every-man-in the region was combing the marshy creek beds along the Klondike. Bonanza Creek was fully staked within two weeks, and more creeks followed --Eldorado Creek, Hunker Creek, Bear-Creek.
In that first winter, word spread along the Yukon River, drawing men from established diggings in Alaska and over the Chilkoot-Pass from the Alaskan Panhandle. With the miners came merchants, saloon-keepers, hoteliers, people who would keep the miners fed, supplied, laundered, and entertained, and who would eventually transport them back out of the north, with or without the gold they sought. By spring 1897, perhaps 1500 people were in the new town of Dawson City -- and the Gold Rush had barely begun.
