title: Wolfenstein 3D

text: Since its initial release, "Wolfenstein 3D" has been ported to numerous other platforms as well. In 1993, Alternate Worlds Technology licensed "Wolfenstein 3D" and converted it into a virtual reality arcade game. The 1994 Acorn Archimedes port was done in UK by programmer Eddie Edwards and published by Powerslave Software. By 1994, a port for the Sega Mega Drive was under development by Imagineer, who intended to release it by September, but it was cancelled due to technical problems. The 1994 Classic Mac OS version of the game had three releases: "The First Encounter", a shareware release; "The Second Encounter", with 30 exclusive levels; and "The Third Encounter", with all 60 levels from the DOS version. An Atari Lynx version of the game was offered earlier by Atari for id, but work on the port was never started, save for a few images. A 3DO version was released in October 1995. The Apple IIGS port was started in Fall 1994 by Vitesse with Rebecca Heineman as the initial developer, with later graphics assistance by Ninjaforce Entertainment, but due to licensing problems with id it was not released until February 1998. An open source iOS port programmed by Carmack himself was released in 2009. An unofficial port for the Game Boy Color was made in 2016. An Android port titled "Wolfenstein 3D Touch" (later renamed "ECWolf") was released and published by Beloko Games. Other releases include the Game Boy Advance (2002), Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network. These ports' sound, graphics, and levels sometimes differ from the original. Many of the ports include only the Apogee episodes, but the iOS port includes "Spear of Destiny", and a 2007 Steam release for PC, macOS, and Linux includes all of the FormGen episodes. Bethesda Softworks, whose parent company bought id Software in 2009, celebrated the 20th anniversary of "Wolfenstein 3D"s release by producing a free-to-play browser-based version of the game in 2012, though the website was removed a few years later.


title: Wolfenstein 3D

text: Id had no clear expectations for "Wolfenstein"s commercial reception, but hoped that it would make around US$60,000 in its first month; the first royalty check from Apogee was instead for US$100,000. The game was selling at a rate of 4,000 copies a month by mail order. "PC Zone" quoted a shareware distributor as saying "Wolfenstein 3D" was the top shareware seller of 1992. By the end of 1993, sales of the Apogee episodes of "Wolfenstein 3D" as well as "Spear of Destiny" had reached over 100,000 units each, with the Apogee game still selling strongly by the end of the year as its reach spread without newer retail titles to compete with it for shelf space. By mid-1994 150,000 shareware copies were registered and id had sold another 150,000 retail copies of "Spear of Destiny"; the company estimated that one million shareware copies were distributed worldwide. Over 20 percent of its sales were from outside of the US, despite the lack of any marketing or non-English description and despite the game being banned from sale in Germany due to its inclusion of Nazi symbols by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons in 1994, and again in 1997 for "Spear of Destiny". Japanese gaming magazine "Famitsu" reviewed the game five months after release, describing it as: "View from the character's point of view: It's a real shooter. The game is easy to play, and it runs well ... This is the only game of its type." The Apogee episodes' sales vastly exceeded the shareware game sales record set by the developer's earlier "Commander Keen" series and provided id with a much higher profit margin than the sales of its retail counterpart; where "Commander Keen" games were bringing Apogee around $10,000 a month, "Wolfenstein 3D" averaged $200,000 per month for the first year and a half. The game sold 250,000 copies by 1995 and grossed $2.5 million in revenue.


title: Wolfenstein 3D

text: "Wolfenstein 3D" won the 1992 Best Arcade game award from "Compute!", the 1992 Most Innovative Game and Best Action Game awards from "VideoGames & Computer Entertainment", the 1992 Reader's Choice — Action/Arcade Game award from "Game Bytes", the 1993 Best Action/Arcade Game, Best Entertainment Software, and People's Choice awards at the Shareware Industry Awards, the 1993 Best Action Game award from "Computer Gaming World", and a Codie award from the Software Publishers Association for Best Action/Arcade Game. It was the first shareware title to win a Codie, and id (with six employees) became the smallest company to ever receive the award. "Wolfenstein 3D" was noted as one of the top games of the year at the 1993 Game Developers Conference.


title: Wolfenstein 3D

text: "Wolfenstein 3D" was well received by reviewers upon its release. Chris Lombardi of "Computer Gaming World" praised the "sparse [but] gorgeous", "frighteningly realistic", and "extremely violent" graphics, as well as the immersive sound and music. Noting the violence, he warned "those sensitive to such things to stay home". Lombardi concluded that "Wolfenstein 3D", alongside "Ultima Underworld" released two months prior, was "the first game technologically capable of creating a sufficient element of disbelief–suspension to emotionally immerse the player in a threatening environment", stating that they knew of no other game that could "evoke such intense psychological responses from its players". "Wolfenstein" twice received 5 out of 5 stars in "Dragon" in 1993; Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser termed it "definitely one of the best arcade games ever created for PC", highly praised the graphics and sound, and said that the "fast-paced action" could keep players enthralled for weeks if they were not concerned about the violence. Sandy Petersen, in the first "Eye of the Monitor" column, claimed that "there is nothing else quite like "Wolfenstein"" and that it had "evolved almost beyond recognition" from the original 1981 game. He enthusiastically praised the speed and gameplay, calling it "a fun game with lots of action" and "a fun, fairly mindless romp", though he did note that at higher difficulty settings or later levels it became extremely hard. The "Spear of Destiny" retail episode was also rated highly by "Computer Gaming World"s Bryan A. Walker, who praised the added enemy types, though he noted that it was essentially the same game as the shareware episodes. Formgen's "Spear of Destiny" mission packs "Return to Danger" and "Ultimate Challenge" were reviewed by Paul Hyman of "Computer Gaming World", who praised the updated graphical details and sound, as well as the smooth gameplay, but noted its overall dated graphics and lack of gameplay changes from the original game.


title: Wolfenstein 3D

text: The early ports of the game also received high reviews, though their sales have been described as "dismal". The four reviewers of "Electronic Gaming Monthly" called the Super NES version a good conversion that retained the good music, huge levels, and overall fun of the original game and dismissed the censoring in the version as inconsequential. In 1995, "Total!" ranked the game 84th on their "Top 100 SNES Games" list. "Electronic Gaming Monthly" rated the Jaguar version similarly to the Super NES version, commenting that the graphics and audio were superior to other versions of the game, but criticizing the faster movement of the player character as making it less fun to play. A "GamePro" review of the Jaguar port was highly complimentary, saying "Wolfenstein 3D" "set a new standard for PC gaming" and that the Jaguar version was the best to date, and better than the original due to its increased graphics and sound capabilities. A "Next Generation" review of the Jaguar version was less enthusiastic, terming it good but not up to the standards of newer games. Its review of the Macintosh version of the game was also mild, stating that "there isn't a staggering amount of freshness here, but the action is fast, deadly, and (surprise) addictive". Major Mike of "GamePro" commended the 3DO version's complete absence of pixelation, fast scaling, "rousing" music, and high quality sound effects, but criticized the controls as overly sensitive. He concluded that the game, then over three years old, "still packs a punch as a first-person shooter". "Wolfenstein 3D" won "GamePro"s Best 3DO Game of 1995 award, beating the acclaimed "The Need for Speed" and "D". "Maximum", on the other hand, while stating that the 3DO port was better than the original and as good as the Jaguar version, felt that it was so aged compared to recent releases like "" and the PlayStation version of "Doom" that a new port was pointless, with the game now "somewhat tiresome and very, very repetitive". A reviewer for "Next Generation" asserted that "Wolfenstein 3D" was "still as addictive as it ever was" but essentially agreed with "Maximum", contending that anyone interested in first-person shooters would have either already played it on another platform or "moved on" to more advanced games in the genre. More modern reviews include one for the Xbox 360 port in 2009 by Ryan McCaffrey of "Official Xbox Magazine", who heavily criticized it for non-existent enemy AI and bad level design and found it notably inferior to "Doom", and one that same year by Daemon Hatfield of IGN, who gave the PlayStation Network release of the game a warm reception, saying that while it was "dated and flawed", it was "required playing for any first-person shooter fan".


title: Wolfenstein 3D

text: "Wolfenstein 3D" has been called the "grandfather of 3D shooters", specifically first-person shooters, because it established the fast-paced action and technical prowess commonly expected in the genre and greatly increased the genre's popularity. Although some prior computer shooting-based games existed, they were generally scrolling shooters, while "Wolfenstein 3D" helped move the market towards first-person shooters. It has also been credited with confirming shareware distribution as a serious and profitable business strategy at the time; "VideoGames & Computer Entertainment" claimed in September 1992 that the game "justified the existence of shareware", and in July 1993 "Computer Gaming World" claimed that it "almost single-handedly" demonstrated the viability of shareware as a method of publishing, leading to a wave of other shareware first-person shooters. The game's high revenue compared to prior, smaller 2D titles led Apogee as well as others in the shareware games industry to move towards larger, 3D titles built by larger development teams.


title: Wolfenstein 3D

text: During development, id approached Sierra Entertainment, then one of the biggest companies in the industry and employer of several of their idols, with the goal of seeing if they could make a deal with the company. After viewing "Commander Keen" and an early version of "Wolfenstein 3D", CEO Ken Williams offered to buy id Software for US$2.5 million and turn it into an in-house development studio. The team was excited by the deal, but had felt there was a large culture clash between the two companies during their visit to Sierra and were hesitant to accept; Romero proposed asking for US$100,000 in cash up front as part of the deal rather than solely accepting payment in Sierra stock as a measure of Williams's seriousness. Williams refused, which id interpreted to mean that Williams did not truly recognize the potential of "Wolfenstein 3D" and the company, and the deal fell through, causing id to decide to remain an independent company for the foreseeable future. By the end of 1993 just before the release of their next game, "Doom", the success of "Wolfenstein 3D" led id to receive multiple calls every month from investment companies looking to make id a publicly-traded company, which were all turned down. In 1996, "Computer Gaming World" declared "Wolfenstein 3-D" the 97th-best computer game ever released.


