Klondike Goldfields

Hunker Road
Km 5 - Hunker Creek

Hunker Creek was the third richest creek in the Klondike drainage after Bonanza and Eldorado. It was named after prospector Andrew Hunker who staked Discovery Claim with his partner Charles Johnson in September 1896.

Throughout the Klondike, creek gravels are found along the valley bottoms and are overlain by a bed of 'muck' or peaty matter. In the early days, they were worked either by 'sinking and drifting' (digging down and tunneling along the vein), or by open cuts. In open cuts, the muck was removed by 'ground sluicing' which involved flooding water across the muck in several channels until it cut through to the underlying gravels. The thawed ground could then be removed.

In the winter, the gold-bearing gravels dug out from the foot of the shafts were piled in dumps and washed during the spring runoff. In summer, if there was enough water, the two processes of drifting and washing were carried out at the same time.

Gold is 19 times heavier than water; and almost ten times heavier than the native rock which surrounds it. When paydirt is put into the upper end of a sluicebox, gravity and water wash the lighter gravels away and leave the heavier gold caught by riffles in the box.

The Goldfields

The swampy Hunker Valley proved to be too wet for road-building until gravel – a byproduct of mining operations – became plentiful. The lack of good roads in the Klondike was one of the reasons that large-scale mining took time to develop; heavy equipment simply could not be transported to the mines on the existing terrain.

The miners lobbied the government to build a good road in the area. In 1899, the government constructed the Ridge Road, which extended from near the mouth of Bonanza to Hunker Summit and the outlying creeks. There were many complaints about this route, however. In 1902, after a better road was constructed from the outskirts of Dawson to Hunker and Dominion creeks, the Ridge Road was abandoned.

The Ridge Road winds along the high ground between Hunker and Bonanza creeks. It was re-opened as a heritage trail in 1996. It takes approximately two days to hike the entire length, but there is a campground within a day of either trailhead.

“The road up the creeks is the greater part of the way through muskeg, and it was raining part of the time; sometimes we were over our knees in mud and water.”
- Thomas Fawcett, August 1897

Important: There are working claims throughout the Klondike region. Please respect other people's property and livelihoods and do not trespass.

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