The Alaska Native Studies Blog: Yukon Gold Rush: "This Is What Really Brought Alaska to the American Map," July 17, 1896.
Yukon Gold Rush: "This Is What Really Brought Alaska to the American Map," July 17, 1896.
On july 17, 1896, The ship the Portland docked in Seattle with a hull filled with gold. This marked the reopening of the American Frontier, one which Fredrick Jackson Turner previously declared closed at the end of the California Gold Rush. The clip above features the former senator Ted Stevens discussing the history of this second gold rush and its impact on how Alaska would come to be known in the United States and Elsewhere.