title: Wolfenstein 3D

text: The game is also recognized as the principal cause for Germany banning video games that contain certain types of symbols and imagery from extremist groups like Nazis under its "Strafgesetzbuch" section 86a up through 2018. Section 86a had "social adequacy" allowances for works of art, but in 1998, a High District Frankfurt Court case evaluating the Nazi imagery within "Wolfenstein 3D" determined that video games did not fall under this allowance. The court ruled that because video games drew younger audiences, "this could lead to them growing up with these symbols and insignias and thereby becoming used to them, which again could make them more vulnerable for ideological manipulation by national socialist ideas". Up through 2018, the Germany software ratings board, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) refused to rate any game that included inappropriate symbols and imagery, effectively banning the game for sale within the country. By May 2018, a new court ruling was made in response to a parody web browser game, in which the Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed there were no breaches of the law in the game's content. Following this, the ban was reversed by the German government in August, having determined that the "Wolfenstein 3D" decision was outdated since the USK now included age ratings alongside other content warnings, and that video games should be considered as art under the social adequacy allowance. In November 2019, "Wolfenstein 3D" was formally struck from the "Index", the list of games banned from sale in Germany.


title: Wolfenstein 3D

text: After the game's release, id Software licensed the engine to other developers, like the "Commander Keen" engine before it, as part of a series of engine licensing deals that id has made throughout its history; games using the "Wolfenstein 3D" engine or derivatives of it include "", the Capstone Software games "" and "Operation Body Count", as well as "Super 3D Noah's Ark". Apogee intended to produce an expansion pack in 1993 titled "Rise of the Triad: Wolfenstein 3D Part II", designed by Tom Hall using the "Wolfenstein 3D" engine, but during development the game was changed into a stand-alone title with an enhanced engine, "Rise of the Triad". Additionally, Softdisk produced "Catacomb Abyss" using the prototype "Wolfenstein 3D" engine from "Catacomb 3-D" as part of the "Catacomb Adventure Series" trilogy of sequels. Although "Wolfenstein 3D" was not designed to be editable or modified, players developed character and level editors to create original alterations to the game's content. John Carmack and Romero, who had played numerous mods of other games, were delighted, and overrode any concerns about copyright issues by the others. The modding efforts of "Wolfenstein" players led id Software to explicitly design later titles like "Doom" and "Quake" to be easily modifiable by players, even including the map editing tools id Software used with the games. The source code for the original "Wolfenstein 3D" engine was released by id in 1995; when making the 2009 iOS port, Carmack used some of the enhancements to the engine made by fans after its release. The game's technical achievements also led to numerous imitators such as "Ken's Labyrinth", "Nitemare 3D", "", "Terminal Terror" and "The Fortress of Dr. Radiaki", among others.


title: Wolfenstein 3D

text: Although id Software did not develop another "Wolfenstein" game, as their development focus shifted to "Doom" shortly after release, and has never returned to the series, multiple "Wolfenstein" titles have been produced by other companies, sometimes using game engines developed by id. The first of these newer "Wolfenstein" games was "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" in 2001, a reboot of the series, and the most recent titles are the 2019 games "" and "".


title: Ian McEwan

text: Ian Russell McEwan, (born 21 June 1948) is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, "The Times" featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and "The Daily Telegraph" ranked him number 19 in its list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture".


title: Ian McEwan

text: McEwan began his career writing sparse, Gothic short stories. His first two novels, "The Cement Garden" (1978) and "The Comfort of Strangers" (1981), earned him the nickname "Ian Macabre". These were followed by three novels of some success in the 1980s and early 1990s. His novel "Enduring Love" was adapted into a film of the same name. He won the Booker Prize with "Amsterdam" (1998). His next novel, "Atonement", garnered acclaim and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film featuring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. His later novels have included "The Children Act", "Nutshell", and "Machines Like Me". He was awarded the 1999 Shakespeare Prize, and the 2011 Jerusalem Prize.


title: Ian McEwan

text: McEwan was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, on 21 June 1948, the son of David McEwan and Rose Lilian Violet ("née" Moore). His father was a working-class Scotsman who had worked his way up through the army to the rank of major.


title: Ian McEwan

text: McEwan spent much of his childhood in East Asia (including Singapore), Germany, and north Africa (including Libya), where his father was posted. His family returned to England when he was 12 years old. He was educated at Woolverstone Hall School in Suffolk; the University of Sussex, where he received a degree in English literature in 1970; and the University of East Anglia, where he undertook a master's degree in literature (with the option to submit creative writing instead of a critical dissertation).


title: Ian McEwan

text: McEwan's first published work was a collection of short stories, "First Love, Last Rites" (1975), which won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976. He achieved notoriety in 1979 when the BBC suspended production of his play "Solid Geometry" because of its supposed obscenity. His second collection of short stories, "In Between the Sheets", was published in 1978. "The Cement Garden" (1978) and "The Comfort of Strangers" (1981), his two earliest novels, were both adapted into films. The nature of these works caused him to be nicknamed "Ian Macabre". These were followed by his first book for children, "Rose Blanche" (1985), and a return to literary fiction with "The Child in Time" (1987), winner of the 1987 Whitbread Novel Award.


title: Ian McEwan

text: After "The Child in Time", McEwan began to move away from the darker, more unsettling material of his earlier career and towards the style that would see him reach a wider readership and gain significant critical acclaim. This new phase began with the publication of the mid-Cold War espionage drama "The Innocent" (1990), and "Black Dogs" (1992), a quasi-companion piece reflecting on the aftermath of the Nazi era in Europe and the end of the Cold War. McEwan followed these works with his second book for children, "The Daydreamer" (1994).


title: Ian McEwan

text: His 1997 novel, "Enduring Love", about the relationship between a science writer and a stalker, was popular with critics, although it was not shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was adapted into a film in 2004. In 1998, he won the Booker Prize for "Amsterdam". His next novel, "Atonement" (2001), received considerable acclaim; "Time" magazine named it the best novel of 2002, and it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2007, the critically acclaimed film "Atonement", directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, was released in cinemas worldwide. His next work, "Saturday" (2005), follows an especially eventful day in the life of a successful neurosurgeon. "Saturday" won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for 2005. His novel "On Chesil Beach" (2007) was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize and was adapted into a film starring Saoirse Ronan in 2017, for which McEwan wrote the screenplay. McEwan has also written a number of produced screenplays, a stage play, children's fiction, and an oratorio and a libretto titled "For You" with music composed by Michael Berkeley.


title: Ian McEwan

text: In 2006, McEwan was accused of plagiarism; specifically that a passage in "Atonement" (2001) closely echoed a passage from a memoir, "No Time for Romance", published in 1977 by Lucilla Andrews. McEwan acknowledged using the book as a source for his work. McEwan had included a brief note at the end of "Atonement", referring to Andrews's autobiography, among several other works. The incident recalled critical controversy over his debut novel "The Cement Garden", key elements of the plot of which closely mirrored some of those of "Our Mother's House", a 1963 novel by British author Julian Gloag, which had also been made into a film. McEwan denied charges of plagiarism, claiming he was unaware of the earlier work. Writing in "The Guardian" in November 2006, a month after Andrews' death, McEwan professed innocence of plagiarism while acknowledging his debt to the author of "No Time for Romance". Several authors defended him, including John Updike, Martin Amis, Margaret Atwood, Thomas Keneally, Kazuo Ishiguro, Zadie Smith, and Thomas Pynchon.


title: Ian McEwan

text: McEwan's first novel of the 2010s, "Solar", was published by Jonathan Cape and Doubleday in March 2010. In June 2008 at the Hay Festival, McEwan gave a surprise reading of this work-in-progress. The novel includes "a scientist who hopes to save the planet" from the threat of climate change, with inspiration for the novel coming from a Cape Farewell expedition McEwan made in 2005 in which "artists and scientists...spent several weeks aboard a ship near the north pole discussing environmental concerns". McEwan noted "The novel's protagonist Michael Beard has been awarded a Nobel prize for his pioneering work on physics, and has discovered that winning the coveted prize has interfered with his work". He said that the work was not a comedy: "I hate comic novels; it's like being wrestled to the ground and being tickled, being forced to laugh", instead, that it had extended comic stretches.


title: Ian McEwan

text: "Solar" was followed by McEwan's twelfth novel, "Sweet Tooth", a meta-fictional historical novel set in the 1970s, and was published in late August 2012. In an interview with "The Scotsman" newspaper to coincide with publication, McEwan revealed that the impetus for writing "Sweet Tooth" had been "[...] a way in which I can write a disguised autobiography". He revealed in an interview with "The Wall Street Journal", in November 2012, that the film rights to "Sweet Tooth" had been bought by Working Title Films – the company that had adapted "Atonement" as a film. "Sweet Tooth" was followed two years later by "The Children Act", which concerned High Court judges, UK family law, and the right to die.


title: Ian McEwan

text: Two years after "The Children Act", McEwan's 2016 novel "Nutshell", a short novel closer in style and tone to his earlier works, was published. McEwan's next work, a short novella, was titled "My Purple Scented Novel" – part of which was published previously as a short story by the same title in "The New Yorker" in 2016. This short work was published to mark McEwan's 70th birthday in June 2018.


title: Ian McEwan

text: McEwan followed "Nutshell" in April 2019 with the alternate history/science fiction novel "Machines Like Me". It concerns artificial intelligence and an alternate history in which Great Britain loses the Falklands War and the Labour Party, led by Tony Benn, eventually wins the 1987 General Election. In September 2019, McEwan announced a quick surprise follow-up novella, "The Cockroach".


