Klondike Gold Rush of 1898
In August 1896 when Skookum Jim Mason, Dawson Charlie and George Carmack found gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada's Yukon Territory, they had no idea they would set off one of the greatest gold rushes in history.

Beginning in 1897, an army of hopeful gold seekers, unaware that most of the good Klondike claims were already staked, boarded ships from Seattle and other Pacific port cities and headed north toward the vision of riches.

All through the summer and on into the winter of 1897-98, stampeders poured into the newly created Alaskan tent and shack towns of Skagway and Dyea - the jumping off points for the 600-mile trek to the goldfields.

10,000 New Residents
Skagway was founded by a former steamboat captain named William Moore. His small homestead was inundated with some 10,000 transient residents struggling to get their required year's worth of gear and supplies over the Coast Range and down the Yukon River to reach to gold fields.

Fresh produce was hard to come by and even harder to afford in Skagway during the Klondike Gold Rush. During the summer of 1898 a handful of entrepreneurs tried their luck at farming in the Skagway Valley. A few successes were reported in the Skagway News and Skagway’s rich gardening history began. By the turn of the century large farms were established in both the Skagway and Dyea valleys – the largest areas under cultivation to date in the Territory of Alaska.

A 40 acre parcel west of the Skagway River Bridge, cultivated by Henry D. Clark was one of those farms. Although Mr. Clark grew many other vegetables, he is best known for his rhubarb. He grew rhubarb in such abundance and size that the locals referred to him as the ‘Rhubarb King’.

Many Skagway homes today raise decedents of Henry’s monster rhubarbs and you can see them in great abundance on the same site Henry Clark grew them a century ago.

National Park Service Click here to learn more about the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898

Henry Clark’s farm today
Today, Henry Clark’s farm grows much more than vegetables. In 1996 Charlotte Jewell, a well known gardener in Skagway, acquired a small portion of Mr. Clark’s farm and began her dream of having Skagway’s first show garden. In 2007 the first public glassblowing studio in Southeast Alaska was built on the property and now is the only place in the world where cruise visitors can blow thier own glass on a shore excursion!  The garden & glassworks is a popular stop for the many people (and gardeners) who visit Skagway each summer.