Forever associated with the hustle and bustle of the Klondike in 1898, Dawson City lived and breathed as the Gold Rush did - briefly and spectacularly. The town was a new one, founded by a man named Joe LaDue. Working in a place called Sixtymile, not far from the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers, LaDue was in a good position in 1896 - when the gold was discovered. He had platted a flat area of land just below the confluence and began to sell plots of land as the interested miners and shopkeepers arrived. LaDue named his instant township after the Canadian geologist George Mercer Dawson.

   It was in the spring of 1897, when the Yukon River thawed, that the wealthy prospectors left Dawson by steamboat to St. Michael, on the western Alaska coast. In St. Michael they boarded the larger seaworthy ships, the Excelsior and the Portland to sail for San Francisco and Seattle, respectively.

   LaDue chose about the best spot possible for a townsite near the gold fields, but that's not saying much. The mountainous valleys didn't afford much flat land—the best thing Dawson had going for it. Even though it was flat enough for a city, it wasn't particularly habitable—marshland and mosquitos in the summer and floods in the spring when the river was thawing. By late spring of 1898, Dawson had reached a population of 5,000. It was estimated that by August, only a few months later, nearly 100,000 individuals arrived in town. With a mobile and varying population, the town was eventually pinned as having a population of 60,000, and was declared the capitol of the Yukon Territory.    Dawson spawned some suburbs as well—Klondike City, upriver from Dawson (a prostitution haven called "Lousetown" by the miners), West Dawson, just uphill from Dawson, and Grand Forks, nearer to the gold fields.

   The miners moved on quickly, to further discoveries in Nome and elsewhere in Alaska's Interior. By 1902, less than 1,000 people remained in town. Many of the residents were young men, and went off to war later when Canada became involved in World War I. Joe LaDue's boomtown soon dwindled in size and importance.