title: Ian McEwan

text: McEwan has been nominated for the Booker Prize six times to date, winning the prize for "Amsterdam" in 1998. His other nominations were for "The Comfort of Strangers" (1981, shortlisted), "Black Dogs" (1992, shortlisted), "Atonement" (2001, shortlisted), "Saturday" (2005, longlisted), and "On Chesil Beach" (2007, shortlisted). McEwan also received nominations for the International Booker Prize in 2005 and 2007.


title: Ian McEwan

text: He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, Hamburg, in 1999. He is also a Distinguished Supporter of Humanists UK. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to literature. In 2005, he was the first recipient of Dickinson College's Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Visiting Scholar and Writers Program Award, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In 2008, McEwan was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature by University College London, where he had previously taught English literature.


title: Ian McEwan

text: In 2006, the Board of Trustees of the Kenyon Review honored McEwan with the Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement, writing that "McEwan's stories, novels, and plays are notable for their fierce artistic dramas, exploring unanticipated and often brutal collisions between the ordinary and the extraordinary".


title: Ian McEwan

text: In 2010, McEwan received the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award. The Helmerich Award is presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust.


title: Ian McEwan

text: On 20 February 2011, he was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society. He accepted the prize, despite controversy and pressure from groups and individuals opposed to the Israeli government. McEwan responded to his critics, and specifically the group British Writers in Support of Palestine (BWISP), in a letter to "The Guardian", stating in part, "There are ways in which art can have a longer reach than politics, and for me the emblem in this respect is Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra – surely a beam of hope in a dark landscape, though denigrated by the Israeli religious right and Hamas. If BWISP is against this particular project, then clearly we have nothing more to say to each other". McEwan's acceptance speech discussed the complaints against him and provided further insight into his reasons for accepting the award. He also said he will donate the amount of the prize, "ten thousand dollars to Combatants for Peace, an organisation that brings together Israeli ex-soldiers and Palestinian ex-fighters".


title: Ian McEwan

text: In 2012, the University of Sussex presented McEwan with its 50th Anniversary Gold Medal in recognition of his contributions to literature.


title: Ian McEwan

text: In 2014, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas paid $2 million for McEwan's literary archives. The archives includes drafts of all of his later novels. McEwan commented that his novel "Atonement" started out as a science fiction story set "two or three centuries in the future".


title: Ian McEwan

text: In 2020, McEwan was awarded the Goethe Medal, a yearly prize given by the Goethe-Institut honouring non-Germans "who have performed outstanding service for the German language and for international cultural relations". According to the jury, McEwan's literary work ("Machines like us") is "imbued with the essence of contradiction and critical, depth-psychological reflection of social phenomena". Despite harsh attacks in his own country, the writer "openly defends himself against narrow-minded nationalisms" and appears as a passionate pro-European.


title: Ian McEwan

text: In 2008, McEwan publicly spoke out against Islamism for its views on women and on homosexuality. He was quoted as saying that fundamentalist Islam wanted to create a society that he "abhorred". His comments appeared in the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera", to defend fellow writer Martin Amis against allegations of racism. McEwan, an atheist, said that certain streams of Christianity were "equally absurd" and that he didn't "like these medieval visions of the world according to which God is coming to save the faithful and to damn the others".


title: Ian McEwan

text: McEwan put forward the following statement on his official site and blog after claiming he was misinterpreted:


title: Ian McEwan

text: In 2008, McEwan was among more than 200,000 signatories of a petition to support Italian journalist Roberto Saviano who received multiple death threats and was placed in police protection after exposing the Mafia-like crime syndicate, Camorra, in his 2006 book "Gomorrah". McEwan said he hoped the petition would help "galvanize" the Italian police into taking seriously the "fundamental matter of civil rights and free speech".


title: Ian McEwan

text: McEwan also signed a petition to support the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of committing adultery.


title: Ian McEwan

text: On winning the Jerusalem Prize, McEwan defended himself against criticism for accepting the prize in light of opposition to Israeli policies, saying: "If you didn't go to countries whose foreign policy or domestic policy is screwed up, you'd never get out of bed". On accepting the honour he spoke in favour of Israel's existence, security, and freedoms, while strongly attacking Hamas, Israel's policies in Gaza, and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories—notable words, for the audience included politicians such as the Israeli President Shimon Peres and Nir Barkat, the Mayor of Jerusalem. McEwan also personally attended a protest in Sheikh Jarrah against the expansion of Israeli settlements.


title: Ian McEwan

text: In 2013, McEwan sharply criticised Stephen Hawking for boycotting a conference in Israel as well as the boycott campaign in general, stating that there are many countries "whose governments we might loathe or disapprove of" but "Israel–Palestine has become sort of tribal and a touchstone for a certain portion of the intellectual classes. I say this in the context of thinking it is profoundly wrong of the Israeli government not to be pursuing more actively and positively and creatively a solution with the Palestinians. That's why I think one wants to go to these places to make the point. Turning away will not produce any result".


title: Ian McEwan

text: In 2009, McEwan joined the project, a movement that supports positive action on climate change by encouraging people to reduce their carbon emissions.


title: Ian McEwan

text: In 2013, as part of a wide-ranging interview with "Channel 4 News", McEwan discussed the furore that surrounded his remarks on Islamism in 2008, stating "I remember getting a lot of stick five or six years ago saying something disobliging about jihadists. There were voices, particularly on the left, that thought anyone who criticised Islamism was really criticising Islam and therefore racist. Well, those voices have gone quiet because the local atrocities committed by Islamists whether in Pakistan or Mali is so self-evidently vile". In the same interview, McEwan remarked that he felt that protestors of the 2003 Iraq War were "vindicated" by what happened subsequently; argued that the chief legacy of the Iraq War was that "[...] sometimes there are things we could do [before that war] which we no longer can" in foreign affairs; stated that at one point prior to the 2003 invasion he had hoped to be able to seek an audience with Tony Blair to persuade him not to go ahead with the war; and as someone who voted for the Liberal Democrats in the 2010 UK general election, that the current coalition government of the United Kingdom should end, stating "Let's either have a Tory government or let Ed Miliband try something different", to try and turn around a country of "great inequity". McEwan is traditionally a Labour supporter and said he had his "fingers crossed" that Miliband would become Prime Minister.


title: Ian McEwan

text: Following the referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union resulting in a win for the Leave or 'Brexit' campaign in June 2016, McEwan wrote a critical opinion article for "The Guardian" titled "Britain is changed utterly. Unless this summer is just a bad dream", published on 9 July 2016. In the article, McEwan wrote of consequences of the 'Brexit' vote: "Everything is changed utterly. Or about to be, as soon as your new leader is chosen. The country you live in, the parliamentary democracy that ruled it, for good or bad, has been trumped by a plebiscite of dubious purpose and unacknowledged status. From our agriculture to our science and our universities, from our law to our international relations to our commerce and trade and politics, and who and what we are in the world – all is up for a curious, unequal renegotiation with our European neighbours". McEwan's piece appeared to conclude with a sense of bewilderment and unease at how events were panning out, anticipating the ascension of Theresa May to the leadership of the Conservative Party and her appointment as Prime Minister, and noting how the previously unthinkable in British politics had actually happened. McEwan's article was published on 9 July, and May effectively won the Conservative Party leadership contest on 11 July, which precipitated her appointment as Prime Minister two days later. In May 2017, speaking at a London conference on Brexit, apparently referring to what he believed to be the older demographic of leave voters, McEwan stated that 'one and a half million oldsters freshly in their graves' would result in a putative second referendum returning a 'remain' outcome.


title: Ian McEwan

text: McEwan has been married twice. His first marriage was to Penny Allen, an astrologer and alternative practitioner, with whom he had two sons. The marriage ended in 1995. Two years later in 1997, McEwan married Annalena McAfee, a journalist and writer who was formerly the editor of The "Guardians Review" section. McEwan lives in London.


title: Ian McEwan

text: In 2002, McEwan discovered that he had a brother who had been given up for adoption during the Second World War; the story became public in 2007. The brother, a bricklayer named David Sharp, was born six years earlier than McEwan, when their mother was married to a different man. Sharp has the same mother and father as McEwan but was born from an affair that occurred before they married. After her first husband was killed in combat, McEwan's mother married her lover, and Ian was born a few years later. The brothers are in regular contact and McEwan has written a foreword to Sharp's memoir.


title: Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

text: Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch was an American hip-hop group formed in 1991 by Mark Wahlberg (alias Marky Mark), Scott Gee, Hector the Booty Inspector, DJ-T, and Ashey Ace. The group's best known song is "Good Vibrations", which made it to number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in 1991, while their follow-up song "Wildside" peaked at number 10.


title: Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

text: Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch released their debut album, "Music for the People" on July 23, 1991. The album was a huge success for the group, making it to No. 1 on the Top Heatseekers chart and No. 21 on the "Billboard" 200. The album's success was fueled by two top-10 singles, both of which were certified gold, "Good Vibrations", which went to No. 1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and "Wildside" which went to No. 10 on the Hot 100. The album itself first went gold on November 15, 1991, before being certified platinum on January 14, 1992.


title: Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

text: At the height of the group's success, they also had a video game released by Digital Pictures entitled "Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch: Make My Video", but the game was not a success and has been considered one of the worst video games ever made.


title: Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

text: After the success of "Music for the People", the group quickly recorded a follow-up entitled "You Gotta Believe" that was released on September 15, 1992. However, the album achieved little success, only making it as high as No. 67 on the "Billboard" 200, as did the album's lone charting single also titled "You Gotta Believe" which went to 49 on the Hot 100. The group disbanded in 1993 with their last appearance being "I Want You", which was featured on the "Super Mario Bros." movie soundtrack.


