Old newspapers provide a window into another time. During the height of the Klondike Goldrush in Dawson City, a number of newspapers sprung up to provide the population with local and outside news, along with advertisements to the newest and “much needed” products and services. Some of these papers were The Klondike Nugget, the Yukon Midnight Sun, the World, Dawson Daily News, and Dear Little Nugget.
The Klondyke Miner and Yukon Advertiser, which lasted barely one year, was another of these papers. In itself, not particularly significant, but Dr. Robin McLachlan, who spent his childhood in the Yukon, and teaches in Australia, came across a bound volume of the first 20 issues of the newspaper in the State Library of New South Wales.
The mystery is how it came to settle so far away in time and distance in New South Wales, Australia.
Part of the answer may lie in the fact that the partnership of John Meiklejohn, William V. Somerville, and John Rees who started the paper were Australians. The partnership did not last long for reasons unknown. It is known that Meiklejohn left Dawson and eventually returned to Australia, Somerville ran the paper under the name Klondike Miner, which he did for another few months. The newspaper finally stopped its presses in August of 1899. The third partner, Rees, is believed to have committed suicide.
Read more about this story.
Interested in finding out more about news stories from the Dawson Klondike Goldrush era? Read "Dear Little Nugget" by Ian Macdonald.
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