 1897, after Carmack has become wealthy, Sringo is in Skagway on another Pinkerton case. Undercover, he befriends some low lifes (sic) from whom he learns that a robbery is being planned to take Carmack's gold when he moves it down the White Pass from Dawson to Skagway to be shipped to the bank in Seattle.

Sringo, indebted to Carmack for saving his hand at the Juneau mine, suspends his own Pinkerton inquiry and goes all the way to the Klondike to warn Carmack of the threat and to help him get his gold to the ship which will take it to Seattle. He is successful in this pursuit and thus pays his debt to Carmack.

SOAPY SMITH. One of the great con men of his age. Ran significant con operations, with the aid of his gang, the Soap Gang, in Denver, Creede, Colorado, and Skagway, Alaska.

Got his name from the famous "soap scam." He'd set up his keister in a public place, pile it with bars of soap and offer the bar of soap for sale at $1.00 a bar. As the people would gather around, he'd put dollar bills on bars of soap and then wrap them with paper. Then, he'd wrap a few bars with twenties... and then hundreds. Suckers went wild buying soap. Of course the buyers who bought the soap bars wrapped in big bills were his gang members.

In 1897 Soapy was the true power in Skagway. He owned most of the saloons and ran crooked operations in all of them. It was Soapy who had organized the failed robbery of Carmack's gold. After the robbery attempt, a contrite Soapy invited Carmack and Sringo for a drink. They refused the offer, and boarded the Seattle bound steamer, with Carmack's gold safely stored in the ship safe,

Shortly thereafter, Smith was killed in a gunfight with a disgruntled, conned victim.

Reactions...

The book reads quickly... like a thriller novel.

Indians to the stampeders (Yukon gold seekers) were at best a nuisance. Carmack's initial befriending of the Indians, which made him unique when he befriended them, stands in contrast to his abandoning his Indian family when he struck it rich. Blum does not duck the extent of racism that existed in the gold fields. By some accounts, it was Skookum Jim that made the first discovery, but Carmack usurped that claim and passed an inferior claim to Skookum Jim.

The richest discoveries were not made on Bonanza Creek, but by "late comers" on a feeder creek further up, appropriately named El Dorado Creek.

The account of Carmack and Skookum Jim coming upon the gold is thrilling to read.

I was initially troubled by how the author seemed to put words in the mouths of his characters, until I read the "afterword," where the author explained his "narrative history" technique and listed the extensive sources he used.

All three of these characters, Carmack, Sringo and Smith, are actual historical characters about whom there is significant historical documentation. In later life, Sringo himself wrote western novels and consulted in some early Hollywood western films.

There are vivid descriptions in the book of the route to get from Skagway to the Klondike.

A 3500 ft climb from Skagway had to be made to get over White Pass. From there it was 35 miles of walking to get to Bennett Lake, which formed part of the lake system leading to the headwaters of the Yukon.

At Bennett Lake the stampeders would have to build their own, make-shift, boats and proceed another 40 miles oaring their boats to get to the Yukon flow. Once in the flow of the Yukon, it was another 400 miles to get to the Klondike River... if they could make it through the class five rapids at Whitehorse... where many stampeders were killed, until portage operations (with big tolls) were set up on either side of the rapids.

Riding my motorcycle in June of 2017, I crossed the Yukon River north of Bennett Lake and, after witnessing the area of the Whitehorse rapids, 80 miles down river, now a smooth flow as the canyon water is backed up by a dam, rode 325 miles to get to Dawson. 15 miles from Dawson, YT2 parallels the Klondike river the rest of the way to Dawson and its confluence with the Yukon. I admit to getting a big lump in the throat when I first saw the Klondike. So much history in one modest waterway.

In a prior visit to Skagway, I had taken the White Pass railway as far as the Canadian border, thirty miles from Bennett Lake. So, either by train or motorcycle, I had covered most of the terrain taken by the stampeders to reach the gold fields.

OK... taking a train or a motorcycle on a paved road to follow the route of the stampeders is cheating relative to arduous walking and river running challenge the stampeders undertook. But, my on the spot experience of seeing first hand most of the terrain between Skagway and Dawson greatly enhanced my understanding of their ordeal.

The Yukon gold rush proved that the American spirit, characterized by energy, individualism, aspiration, and a yearn for a better life seen in the westward migration of the mid 19th century, was alive and well at the turn of the century as well. A good discussion, for another time, would be to explore whether that spirit is alive today, or whether some new paradigm has taken hold, and whether that new paradigm is better or worse than the one it replaced.

This book was the perfect complement to my motorcycle journey to the Klondike. The narrative captures the heartbeat of the wild west American experience. With its narrative style, it was unabashedly entertaining and highly informative.