News and mail
In the remote Klondike region, there was a huge demand for news and contact with the outside world for there were rarely any newspapers available during the beginning of the stampede. In the following year, two printing presses fought their way over the harsh terrain and reach Dawson City first, they had come with the intention of gaining control of the newspaper market. I Gene Kelly, the editor of the Klondike Nugget arrived first, but without his equipment, and it was The Midnight Sun who produced the first daily newspaper in Dawson, with the Dawson Miner newspaper close behind, raising the number of daily newspapers up to three. The Nugget sold for $24 ($680) as an annual subscription, and became popular among the miners for its coverage of scandals. Paper was often hard to find and during the winter of 1898–1899, and so news sometimes had to be told verbally.
The mail service was horribly organized which created chaos, not because the government had not expected the stampede of prospectors from the United States to the region. Two major problems stood in the way of an effective system. To begin with, any mail from America to Dawson City was sent to Juneau in South-east Alaska before being sent through Dawson and then down the Yukon to Circle City. From here it was then distributed by the US Post Office back up to Dawson. The huge distances involved resulted in delays of several months and frequently the loss of protective envelopes and their addresses. The second problem was in Dawson itself, which initially lacked a post office and therefore relied on two stores and a saloon to act as informal delivery points. The NWMP were tasked to run the mail system by October 1897, but they were ill-trained to do so. Up to 5,700 letters might arrive in a single shipment, all of which had to be collected in person from the post office. This resulted in huge queues, with claimants lining up outside the office for up to three days. Those who had no time and could afford it would pay others to stand in line for them, preferably a woman since they were allowed to get ahead in line out of politeness. Postage stamps, like paper in general, were scarce and rationed to two per customer. By 1899, trained postal staff took over mail delivery and relieved the NWMP of this task.
The mail service was horribly organized which created chaos, not because the government had not expected the stampede of prospectors from the United States to the region. Two major problems stood in the way of an effective system. To begin with, any mail from America to Dawson City was sent to Juneau in South-east Alaska before being sent through Dawson and then down the Yukon to Circle City. From here it was then distributed by the US Post Office back up to Dawson. The huge distances involved resulted in delays of several months and frequently the loss of protective envelopes and their addresses. The second problem was in Dawson itself, which initially lacked a post office and therefore relied on two stores and a saloon to act as informal delivery points. The NWMP were tasked to run the mail system by October 1897, but they were ill-trained to do so. Up to 5,700 letters might arrive in a single shipment, all of which had to be collected in person from the post office. This resulted in huge queues, with claimants lining up outside the office for up to three days. Those who had no time and could afford it would pay others to stand in line for them, preferably a woman since they were allowed to get ahead in line out of politeness. Postage stamps, like paper in general, were scarce and rationed to two per customer. By 1899, trained postal staff took over mail delivery and relieved the NWMP of this task.