Klondike Kate was the legendary queen of the Yukon -- and, as with many legends, it's hard to sort out the truth. Kathleen Eloisa Rockwell told and retold her story throughout her life, often embroidering it with other people's experiences.
Born in Kansas, she arrived in Dawson in 1900, at the age of 24, with the Savoy Theatrical Company of Victoria. For the next two years, Kitty Rockwell, with her violet eyes and red-gold hair, was one of the most popular dance hall girls in town.
In Dawson, Kate met a man with a sense of drama to equal her own -- Alexander Pantages, who went on to found a famous theatre chain. At the time he was a Greek immigrant working as a waiter, but before he left Dawson he was manager of the Orpheum Theatre.
Kate and Pantages left Dawson together around 1902, but the alliance didn't last long. In 1905, Kate sued him for breach of promise, claiming that she had bought him silk shirts and cigars and paid his passage south. Pantages settled out of court for $5000.
Later in life, Kate Rockwell had one more romance worthy of a legend. One Christmas Eve in Dawson, so the story goes, the miners cut a crown out of a tin can, attached some candles, and made Kate "Queen of the Yukon." A shy Norwegian miner, Johnny Matson, saw her and fell in love. He lacked the courage to approach Kate then, but 30 years later he began writing to her and finally proposed. They were married in 1932.
Although Klondike KateΓÇÖs life after leaving Dawson was never again as exciting or as lucrative, she was an excellent self-publicist and remained the darling of journalists until her death in 1957.
