Emma Kelly, correspondent for the Kansas City Star, travelled alone to the Klondike in 1897. Arriving in Skagway late in the season, she hired a pack train to take her outfit to Sheep Camp and 10 inexperienced men to pack it over the pass. After a hard walk in a near blizzard to the foot of the pass, some of the men wanted to turn back, but Emma challenged them to keep up with a woman.
The next morning she was up at five, cooked breakfast, and had her group on the trail by seven. The pass was a hard climb, even for Emma with no pack to carry, but she reached the summit exhilarated and continued to Lake Lindeman.
Emma made the trip downstream in hired boats, ignoring the North-West Mounted Police ban on women and children travelling through Miles Canyon and the White Horse Rapids. She arrived in Dawson City on November 1, 1897, and stayed 11 months, buying into several valuable mining claims during that time. Emma Kelly left the Klondike in October 1898. She continued her writing career, including articles about her experience in the North.