title: Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

text: After the group disbanded, Mark continued his music career by teaming with reggae musician Prince Ital Joe. The duo released two albums in Europe and had a No. 1 hit in Germany with "United". Mark continued to release music until retiring in 1998 and becoming a successful actor in the United States.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: The Warner Animation Group (WAG) is an American animation studio serving as the computer-animated feature film label of Warner Bros.' theatrical film production and distribution division, Warner Bros. Pictures. Established on January 7, 2013, the studio is the successor to the dissolved 2D traditional hand-drawn animation studio Warner Bros. Feature Animation, which shut down in 2004, and is also a sister to the regular Warner Bros. Animation studio.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: Its first film, "The Lego Movie", was released on February 7, 2014, and its most recent film was "DC League of Super-Pets" on July 29, 2022; their upcoming slate of films includes "Toto" on February 2, 2024, and "Coyote vs. Acme" on an unspecified date. Films produced by WAG have grossed a total of $2 billion at the box office.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: On January 7, 2013, Jeff Robinov (then head of the studio's motion picture division) founded a screenplay development department, nicknamed a "think tank" for developing theatrical animated films, known as the Warner Animation Group. The group includes John Requa, Glenn Ficarra, Nicholas Stoller, Jared Stern, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Sarah Smith and Mark Osborne. Warner Bros. created the group with the hope that the box office reception of their films will be competitive with other animation studios' releases.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: On February 7, 2014, Warner Animation Group released their first film, "The Lego Movie", a film animated by Animal Logic, which also provided the animation for both spinoffs. It was met with critical praise and proved to be a box office success.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: WAG's second film, "Storks", was released September 23, 2016. It received mixed reviews from critics.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: On February 10, 2017, Warner Animation Group released "The Lego Batman Movie", which received positive reviews from critics and was a box office success. On December 14, 2017, Warner Bros. announced Allison Abbate had been named Executive Vice President, and Chris Leahy has been named Senior Vice President.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: "The Lego Ninjago Movie", based on the "Lego Ninjago" toys, was released on September 22, 2017. Upon release, the film was met with mixed reviews from critics and became the first film from the studio and franchise to fail to recoup its budget.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: "Smallfoot", released September 28, 2018, earned a 76% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with mostly positive reviews from critics and becoming a box office success by grossing over $214 million worldwide.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: "", a sequel to "The Lego Movie", was released February 8, 2019 and earned an 85% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with generally positive reviews from critics but only grossed around $192.3 million worldwide, almost barely recouping its budget and becoming the studio and franchise's second box office disappointment.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: In October 2019, Locksmith Animation formed a multi-year production deal with Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Animation Group, which will distribute Locksmith's films.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: An animated reboot of the "Scooby-Doo" film series titled "Scoob!" was initially set for a theatrical release on May 15, 2020, but then it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 21, 2020 it was announced that it would instead go to video on demand in response to the pandemic. It received mixed reviews from critics.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: A live-action/animated film based on "Tom & Jerry" was released internationally on February 11, 2021 and on February 26 in the United States in theaters and HBO Max simultaneously and also debuted the company's new logo to match with the design of the new shield logo that Warner Bros. debuted back in November 2019, and like the main WB logo, which was revamped earlier that year with "Locked Down", it is made by Devastudios, with clouds created using Terragen. It received generally negative reviews from critics, and is the first film from the company to have met so, but was somehow a box-office success.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: "", starring LeBron James, was released on July 16, 2021, and was the first film from Warner Animation Group to incorporate traditional animation. It also received generally negative reviews from critics and is the second film from the company to have met so after "Tom & Jerry", due to the film being heavy on product placement of the studio's intellectual properties.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: An animated film based on the Legion of Super-Pets titled "DC League of Super-Pets" was released on July 29, 2022. It received generally positive reviews from critics.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: A Christmas-themed spin-off prequel titled "Scoob! Holiday Haunt", taking place in the gang's youth, with the actors who portrayed their younger selves reprising, was set for release in 2022 on HBO Max, but was cancelled following the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc. to form Warner Bros. Discovery in April 2022 by CEO David Zaslav on August 2, 2022, citing cost-cutting measures and a refocus on theatrical films rather than creating projects for streaming. Following the merger, it was announced in August that Allison Abbate would be leaving the studio.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: A musical feature adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's children's book" Toto: The Dog-Gone Amazing Story Of The Wizard Of Oz" began animation production in February 2021. It is being directed by Alex Timbers, from a screenplay by John August, and produced by Derek Frey. It is set to be released on February 2, 2024.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: WAG's third live-action/animation hybrid, a Wile E. Coyote film titled "Coyote vs. Acme", was originally scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on July 21, 2023, by Warner Bros. Pictures. On April 26, 2022, it was taken off the release schedule, with "Barbie" taking over its original release date. The film will be directed by Dave Green and produced by Chris DeFaria and James Gunn.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: There are also plans to develop a "DC League of Super-Pets" franchise following the film's critical and commercial success.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: Similar to Paramount Animation, Netflix Animation and Sony Pictures Animation, the Warner Animation Group outsources their computer-animated films' production to other studios. Such as Animal Logic ("The Lego Movie" franchise, "DC League of Super-Pets and Toto"), Sony Pictures Imageworks ("Storks" and "Smallfoot"), Reel FX Creative Studios ("Scoob!"), Framestore ("Tom & Jerry"), Industrial Light & Magic ("") and DNEG ("Coyote vs. Acme"). However, "Space Jam: A New Legacy" did also include hand-drawn animation, which is outsourced from Company 3 Animation, and Tonic DNA.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: The budgets for their films tend to range within $60–80 million. Their most expensive films to date, "", "Scoob!" and "", cost $99 million, $90 million and $150 million respectively. "DC League of Super-Pets" also cost as $90 million.


title: Warner Animation Group

text: The screenplay department is reportedly somewhat similar to Pixar Animation Studios' "brain trust" in terms of how its members consult with one another and give feedback on each other's projects. The group is nicknamed the "think tank".


title: Shamita Shetty

text: Shamita Shetty (born 2 February 1979) is an Indian Bollywood actress, model and interior designer. She made her Hindi film debut in the musical romance film "Mohabbatein" (2000), which earned her the IIFA Award for Star Debut of the Year – Female.


title: Shamita Shetty

text: She went on to do films including "Bewafaa" (2005) and "Cash" (2007). Following this, she participated in several reality television shows like "Bigg Boss 3" (2009) and "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa" (2015). Later, she was a finalist on the stunt-based show "" (2019) and the game reality series "Bigg Boss OTT" (2021) and "Bigg Boss 15" (2021–2022).


title: Shamita Shetty

text: Shetty was born in a Tulu speaking bunt family, in Mumbai. Her late father Surendra and her mother Sunanda were manufacturers of tamper-proof water caps in the pharmaceutical industry. Shilpa Shetty is her elder sister.


title: Shamita Shetty

text: She did her schooling from St. Anthony's Girls' High School, Mumbai. After completing her degree in commerce from Sydenham College, Shetty did a fashion designing diploma from SNDT College, Mumbai. After this, she started her internship with fashion designer Manish Malhotra, but Manish saw a spark in her and suggested to prep her for her acting career. In 2011, Shetty decided to follow her passion in interior design. Her first solo project was Royalty, a club in Mumbai. Later, her love for interior design pushed her to do a diploma from Central Saint Martins and Inchbald School of Design in London.


title: Shamita Shetty

text: Shetty is a fitness and wellness enthusiast. She actively promotes workout, meditation and yoga. Apart from being a professional interior designer, she also enjoys painting.


title: Shamita Shetty

text: Shetty made her film debut in 2000 with the Yash Raj Films movie "Mohabbatein", directed by Aditya Chopra. Her portrayal of Ishika earned her the 2001 IIFA Award for Star Debut of the Year – Female. Soon after, she gave hit dance numbers to Bollywood, including Sharara Sharara in "Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai" (2002), Chori Pe Chori in "Saathiya" (2002) and Mind Blowing Mahiya in "Cash" (2007). She was appreciated for her acting in the film "Zeher" (2005), for which she was nominated for the Stardust Award as Star of the Year Female (2006). Sify said, "Shamita Shetty is a surprise, a revelation. The actress proves that she can deliver if given an opportunity. She looks gorgeous all through, but more than anything else, it's her talent that you notice at the end of the show." She worked with her sister Shilpa Shetty in the film "Fareb". She also starred in multi-star projects like "Bewafaa" (2005) and "Cash" (2007). In 2009, she participated in the reality television series "Bigg Boss 3". After 42 days, she left the show to attend her sister Shilpa Shetty's wedding. She was the only contestant who wasn't nominated even once during her stay in the "Bigg Boss" house.


title: Shamita Shetty

text: Alongside her acting career, Shetty decided to focus on her passion for interior designing. After completing an interior designing course in London and finishing an internship with an architect's firm, she launched her own interior designing company "Golden Leaf Interiors". Her first interior designing project was Royalty, a club in Mumbai. She designed her sister, Shilpa Shetty's son Viaan's room. She won the Best Interior Design Award at the Asia Spa Awards for designing Chandigarh Iosis Spa.


title: Shamita Shetty

text: In 2017, Shetty appeared on the dancing reality show "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa". She then starred in Voot's comedy web series "Yo Ke Hua Bro", also co-starring Aparshakti Khurana, Gaurav Pandey and Ridhima Pandit. In 2019, she participated in Colors TV's stunt reality show "", ending up as the third runner up. Shetty then starred in T-Series' music video titled "Teri Maa".


title: Shamita Shetty

text: In 2020, she starred in the film "The Tenant" as Meera. She then portrayed Kavita Tharoor in ZEE5's thriller film "Black Widows". The Indian Express said that “Shamita Shetty brings a vivaciousness to her role.” In 2021, "The Tenant" was screened at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. It won the Best Film Award at the Indian Film Festival Stuttgart 2021.


