Ton of Goods Sculpture

The Ton of Goods Sculpture

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Amenities

3 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Tactile Exhibit, Wheelchair Accessible

Now comes the time to prepare for your journey into the Yukon. This requires an important decision: do you take the 33 mile-long Chilkoot Trail, or the 44 mile-long White Pass Trail? No matter which you chose, the Canadian government determined each person going to the gold fields needs three pounds of food per day for a whole year. Food alone weighed 1,095 pounds, or just over half a ton. Adding necessary clothes and equipment could easily double the total load, and thus came to be known as a "ton of goods." These crates around you represent all of that food and gear that each stampeder had to carry over the trail. 

Stampeders had the choice of carrying more weight or walking more miles. A light pack of 50 pounds meant more trips. A heavy pack of 80 pounds meant fewer trips, but a slower pace. Every mile walked with a load meant another mile back empty. Stampeder Everett Barton wrote, "We have been working terribly hard packing 50 and 75 pounds over mountains that we would not think of walking over at home." Stampeders walked nearly 1,000 miles to carry their supplies back and forth over the pass.