In 1907, Service published Songs of a Sourdough in London which allowed him to quit the banking business soon after and become a full-time writer.įor many, Robert Service is the "Bard of the Yukon." His long rhyming narratives called The Shooting of Dan McGrew and The Cremation of Sam McGee became two of the most memorized poems in the English language. Although he was never a prospector, he struck gold creating imaginative and colorful verse about life under the midnight sun. A few years later, Service found himself living in the gold rush town of Dawson City, YT, were he took the tall tales of '98 and made them his own. As a young man sailed to Canada and landed a bank job in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory in 1904. Service became apprenticed as a bankclerk after graduation. National Park Service, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, KLGO Library D-82-8430.īorn in England on January 14, 1874, Robert W. Midnight Dome and the Orpheum Theatre on the immediate right, summer 1898. Glass plates were not taken, on account of weight and their liability to break."ĭawson at the height of the Klondike gold rush. together with a complete developing outfit. and eight spools of sensitive film, of thirty two exposures each, for use in a roll-holder, and expressley ordered hermetically sealed in in tins in addition a small pockek Kodak. Tappan writes that his photographic gear included "a 5 x 7 long-focus Premo camera, ten dozen 5x7 cut films for use in plate-holders. On his trip north he not only took his year's worth of supplies, but also a camera to record the experience and a notebook to sketch out his articles. He was not only an experienced outdoorsman, but also an accomplished writer. Tappan Adney may have been uniquely suited to cover the gold rush. Tappan Adney was by no means the only journalist to go North, but his writing is among the best-known and most enduring. Many people talked about going to Dawson City, and thousands actually did. By 1897, people were desperate for money and life improvement. ![]() When Tappan was dispatched to cover the Klondike Stampede, the country had been in an economic depression since 1893. After he returned home he turned his experience in to one of the best first-hand accounts of the gold rush, The Klondike Stampede. ![]() He sketched his first impressions of remote locations and brought the gold rush home to many people through his Harper's Weekly articles. Tappan Adney explored Skagway, Dyea, and the trails leading north.
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