title: Shamita Shetty

text: In September 2021, she participated in Voot's "Bigg Boss OTT", finishing as the second runner up. In October, she participated in Colors TV's "Bigg Boss 15". She became the first and the last captain of the season, and the only contestant to become the captain twice. Shetty also won the Style Icon Award. She finished her journey as the third runner up.


title: Shamita Shetty

text: In 2012, Shetty walked the ramp for charity fashion show "Caring With Style" to raise money for children suffering from cancer. In 2013, she starred in "Betiyaan", a government initiated social cause music video for the Save the girl child campaign.


title: Shamita Shetty

text: In 2017, Shetty collaborated with an NGO that is dedicated to the cause of providing care for stray and abandoned cats. She also walked the ramp for Roopa Vohra at the fashion show for a social cause "She Matters". In 2018, she joined hands with Help Age India, an NGO that works for the welfare of the elderly. Shetty took part in a digital literacy initiative and said that familiarising the elderly with latest technology is crucial in keeping them connected.


title: Shamita Shetty

text: In 2019, Shetty flagged off a walkathon on the International Day for Older Persons, vouching for the government to increase pension for the elderly. Shetty visits an orphanage on her birthday every year and spends time with the elderly, bringing them packed surprises.


title: Shamita Shetty

text: Shetty has endorsed Pantene with sister Shilpa Shetty for a year. She has been associated with brands and companies like Aldo, Audi and the IIFJAS Jewellery exhibition.


title: Shamita Shetty

text: In 2016, Shetty walked the ramp during Lakme Fashion Week for Divya Reddy. In 2017, she walked the India International Jewellery Week ramp for Surya Golds. She also walked the ramp for Swarovski Gemstones at GJC NITE 2019. In 2020, she was the showstopper for designer Priya Machineni's spring collection at Lotus India Fashion Week.


title: Shamita Shetty

text: Shetty has featured on covers of magazines like The Lifestyle Journalist, G Magazine, Stuff Magazine, iCraze, Women Fitness Magazine, Femina India and Fitlook Magazine.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration by an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of Yukon, in north-western Canada, between 1896 and 1899. Gold was discovered there by local miners on August 16, 1896; when news reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year, it triggered a stampede of prospectors. Some became wealthy, but the majority went in vain. It has been immortalized in films, literature, and photographs.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: To reach the gold fields, most prospectors took the route through the ports of Dyea and Skagway, in Southeast Alaska. Here, the "Klondikers" could follow either the Chilkoot or the White Pass trails to the Yukon River, and sail down to the Klondike. The Canadian authorities required each of them to bring a year's supply of food, in order to prevent starvation. In all, the Klondikers' equipment weighed close to a ton, which most carried themselves, in stages. Performing this task, and contending with the mountainous terrain and cold climate, meant those who persisted did not arrive until summer 1898. Once there, they found few opportunities, and many left disappointed.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: To accommodate the prospectors, boom towns sprang up along the routes. At their terminus, Dawson City was founded at the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon rivers. From a population of 500 in 1896, the town grew to house approximately 30,000 people by summer 1898. Built of wood, isolated, and unsanitary, Dawson suffered from fires, high prices, and epidemics. Despite this, the wealthiest prospectors spent extravagantly, gambling and drinking in the saloons. The indigenous Hän, on the other hand, suffered from the rush; they were forcibly moved into a reserve to make way for the Klondikers, and many died.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Beginning in 1898, the newspapers that had encouraged so many to travel to the Klondike lost interest in it. In the summer of 1899, gold was discovered around Nome in west Alaska, and many prospectors left the Klondike for the new goldfields, marking the end of the Klondike Rush. The boom towns declined, and the population of Dawson City fell. Gold mining production in the Klondike peaked in 1903 after heavier equipment was brought in. Since then, the Klondike has been mined on and off, and today the legacy draws tourists to the region and contributes to its prosperity.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: The indigenous peoples in north-west America had traded in copper nuggets prior to European expansion. Most of the tribes were aware that gold existed in the region, but the metal was not valued by them. The Russians and the Hudson's Bay Company had both explored the Yukon in the first half of the 19th century, but ignored the rumours of gold in favour of fur trading, which offered more immediate profits.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: In the second half of the 19th century, American prospectors began to spread into the area. Making deals with the Native Tlingit and Tagish tribes, the early prospectors opened the important routes of Chilkoot and White Pass and reached the Yukon valley between 1870 and 1890. Here, they encountered the Hän people, semi-nomadic hunters and fishermen who lived along the Yukon and Klondike Rivers. The Hän did not appear to know about the extent of the gold deposits in the region.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: In 1883, Ed Schieffelin identified gold deposits along the Yukon River, and an expedition up the Fortymile River in 1886 discovered considerable amounts of it and founded Fortymile City. The same year gold had been found on the banks of the Klondike River, but in small amounts and with no claims being made. By late 1886, several hundred miners were working their way along the Yukon valley, living in small mining camps and trading with the Hän. On the Alaskan side of the border Circle City, a logtown, was established 1893 on the Yukon River. In three years it grew to become "the Paris of Alaska", with about 1,200 inhabitants, saloons, opera houses, schools, and libraries. In 1896, it was so well-known that a correspondent from the Chicago "Daily Record" came to visit. At the end of the year, it became a ghost town, when large gold deposits were found upstream on the Klondike.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: On August 16, 1896, an American prospector named George Carmack, his Tagish wife Kate Carmack (Shaaw Tláa), her brother Skookum Jim (Keish), and their nephew Dawson Charlie (K̲áa Goox̱) were travelling south of the Klondike River. Following a suggestion from Robert Henderson, a Canadian prospector, they began looking for gold on Bonanza Creek, then called Rabbit Creek, one of the Klondike's tributaries. It is not clear who discovered the gold: George Carmack or Skookum Jim, but the group agreed to let George Carmack appear as the official discoverer because they feared that authorities would not recognize an indigenous claimant.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: In any event, gold was present along the river in huge quantities. Carmack measured out four claims, strips of ground that could later be legally mined by the owner, along the river; these including two for himself—one as his normal claim, the second as a reward for having discovered the gold—and one each for Jim and Charlie. The claims were registered the next day at the police post at the mouth of the Fortymile River and news spread rapidly from there to other mining camps in the Yukon River valley.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: By the end of August, all of Bonanza Creek had been claimed by miners. A prospector then advanced up into one of the creeks feeding into Bonanza, later to be named Eldorado Creek. He discovered new sources of gold there, which would prove to be even richer than those on Bonanza. Claims began to be sold between miners and speculators for considerable sums. Just before Christmas, word of the gold reached Circle City. Despite the winter, many prospectors immediately left for the Klondike by dog-sled, eager to reach the region before the best claims were taken. The outside world was still largely unaware of the news and although Canadian officials had managed to send a message to their superiors in Ottawa about the finds and influx of prospectors, the government did not give it much attention. The winter prevented river traffic, and it was not until June 1897 that the first boats left the area, carrying the freshly mined gold and the full story of the discoveries.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: In the resulting Klondike stampede, an estimated 100,000 people tried to reach the Klondike goldfields, of whom only around 30,000 to 40,000 eventually did. It formed the height of the Klondike gold rush from the summer of 1897 until the summer of 1898.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: It began on July 15, 1897, in San Francisco and was spurred further two days later in Seattle, when the first of the early prospectors returned from the Klondike, bringing with them large amounts of gold on the ships "Excelsior" and "Portland". The press reported that a total of $1,139,000 (equivalent to $1 billion at 2010 prices) had been brought in by these ships, although this proved to be an underestimate. The migration of prospectors caught so much attention that it was joined by outfitters, writers and photographers.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Various factors lay behind this sudden mass response. Economically, the news had reached the US at the height of a series of financial recessions and bank failures in the 1890s. The gold standard of the time tied paper money to the production of gold and shortages towards the end of the 19th century meant that gold dollars were rapidly increasing in value ahead of paper currencies and being hoarded. This had contributed to the Panic of 1893 and Panic of 1896, which caused unemployment and financial uncertainty. There was a huge, unresolved demand for gold across the developed world that the Klondike promised to fulfil and, for individuals, the region promised higher wages or financial security.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Psychologically, the Klondike, as historian Pierre Berton describes, was "just far enough away to be romantic and just close enough to be accessible." Furthermore, the Pacific ports closest to the gold strikes were desperate to encourage trade and travel to the region. The mass journalism of the period promoted the event and the human interest stories that lay behind it. A worldwide publicity campaign engineered largely by Erastus Brainerd, a Seattle newspaperman, helped establish that city as the premier supply centre and the departure point for the gold fields.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: The prospectors came from many nations, although an estimated majority of 60 to 80 percent were Americans or recent immigrants to America. Most had no experience in the mining industry, being clerks or salesmen. Mass resignations of staff to join the gold rush became notorious. In Seattle, this included the mayor, twelve policemen, and a significant percentage of the city's streetcar drivers.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Some stampeders were famous: John McGraw, the former governor of Washington, joined, together with the prominent lawyer and sportsman A. Balliot. Frederick Burnham, a well-known American scout and explorer, arrived from Africa, only to be called back to take part in the Second Boer War. Among those who documented the rush was the Swedish-born photographer Eric Hegg, who took some of the iconic pictures of Chilkoot Pass, and reporter Tappan Adney, who afterwards wrote a first-hand history of the stampede. Jack London, later a famous American writer, left to seek for gold but made his money during the rush mostly by working for prospectors.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Seattle and San Francisco competed fiercely for business during the rush, with Seattle winning the larger share of trade. Indeed, one of the first to join the gold rush was William D. Wood, the mayor of Seattle, who resigned and formed a company to transport prospectors to the Klondike. The publicity around the gold rush led to a flurry of branded goods being put onto the market. Clothing, equipment, food, and medicines were all sold as "Klondike" goods, allegedly designed for the northwest. Guidebooks were published, giving advice about routes, equipment, mining, and capital necessary for the enterprise. The newspapers of the time termed this phenomenon "Klondicitis".


