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1897 Alaskan Gold Rush Guide Map to "The New Eldorado"
Nice example of this rare "New Official" guide map to Alaska and the Klondike Gold Fields, published in Chicago by Winger & Co.
Unlike most 1897 Klondike Gold Rush guide maps, the present work is highly informative. It includes 28 pages of text providing a comprehensive overview of Alaska, Placer Mining Law, Canadian Mining Regulations, and an explanation of how to reach the gold fields, along with tables of distances and a 6 page index to the folding map.
Most notable are the 4 single page maps, covering (1) The Klondike River and Tributaries, (2) The Forty Mile and Six Mile Rivers and Tributaries, (3) Passes & Trails From Juneau to Five Finger Rapids and (4) Passes & Trails From Lake Tagish To Dawson City and the Klondike District.
The primary map is a version of George F. Cram's map of Alaska, overprinted in red to show mining regions and the major routes to the Gold Regions, including the "Back Door Route" through Canada.
In describing Dawson, the author states: "Dawson City, the center of the new mining region, although sixty five miles distant from the Klondike, is said to be a typical mining camp minus the guns."
An early owner has pasted down to the map a printed "List of distances from Dyea" (just north of Sitka and Skagway), from an unknown source.
Rarity
The guide is very rare. We were unable to locate any auction or dealer records in RBH.
OCLC locates 5 examples (Yale, Newberry Library, Wisconsin Historical Society, University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Kansas State Historical Society), and we can locate a variant at the Bancroft Library (with publisher on front cover: Monroe Book Company).
This is the first example of the guide map we have seen.
George F. Cram (1842-1928), or George Franklin Cram, was an American mapmaker and businessman. During the Civil War, Cram served under General William Tecumseh Sherman and participated in his March to the Sea. His letters of that time are now important sources for historians of the Civil War. In 1867, Cram and his uncle, Rufus Blanchard, began the company known by their names in Evanston, Illinois.
Two years later, Cram became sole proprietor and the company was henceforth known as George F. Cram Co. Specializing in atlases, Cram was one of the first American companies to publish a world atlas. One of their most famous products was the Unrivaled Atlas of the World, in print from the 1880s to the 1950s.
Cram died in 1928, seven years after he had merged the business with that of a customer, E.A. Peterson. The new company still bore Cram’s name. Four years later, the Cram Company began to make globes, a branch of the business that would continue until 2012, when the company ceased to operate. For the final several decades of the company’s existence it was controlled by the Douthit family, who sold it just before the company was shuttered.
![[ Sea of the West ] L'Amerique Septentrionale divisee en ses principaux Etats . . . 1782](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/80228.jpg)
![[ Alaska / Russian America / Asia ] Partie Orientale du Gouvernement d'Ircoutski avec les Cotes et les Isles Septentrionales de L'Amerique](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/105773.jpg)
