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Howard: A thousand men, say, go searchin' for gold. After six months, one of them's lucky: one out of a thousand. His find represents not only his own labor, but that of nine hundred and ninety-nine others to boot. That's six thousand months, five hundred years, scramblin' over a mountain, goin' hungry and thirsty. An ounce of gold, mister, is worth what it is because of the human labor that went into the findin' and the gettin' of it.
Flophouse Bum: I never thought of it just like that.
Howard: Well, there's no other explanation, mister. Gold itself ain't good for nothing except making jewelry with and gold teeth.
The Klondike Gold Rush (1896–1899) saw an estimated 100,000 prospectors set out for the Yukon in search of fortune, though only around 30,000 to 40,000 actually made it. Many sold everything they had to fund their journey, and the vast majority never struck gold.
While there is no precise figure for how much money was spent overall, historians estimate that more money was spent trying to find gold than was actually extracted. Here's a rough breakdown:
Estimated Costs for Prospectors:
Travel & Supplies: It cost anywhere from $500 to $1,500 (in 1897 dollars) to make the trip, with the mandatory one-year supply of food and equipment costing at least $1,000 per person.
Inflation-Adjusted Value: This would be about $35,000 to $50,000 USD per person today.
Total Spent by Prospectors: With 100,000 people setting out, even at a conservative average of $750 per person, that’s $75 million spent in 1897 dollars.
Business & Government Investments:
Steamship and railway companies made massive investments.
The Canadian government had to spend money on law enforcement, infrastructure, and handling the influx of prospectors.
Mining companies invested heavily in machinery and labor.
The Final Tally:
Gold Extracted: $29 million (~$1 billion today)
Estimated Total Spent: Likely $100 million or more (3x the gold’s value), making it one of history’s most unprofitable gold rushes for most participants.
In short, the Klondike Gold Rush was a financial disaster for the vast majority of people who took part, with only a small handful striking it rich while most lost everything.