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: The Klondike could be reached only by the Yukon River, either upstream from its delta, downstream from its head, or from somewhere in the middle through its tributaries. River boats could navigate the Yukon in the summer from the delta until a point called Whitehorse, above the Klondike. Travel, in general, was made difficult by both geography and climate. The region was mountainous, the rivers winding and sometimes impassable; the short summers could be hot, while from October to June, during the long winters, temperatures could drop below −50 °C (−58 °F).


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Aids for the travellers to carry their supplies varied; some had brought dogs, horses, mules, or oxen, whereas others had to rely on carrying their equipment on their backs or on sleds pulled by hand. Shortly after the stampede began in 1897, the Canadian authorities had introduced rules requiring anyone entering Yukon Territory to bring with them a year's supply of food; typically this weighed around . By the time camping equipment, tools and other essentials were included, a typical traveller was transporting as much as a ton in weight. Unsurprisingly, the price of draft animals soared; at Dyea, even poor quality horses could sell for as much as $700 ($19,000), or be rented out for $40 ($1,100) a day.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: From Seattle or San Francisco, prospectors could travel by sea up the coast to the ports of Alaska. The route following the coast is now referred to as the Inside Passage. It led to the ports of Dyea and Skagway plus ports of nearby trails. The sudden increase in demand encouraged a range of vessels to be pressed into service including old paddle wheelers, fishing boats, barges, and coal ships still full of coal dust. All were overloaded and many sank.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: It was possible to sail all the way to the Klondike, first from Seattle across the northern Pacific to the Alaskan coast. From St. Michael, at the Yukon River delta, a river boat could then take the prospectors the rest of the way up the river to Dawson, often guided by one of the Native Koyukon people who lived near St. Michael. Although this all-water route, also called "the rich man's route", was expensive and long – in total – it had the attraction of speed and avoiding overland travel. At the beginning of the stampede a ticket could be bought for $150 ($4,050) while during the winter 1897–98 the fare settled at $1,000 ($27,000).


