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Description

Rare 1897 Alaska & Yukon Territory Gold Rush Map with Routes To the Gold Regions

Rare separately issued Gold Rush Map, published in Tacoma, by B.C. Kenway, Civil Engineer, and lithographed by Blatchly Co. in Tacoma, in 1897.

The map focuses on several early routes to the Klondike gold regions, which are clearly delineated on the map, including:

  • Copper River Route
  • Fort Selkirk Route
  • Wrangell-Telegraph Creek Route.

Three large inset maps shows:

  • Key Map of Overland Routes
  • Key Map of Klondike Region
  • Key Map of Munook Creek and Affluents (Minook Creek, named after John Mynook Pavaloff, a half-Russian/half-native Alaskan, who found gold in the river's valley in 1894).

The map was a promotional giveaway for William F. Erving & Co. "The Only Complete and Exclusive Alaska Outfitters" in Tacoma, Washington.

William Ogilvie

The map credits William Ogilvie as one of the primary map sources. William Ogilvie FRGS (1846 - 1912) was a Canadian Dominion land surveyor, explorer and Commissioner of the Yukon Territory.

Ogilvie trained as a surveyor with Robert Sparks, qualifying to practice as a Provincial Land Surveyor in 1869. He worked locally as a land surveyor, qualified as a Dominion Land Surveyor in 1872, and was first hired by the Dominion government in 1875.

Ogilvie was responsible for numerous surveys from the 1870s to the 1890s, mainly in the Prairie Provinces. From 1887 to 1889, Ogilvie was involved in George Mercer Dawson's exploration and survey expedition in what later became the Yukon Territory. He surveyed the Chilkoot Pass, the Yukon and Porcupine rivers. Ogilvie established the location of the boundary between the Yukon and Alaska on the 141st meridian west.

During the Klondike Gold Rush, he surveyed the townsite of Dawson City and was responsible for settling many disputes between miners. Ogilvie became the Yukon's second Commissioner in 1898 at the height of the gold rush.

Baltson C. Kenway

Balston C. Kenway (1844-1909) was born in England and began his career in Canada as a civil engineer in 1871, but within a year he was 'induced to practice as an architect'. He moved to the United States in 1875, and opened an architectural office in Minneapolis.

In early 1878, he moved to Winnipeg and succeeded in obtaining many commissions both for himself and together in partnership with Robert McNicol. Kenway worked variously as an architect, contractor and lumber dealer from 1882 until 1888. His office in Winnipeg suffered major damage during a fire in 1886 and he lost drawings which he had accumulated during the previous fifteen years.

He left Winnipeg to take a position as a supervising architect with the Federal Dept. of Public Works at Lethbridge, Alberta. By April 1889, he had relocated to Vancouver where he held the post of supervising architect for the Provincial government, but by 1892 he had moved again, this time to Tacoma, Washington, to seek work.

In 1899 he moved to Seattle where he was appointed manager of the Washington Acetelyne Gas Lighting Co. and later took a position with the Dept. of Timber Land & Mines. He became a partner with Rufus B. Clark in Seattle in 1903. The office of Clark & Kenway was dissolved within a year and Kenway returned to Tacoma to continue his career until his death.

Rarity

The present map is extremely rare. We note an example in the Library of Congress.