With the discovery of gold at Dawson City, Yukon on Rabbit Creek in 1897, pandemonium erupted on the Pacific Coast, as unemployed, young, adventurers headed north to seek their fortune. Travelling by boat from Seattle and the 49th Parallel, Sourdoughs embarked for the Lynn Canal and the Chilkoot Pass. Strangely, materials heading north had to be transhipped first into American territory, unloaded on a beach, hauled overland back into Canadian territory, and then by small boat down the Yukon River to Dawson. Canadian Merchants sought an All Canadian route whereby goods could travel by river steamer from Vancouver or Victoria, in bond, pass US territory at Wrangell, and churn up the Stikine River to the head of navigation at Glenora, near Telegraph Creek. Some two dozen boats were built or spent a summer or two on the river.