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: In 1897, some 1,800 travellers attempted this route but the vast majority were caught along the river when the region iced over in October. Only 43 reached the Klondike before winter and of those 35 had to return, having thrown away their equipment en route to reach their destination in time. The remainder mostly found themselves stranded in isolated camps and settlements along the ice-covered river often in desperate circumstances.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Most of the prospectors landed at the southeast Alaskan towns of Dyea and Skagway, both located at the head of the natural Lynn Canal at the end of the Inside Passage. From there, they needed to travel over the mountain ranges into Canada's Yukon Territory, and then down the river network to the Klondike. Along the trails, tent camps sprung up at places where prospectors had to stop to eat or sleep or at obstacles such as the icy lakes at the head of the Yukon. At the start of the rush, a ticket from Seattle to the port of Dyea cost $40 ($1,100) for a cabin. Premiums of $100 ($2,700), however, were soon paid and the steamship companies hesitated to post their rates in advance since they could increase on a daily basis.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Those who landed at Skagway made their way over the White Pass before cutting across to Bennett Lake. Although the trail began gently, it progressed over several mountains with paths as narrow as and in wider parts covered with boulders and sharp rocks. Under these conditions horses died in huge numbers, giving the route the informal name of Dead Horse Trail. The volumes of travellers and the wet weather made the trail impassable and, by late 1897, it was closed until further notice, leaving around 5,000 stranded in Skagway.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: An alternative toll road suitable for wagons was eventually constructed and this, combined with colder weather that froze the muddy ground, allowed the White Pass to reopen, and prospectors began to make their way into Canada. Moving supplies and equipment over the pass had to be done in stages. Most divided their belongings into packages that could be carried on a man's back, or heavier loads that could be pulled by hand on a sled. Ferrying packages forwards and walking back for more, a prospector would need about thirty round trips, a distance of at least , before they had moved all of their supplies to the end of the trail. Even using a heavy sled, a strong man would be covering and need around 90 days to reach Lake Bennett.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Those who landed at Dyea, Skagway's neighbour town, travelled the Chilkoot Trail and crossed its pass to reach Lake Lindeman, which fed into Lake Bennett at the head of the Yukon River. The Chilkoot Pass was higher than the White Pass, but more used it: around 22,000 during the gold rush. The trail passed up through camps until it reached a flat ledge, just before the main ascent, which was too steep for animals. This location was known as the Scales, and was where goods were weighed before travellers officially entered Canada. The cold, the steepness and the weight of equipment made the climb extremely arduous and it could take a day to get to the top of the high slope.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: As on the White Pass trail, supplies needed to be broken down into smaller packages and carried in relay. Packers, prepared to carry supplies for cash, were available along the route but would charge up to $1 ($27) per lb (0.45 kg) on the later stages; many of these packers were natives: Tlingits or, less commonly, Tagish. Avalanches were common in the mountains and, on April 3, 1898, one claimed the lives of more than 60 people travelling over Chilkoot Pass.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Entrepreneurs began to provide solutions as the winter progressed. Steps were cut into the ice at the Chilkoot Pass which could be used for a daily fee, this 1,500 step staircase becoming known as the "Golden Steps". By December 1897, Archie Burns built a tramway up the final parts of the Chilkoot Pass. A horse at the bottom turned a wheel, which pulled a rope running to the top and back; freight was loaded on sledges pulled by the rope. Five more tramways soon followed, one powered by a steam engine, charging between 8 and 30 cents ($2 and $8) per . An aerial tramway was built in the spring of 1898, able to move 9 tonnes of goods an hour up to the summit.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: At Lakes Bennett and Lindeman, the prospectors camped to build rafts or boats that would take them the final down the Yukon to Dawson City in the spring. 7,124 boats of varying size and quality left in May 1898; by that time, the forests around the lakes had been largely cut down for timber. The river posed a new problem. Above Whitehorse, it was dangerous, with several rapids along the Miles Canyon through to the White Horse Rapids.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: After many boats were wrecked and several hundred people died, the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) introduced safety rules, vetting the boats carefully and forbidding women and children to travel through the rapids. Additional rules stated that any boat carrying passengers required a licensed pilot, typically costing $25 ($680), although some prospectors simply unpacked their boats and let them drift unmanned through the rapids with the intent of walking down to collect them on the other side. During the summer, a horse-powered rail-tramway was built by Norman Macaulay, capable of carrying boats and equipment through the canyon at $25 ($680) a time, removing the need for prospectors to navigate the rapids.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: There were a few more trails established during 1898 from South-east Alaska to the Yukon River. One was the Dalton trail: starting from Pyramid Harbour, close to Dyea, it went across the Chilkat Pass some miles west of Chilkoot and turned north to the Yukon River, a distance of about . This was created by Jack Dalton as a summer route, intended for cattle and horses, and Dalton charged a toll of $250 ($6,800) for its use.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: The Takou route started from Juneau and went north-east to Teslin Lake. From here, it followed a river to the Yukon, where it met the Dyea and Skagway route at a point halfway to the Klondike. It meant dragging and poling canoes up-river and through mud together with crossing a mountain along a narrow trail. Finally, there was the Stikine route starting from the port of Wrangell further south-east of Skagway. This route went up the uneasy Stikine River to Glenora, the head of navigation. From Glenora, prospectors would have to carry their supplies to Teslin Lake where it, like the Takou route, met the Yukon River system.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: An alternative to the South-east Alaskan ports were the All-Canadian routes, so-called because they mostly stayed on Canadian soil throughout their journey. These were popular with British and Canadians for patriotic reasons and because they avoided American customs. The first of these, around in length, started from Ashcroft in British Columbia and crossed swamps, river gorges, and mountains until it met with the Stikine River route at Glenora. From Glenora, prospectors would face the same difficulties as those who came from Wrangell. At least 1,500 men attempted to travel along the Ashcroft route and 5,000 along the Stikine. The mud and the slushy ice of the two routes proved exhausting, killing or incapacitating the pack animals and creating chaos amongst the travellers.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Three more routes started from Edmonton, Alberta; these were not much better – barely trails at all – despite being advertised as "the inside track" and the "back door to the Klondike". One, the "overland route", headed north-west from Edmonton, ultimately meeting the Peace River and then continuing on overland to the Klondike, crossing the Liard River en route. To encourage travel via Edmonton, the government hired T.W. Chalmers to build a trail, which became known as the Klondike Trail or Chalmers Trail. The other two trails, known as the "water routes", involved more river travel. One went by boat along rivers and overland to the Yukon River system at Pelly River and from there to Dawson. Another went north of Dawson by the Mackenzie River to Fort McPherson, before entering Alaska and meeting the Yukon River at Fort Yukon, downstream to the Klondike. From here, the boat and equipment had to be pulled up the Yukon about . An estimated 1,660 travellers took these three routes, of whom only 685 arrived, some taking up to 18 months to make the journey.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: An equivalent to the All-Canadian routes was the "All-American route", which aimed to reach the Yukon from the port of Valdez, which lay further along the Alaskan coast from Skagway. This, it was hoped, would evade the Canadian customs posts and provide an American-controlled route into the interior. From late 1897 onwards 3,500 men and women attempted it; delayed by the winter snows, fresh efforts were made in the spring.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: In practice, the huge Valdez glacier that stood between the port and the Alaskan interior proved almost insurmountable and only 200 managed to climb it; by 1899, the cold and scurvy was causing many deaths amongst the rest. Other prospectors attempted an alternative route across the Malaspina Glacier just to the east, suffering even greater hardships. Those who did manage to cross it found themselves having to negotiate miles of wilderness before they could reach Dawson. Their expedition was forced to turn back the same way they had come, with only four men surviving.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: The borders in South-east Alaska were disputed between the US, Canada and Britain since the American purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. The US and Canada both claimed the ports of Dyea and Skagway. This, combined with the numbers of American prospectors, the quantities of gold being mined and the difficulties in exercising government authority in such a remote area, made the control of the borders a sensitive issue.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Early on in the gold rush, the US Army sent a small detachment to Circle City, in case intervention was required in the Klondike, while the Canadian government considered excluding all American prospectors from the Yukon Territory. Neither eventuality took place and instead the US agreed to make Dyea a sub-port of entry for Canadians, allowing British ships to land Canadian passengers and goods freely there, while Canada agreed to permit American miners to operate in the Klondike. Both decisions were unpopular among their domestic publics: American businessmen complained that their right to a monopoly on regional trade was being undermined, while the Canadian public demanded action against the American miners.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: The North-West Mounted Police set up control posts at the borders of the Yukon Territory or, where that was disputed, at easily controlled points such as the Chilkoot and White Passes. These units were armed with Maxim guns. Their tasks included enforcing the rules requiring that travellers bring a year's supply of food with them to be allowed into the Yukon Territory, checking for illegal weapons, preventing the entry of criminals and enforcing customs duties.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: This last task was particularly unpopular with American prospectors, who faced paying an average of 25 percent of the value of their goods and supplies. The Mounties had a reputation for running these posts honestly, although accusations were made that they took bribes. Prospectors, on the other hand, tried to smuggle prize items like silk and whiskey across the pass in tins and bales of hay: the former item for the ladies, the latter for the saloons.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Of the estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people who reached Dawson City during the gold rush, only around 15,000 to 20,000 finally became prospectors. Of these, no more than 4,000 struck gold and only a few hundred became rich. By the time most of the stampeders arrived in 1898, the best creeks had all been claimed, either by the long-term miners in the region or by the first arrivals of the year before. The Bonanza, Eldorado, Hunker and Dominion Creeks were all taken, with almost 10,000 claims recorded by the authorities by July 1898; a new prospector would have to look further afield to find a claim of his own.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Geologically, the region was permeated with veins of gold, forced to the surface by volcanic action and then worn away by the action of rivers and streams, leaving nuggets and gold dust in deposits known as placer gold. Some ores lay along the creek beds in lines of soil, typically to beneath the surface. Others, formed by even older streams, lay along the hilltops; these deposits were called "bench gold". Finding the gold was challenging. Initially, miners had assumed that all the gold would be along the existing creeks, and it was not until late in 1897 that the hilltops began to be mined. Gold was also unevenly distributed, which made the prediction of good mining sites uncertain without exploratory digging.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Mining began with clearing the ground of vegetation and debris. Prospect holes were then dug in an attempt to find the ore or "pay streak". If these holes looked productive, proper digging could commence, aiming down to the bedrock, where the majority of the gold was found. The digging would be carefully monitored in case the operation needed to be shifted to allow for changes in the flow.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: In the sub-Arctic climate of the Klondike, a layer of hard permafrost lay only below the surface. Traditionally, this had meant that mining in the region only occurred during the summer months, but the pressure of the gold rush made such a delay unacceptable. Late 19th century technology existed for dealing with this problem, including hydraulic mining and stripping, and dredging, but the heavy equipment required for this could not be brought into the Klondike during the gold rush.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Instead, the miners relied on wood fires to soften the ground to a depth of about and then removing the resulting gravel. The process was repeated until the gold was reached. In theory, no support of the shaft was necessary because of the permafrost although in practice sometimes the fire melted the permafrost and caused collapses. Fires could also produce noxious gases, which had to be removed by bellows or other tools. The resulting "dirt" brought out of the mines froze quickly in winter and could be processed only during the warmer summer months. An alternative, more efficient, approach called steam thawing was devised between 1897 and 1898; this used a furnace to pump steam directly into the ground, but since it required additional equipment it was not a widespread technique during the years of the rush.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: In the summer, water would be used to sluice and pan the dirt, separating out the heavier gold from gravel. This required miners to construct sluices, which were sequences of wooden boxes long, through which the dirt would be washed; up to 20 of these might be needed for each mining operation. The sluices in turn required much water, usually produced by creating a dam and ditches or crude pipes. "Bench gold" mining on the hill sides could not use sluice lines because water could not be pumped that high up. Instead, these mines used rockers, boxes that moved back and forth like a cradle, to create the motion needed for separation. Finally, the resulting gold dust could be exported out of the Klondike; exchanged for paper money at the rate of $16 ($430) per troy ounce (ozt)() through one of the major banks that opened in Dawson City, or simply used as money when dealing with local traders.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Successful mining took time and capital, particularly once most of the timber around the Klondike had been cut down. A realistic mining operation required $1,500 ($42,000) for wood to be burned to melt the ground, along with around $1,000 ($28,000) to construct a dam, $1,500 ($42,000) for ditches and up to $600 ($16,800) for sluice boxes, a total of $4,600 ($128,800). The attraction of the Klondike to a prospector, however, was that when gold was found, it was often highly concentrated. Some of the creeks in the Klondike were fifteen times richer in gold than those in California, and richer still than those in South Africa. In just two years, for example, $230,000 ($6,440,000) worth of gold was brought up from claim 29 on the Eldorado Creek.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Under Canadian law, miners first had to get a licence, either when they arrived at Dawson or en route from Victoria in Canada. They could then prospect for gold and when they had found a suitable location, lay claim to mining rights over it. To stake a claim, a prospector would drive stakes into the ground a measured distance apart and then return to Dawson to register the claim for $15 ($410). This normally had to be done within three days, and by 1897 only one claim per person at a time was allowed in a district, although married couples could exploit a loophole that allowed the wife to register a claim in her own name, doubling their amount of land.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: The claim could be mined freely for a year, after which a $100 ($2,800) fee had to be paid annually. Should the prospector leave the claim for more than three days without good reason, another miner could make a claim on the land. The Canadian government also charged a royalty of between 10 and 20 percent on the value of gold taken from a claim.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Traditionally, a mining claim had been granted over a long stretch of a creek, including the land from one side of the valley to another. The Canadian authorities had tried to reduce this length to , but under pressure from miners had been forced to agree to . The only exception to this was a "Discovery" claim, the first to be made on a creek, which could be long. The exact lengths of claims were often challenged and when the government surveyor William Ogilvie conducted surveys to settle disputes, he found some claims exceeded the official limit. The excess fractions of land then became available as claims and were sometimes quite valuable.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Claims could be bought. However, their price depended on whether they had been yet proved to contain gold. A prospector with capital might consider taking a risk on an "unproved" claim on one of the better creeks for $5,000 ($140,000); a wealthier miner could buy a "proved" mine for $50,000 ($1,400,000). The well known claim eight on Eldorado Creek was sold for as much as $350,000 ($9,800,000). Prospectors were also allowed to hire others to work for them. Enterprising miners such as Alex McDonald set about amassing mines and employees. Leveraging his acquisitions with short-term loans, by the autumn of 1897 McDonald had purchased 28 claims, estimated to be worth millions. Swiftwater Bill Gates famously borrowed heavily against his claim on the Eldorado creek, relying on hired hands to mine the gold to keep up his interest payments.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: The less fortunate or less well funded prospectors rapidly found themselves destitute. Some chose to sell their equipment and return south. Others took jobs as manual workers, either in mines or in Dawson; the typical daily pay of $15 ($410) was high by external standards, but low compared to the cost of living in the Klondike. The possibility that a new creek might suddenly produce gold, however, continued to tempt poorer prospectors. Smaller stampedes around the Klondike continued throughout the gold rush, when rumours of new strikes would cause a small mob to descend on fresh sites, hoping to be able to stake out a high-value claim.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: The massive influx of prospectors drove the formation of boom towns along the routes of the stampede, with Dawson City in the Klondike the largest. The new towns were crowded, often chaotic and many disappeared just as soon as they came. Most stampeders were men but women also travelled to the region, typically as the wife of a prospector. Some women entertained in gambling and dance halls built by business men and women who were encouraged by the lavish spending of successful miners.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Dawson remained relatively lawful, protected by the Canadian NWMP, which meant that gambling and prostitution were accepted while robbery and murder were kept low. By contrast, especially the port of Skagway under US jurisdiction in Southeast Alaska became infamous for its criminal underworld. The extreme climate and remoteness of the region in general meant that supplies and communication with the outside world including news and mail were scarce.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: The ports of Dyea and Skagway, through which most of the prospectors entered, were tiny settlements before the gold rush, each consisting of only one log cabin. Because there were no docking facilities, ships had to unload their cargo directly onto the beach, where people tried to move their goods before high tide. Inevitably cargos were lost in the process. Some travellers had arrived intending to supply goods and services to the would-be miners; some of these in turn, realizing how difficult it would be to reach Dawson, chose to do the same. Within weeks, storehouses, saloons, and offices lined the muddy streets of Dyea and Skagway, surrounded by tents and hovels.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Skagway became famous in international media; the author John Muir described the town as "a nest of ants taken into a strange country and stirred up by a stick". While Dyea remained a transit point throughout the winter, Skagway began to take on a more permanent character. Skagway also built wharves out into the bay in order to attract a greater share of the prospectors. The town was effectively lawless, dominated by drinking, gunfire and prostitution. The visiting NWMP Superintendent Sam Steele noted that it was "little better than a hell on earth ... about the roughest place in the world". Nonetheless, by the summer of 1898, with a population—including migrants—of between 15,000 and 20,000, Skagway was the largest city in Alaska.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: In late summer 1897 Skagway and Dyea fell under the control of Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith and his men, who arrived from Seattle shortly after Skagway began to expand. He was an American confidence man whose gang, 200 to 300 strong, cheated and stole from the prospectors travelling through the region. He maintained the illusion of being an upstanding member of the community, opening three saloons as well as creating fake businesses to assist in his operations. One of his scams was a fake telegraph office charging to send messages all over the US and Canada, often pretending to receive a reply. Opposition to Smith steadily grew and, after weeks of vigilante activity, he was killed in Skagway during the shootout on Juneau Wharf on July 8, 1898.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Other towns also boomed. Wrangell, port of the Stikine route and boom town from earlier gold rushes, increased in size again, with robberies, gambling and nude female dancing commonplace. Valdez, formed on the Gulf of Alaska during the attempt to create the "All-American" route to the Klondike during the winter of 1897–1898, became a tent city of people who stayed behind to supply the ill-fated attempts to reach the interior. Edmonton, Alberta (at that time, the District of Alberta in the Northwest Territories), Canada, increased from a population of 1,200 before the gold rush to 4,000 during 1898. Beyond the immediate region, cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Vancouver and Victoria all saw their populations soar as a result of the stampede and the trade it brought along.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Dawson City was created in the early days of the Klondike gold rush, when prospector Joe Ladue and shopkeeper Arthur Harper decided to


