Dawson City in 1898—Searching for the “Paris of the North”

Advance Online Article posted March 2024. Page numbers not yet final.Government agencies in Canada such as Parks Canada and Travel Yukon often describe Dawson City during the Klondike Gold Rush as "the Paris of the North" and "the largest city west of Winnipeg and north of Seattle." This essay looks for proof of those statements, and shows that the phrases were actually invented in the 1950s and 1960s, following their use in books by Laura and Pierre Berton, to bolster a nascent tourism industry in the North. This sets up a conflict: use official 1898 Canadian government reports that show Dawson City was much smaller and rougher than it is often described, or continue with the unsubstantiated exaggerations of the mid twentieth century? The answer is obvious; history is nothing if it is not backed by reliable sources, and in this article the author argues for more balance and use of citations in Klondike reporting.