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.