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: make a profit from the influx to the Klondike. The two men bought of the mudflats at the junction of the Klondike and Yukon rivers from the government and laid out the street plan for a new town, bringing in timber and other supplies to sell to the migrants. The Hän village of Tr'ochëk along Deer Creek was considered to be too close to the new town, and the NWMP Superintendent Charles Constantine moved its inhabitants down-river to a small reserve. The town, in the beginning simply known as "Harper and Ladue town site", was named Dawson City after the director of Canada's Geographical Survey. It grew rapidly to hold 500 people by the winter of 1896, with plots of land selling for $500 ($14,000) each.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: In the spring of 1898, Dawson's population rose further to 30,000 as stampeders arrived over the passes. The centre of the town, Front Street, was lined with hastily built buildings and warehouses, together with log cabins and tents spreading out across the rest of the settlement. There was no running water or sewerage, and only two springs for drinking water to supplement the increasingly polluted river. In spring, the unpaved streets were churned into thick mud and in summer the settlement reeked of human effluent and was plagued by flies and mosquitoes. Land in Dawson was now scarce, and plots sold for up to $10,000 ($280,000) each; prime locations on Front Street could reach $20,000 ($560,000) while a small log cabin might rent for $100 ($2,800) a month. As a result, Dawson's population spread south into the empty Hän village, renaming it Klondike City. Other communities emerged closer to the mines, such as Granville on Dominion Creek and Grand Forks on Bonanza Creek.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: The newly built town proved highly vulnerable to fire. Houses were made of wood, heated with stoves and lit by candles and oil lamps; water for emergencies was wanting, especially in the frozen winters. The first major fire occurred on November 25, 1897, started accidentally by dance-hall girl Belle Mitchell. She also accidentally started a second major fire on October 14, 1898, which, in the absence of a fire brigade in Dawson, destroyed two major saloons, the post-office building and the Bank of British North America at a cost of $500,000 ($14,000,000). The worst fire occurred on April 26, 1899, when a saloon caught fire in the middle of a strike by the newly established fire brigade. Most of the major landmarks in the town were burned to the ground: 117 buildings were destroyed, with the damage estimated at over $1 million ($28,000,000).


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: The remoteness of Dawson proved an ongoing problem for the supply of food, and as the population grew to 5,000 in 1897, this became critical. When the rivers iced over, it became clear that there would not be enough food for that winter. The NWMP evacuated some prospectors without supplies to Fort Yukon in Alaska from September 30 onwards, while others made their way out of the Klondike in search of food and shelter for the winter.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Prices remained high in Dawson and supply fluctuated according to the season. During the winter of 1897 salt became worth its weight in gold, while nails, vital for construction work, rose in price to $28 ($784) per lb (0.45 kg). Cans of butter sold for $5 ($140) each. The only eight horses in Dawson were slaughtered for dog food as they could not be kept alive over the winter. The first fresh goods arriving in the spring of 1898 sold for record prices, eggs reaching $3 ($84) each and apples $1 ($28).


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Scurvy, a potentially fatal illness caused by the lack of vitamin C, became a problem, particularly during the winter where fresh food was unavailable. English prospectors gave it the telling name of "Canadian black leg". It struck, among others, writer Jack London and, although not fatal in his case, brought an end to his mining career. Dysentery and malaria were also common in Dawson, and an epidemic of typhoid broke out in July and ran rampant throughout the summer. Up to 140 patients were taken into the newly constructed St Mary's Hospital and thousands were affected. Measures were taken by the following year to prevent further outbreaks, including the introduction of better sewage management and the piping in of water from further upstream. These gave improvements in 1899, although typhoid remained a problem. The new Hän reserve, however, lay downstream from Dawson City, and here the badly contaminated river continued to contribute to epidemics of typhoid and diphtheria throughout the gold rush.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Despite these challenges, the huge quantities of gold coming through Dawson City encouraged a lavish lifestyle amongst the richer prospectors. Saloons were typically open 24 hours a day, with whiskey the standard drink. Gambling was popular, with the major saloons each running their own rooms; a culture of high stakes evolved, with rich prospectors routinely betting $1,000 ($28,000) at dice or playing for a $5,000 ($140,000) poker pot. The establishments around Front Street had grand facades in a Parisian style, mirrors and plate-glass windows and, from late 1898, were lit by electric light. The dance halls in Dawson were particularly prestigious and major status symbols, both for customers and their owners. Wealthy prospectors were expected to drink champagne at $60 ($1,660) a bottle, and the Pavilion dancehall cost its owner, Charlie Kimball, as much as $100,000 ($2,800,000) to construct and decorate. Elaborate opera houses were built, bringing singers and specialty acts to Dawson.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Tales abounded of prospectors spending huge sums on entertainment — Jimmy McMahon once spent $28,000 ($784,000) in a single evening, for example. Most payments were made in gold dust and in places like saloons, there was so much spilled gold that a profit could be made just by sweeping the floor. Some of the richest prospectors lived flamboyantly in Dawson. Swiftwater Bill Gates, a gambler and ladies' man who rarely went anywhere without wearing silk and diamonds, was one of them. When he discovered the woman he was in love with (who liked eggs, an expensive luxury) was dining with another man, he allegedly bought all the eggs in Dawson, had them boiled and fed them to dogs. Another miner, Frank Conrad, threw a sequence of gold objects onto a ship as tokens of his esteem when his favourite singer left Dawson City. The wealthiest dance-hall girls followed suit: Daisy D'Avara had a belt made for herself from $340 ($9,520) in gold dollar coins; another, Gertie Lovejoy, had a diamond inserted between her two front teeth. The miner and businessman Alex McDonald, despite being styled the "King of the Klondike", was unusual amongst his peers for his lack of grandiose spending.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: Unlike its American equivalents, Dawson City was a law-abiding town. By 1897, 96 members of the NWMP had been sent to the district and by 1898, this had increased to 288, an expensive commitment by the Canadian government. By June 1898, the force was headed by Colonel Sam Steele, an officer with a reputation for firm discipline. In 1898, there were no murders and only a few major thefts; in all, only about 150 arrests were made in the Yukon for serious offences that year. Of these arrests, over half were for prostitution and resulted from an attempt by the NWMP to regulate the sex industry in Dawson: regular monthly arrests, $50 ($1,400) fines and medical inspections were imposed, with the proceeds being used to fund the local hospitals. The so-called blue laws were strictly enforced. Saloons and other establishments closed promptly at midnight on Saturday, and anyone caught working on Sunday was liable to be fined or set to chopping firewood for the NWMP. The NWMP are generally regarded by historians to have been an efficient and honest force during the period, although their task was helped by the geography of the Klondike which made it relatively easy to bar entry to undesirables or prevent suspects from leaving the region.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: In contrast to the NWMP, the early civil authorities were criticized by the prospectors for being inept and potentially corrupt. Thomas Fawcett was the gold commissioner and temporary head of the Klondike administration at the start of the gold rush; he was accused of keeping the details of new claims secret and allowing what historian Kathryn Winslow termed "carelessness, ignorance and partiality" to reign in the mine recorder's office. Following campaigns against him by prospectors, who were backed by the local press, Fawcett was relieved by the Canadian government. His successor, Major James Morrow Walsh, was considered a stronger character and arrived in May 1898, but fell ill and returned east in July. It was left to his replacement, William Ogilvie, supported by a Royal Commission, to conduct reforms. The Commission, in lack of evidence, cleared Fawcett of all charges, which meant that he was not punished further than being relieved. Ogilvie proved a much stronger administrator and subsequently revisited many of the mining surveys of his predecessors.


title: Klondike Gold Rush

text: In the remote Klondike, there was great demand for news and contact with the world outside. During the first months of the stampede in 1897, it was said that no news was too old to be read. In the lack of newspapers, some prospectors would read can labels until they knew them by heart. The following year, two teams fought their way over the passes to reach Dawson City first, complete with printing-presses, with the aim of gaining control of the newspaper market. Gene Kelly, the editor of the "Klondike Nugget" arrived first, but without his equipment, and it was the team behind the "Midnight Sun" who produced the first daily newspaper in Dawson. The "Dawson Miner" followed shortly after, bringing the number of daily newspapers in the town during the gold rush up to three. The "Nugget" sold for $24 ($680) as an annual subscription, and became well known for championing miners and for its lucid coverage of scandals. Paper was often hard to find and during the winter of 1898–99, the "Nugget" had to be printed on butcher's wrapping paper. News could also be told. In June, 1898, a prospector bought an edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer at an auction and charged spectators a dollar each to have it read aloud in one of Dawson's halls.