Beyond the gold rush: Totem poles at the Chilkoot Trail mark route’s long history

By Ashley Joannou Two carved cedar totems now flank either side of the Canadian end of the Chilkoot Trail, a permanent reminder that the route best known as the path to the Yukon gold fields during the 1890s gold rush has a history that stretches back much further. The 53-kilometre Chilkoot Trail runs between Dyea, Alaska, and Bennett, B.C., and was the treacherous route taken by prospectors looking to strike it rich in the Klondike. It’s now used by thousands of hikers each year. Sean McDougall, the acting executive director for the Carcross/Tagish First Nation in the Yukon said talk about in…