HOPE  -  A Gold Rush City

        Quiet little Hope and nearby Sunrise were booming gold rush cities before the Klondike and Nome rushes. In 1888, Alexander King, an American miner, was grubstaked by the Kenai trading post. He rowed a dory up Cook Inlet's Turnagain Arm, returning two years later with four pokes of gold. King's take attracted interest among the few Americans on the Kenai Peninsula and in 1893, 11 miners staked claims on Resurrection Creek and three on nearby Bear Creek. In 1895, five mining partners on Sixmile Creek extracted an impressive $40,000 in gold. News of that Sixmile strike reached Seattle and created a gold rush to Turnagain Arm.
        Three thousand people headed to Cook Inlet in 1896. Hope City got its name, so the story goes, when the miners decided to name the town after the next person off the boat --and that was 17 year old prospector Percy Hope. Sunrise City, on Sixmile Creek, was named after the way the morning sun disappeared behind the mountains and made a second and third 'sunrise'. Both towns grew to include stores, hotels, social halls, community councils, post offices, and of course, saloons.
        1897 marked the start of the soon-to-be larger and richer Klondike Gold Rush. Outside newspapers linked the Cook Inlet and Klondike gold rushes together, sometimes confusing the two. The same year, local miner Robert Mathison took 385 ounces in less than two months from Resurrection Creek. However, the District was getting crowded and the best claims had already been staked. When word arrived of the Klondike strike in the Yukon, a boatload of Sunrise miners left for the Chilkoot Trail. Sunrise City's population dwindled to 150 that year. However, many Dawson-bound stampeders heard stories of great hardship in the Yukon, and opted for the easier Turnagain Arm gold fields. As many as 10,000 people poured into the area for a second rush. Briefly in 1898, Sunrise was the largest city in Alaska.
        The Hope-Sunrise Gold Rush was short, as rushes always are. More efficient hydraulic mining equipment arrived, providing paying jobs but driving away many of the small prospectors. By 1906, over $1,000,000 had been extracted from the Hope and Sunrise Districts, but Sunrise was fading. Its last few buildings crumbled during the 1964 Earthquake. Hope managed to hang on though it dwindled to a couple dozen people. Hope is now the best preserved gold rush community in Southcentral Alaska, and is currently home to nearly 200 residents. Gold is still mined, though fewer of the people consider themselves miners. Many of the old buildings remain, and their charm is unchanged. Be sure not to forget your camera when visiting . . .

Background Photo Note: Nate White with his "pet" bear, in downtown Hope (approximately 1910)