Gold Rush Grub: From Turpentine Stew to Hoochinoo

250 Pages·2005·16.59 MB·English

by  Ann Chandonnet

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GOOLLDD RUUSSHH GRRUUBB
Books by Ann Chandonnet
Alaska’s Arts, Crafts & Collectibles
Anchorage: Early Photographs of the Great Land
A History of Alaskan Totem Poles
Th e Complete Fruit Cookbook
Th e Cheese Guide & Cookbook
Th e Alaska Heritage Seafood Cookbook
GOOLLDD RUUSSHH GRRUUBB
From Turpentine Stew to Hoochinoo
Ann Chandonnet
University of Alaska Press
Fairbanks
© 2005 University of Alaska Press
P.O. Box 756240
Fairbanks, AK 99775-6240
www.uaf.edu/uapress
1-888-252-6657
Printed in China
Th is publication was printed on paper that meets the minimum
requirements for ANSI/NISO x39.48–1992 (Permanence of
Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chandonnet, Ann.
Gold rush grub : from turpentine stew to hoochinoo /
Ann Chandonnet.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-889963-71-6 (isbn 13 (hardcover) : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-889963-71-2 (isbn 10 (hardcover) : alk. paper)
1. Cookery, American—California style.
2. Cookery—Alaska.
3. California—Gold discoveries—History.
4. Klondike River Valley (Yukon)—Gold discoveries—History.
I. Title.
TX715.2.C34C4695 2005
641.59794—dc22 2004028696
Cover design by Mike Kirk
Text design by Dixon J. Jones, UAF Rasmuson Library Graphics
Cover photo: “A Camp Yarn.” Two stampeders tell each other
tall tales while preparing dinner during the Klondike Gold
Rush. One wipes out a skillet; the other measures ingredients.
Th is photograph was probably taken on the Canadian side
of the Chilkoot Trail. COURTESY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS DIVISION, FM25,
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON LIBRARIES, SEATTLE, NEG. NO. UW17586.
CCOONNTTEENNTTSS
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1 Gold in California . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2 Gold in the Klondike. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
3 Gold in Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
4 Muskrat Mulligan—Roadhouses, Hotels, and Restaurants. . . . . . 
5 Grubstake and Outfit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
6 All Spit and Scant Polish—Gold Rush Housekeeping . . . . . . . . . . 
7 “Condemned Milk” and “Putrid Pullets”—Gold Rush Storage . . . 
8 The Sourdough Pot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
9 “Sinkers” and “Strawberries” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
10 Country Mouse, City Mouse—Fannie and the Judge . . . . . . . . . . . 
11 Frontier Food Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
12 Tame Vegetables—Gold Rush Agriculture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
13 Holidays, Entertainments, and Merrymaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
14 “The Juice of the Snake”—Gold Rush Beverages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
Time Line—Events and Culinary Inventions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
Selected Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
Recipe Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

AACCKKNNOOWWLLEEDDGGMMEENNTTSS
ANY BOOK OF HISTORY HAS A HISTORY Kulp of the Alaska State Library (Juneau); Judy Munns
of its own. I am grateful to the stampeders who kept of the City of Skagway Museum; Karl Gurcke, cultural
diaries, for the eff orts of earlier historians and food resource specialist at the Skagway offi ce of the Klondike
historians, and for the long and helpful memories of Gold Rush National Historical Park; Elva Scott, presi-
contemporary librarians and archivists. Th anks to all dent of the Eagle Historical Society (Eagle, Alaska);
those named below, and to the many others I have que- and Dee Longenbaugh of the Observatory (Juneau)
ried over the course of research on this subject. for unstinting good humor, invaluable knowledge, and
First I must thank my grandmother, Ethel Kimball patience. Th anks, too, to Betsy Willcuts of the Oakland
Bodwell Fox, an excellent cook, who passed on to me Museum (California) and Carolyn Marr, librarian at
her copy of Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook Book (1891). Th at the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle.
book was inscribed to her in 1927 by her foster mother, Alaska/Yukon memorabilia collector Candace Wau-
Sadie Bodwell. Gram instructed me in housekeeping, gaman of Fairbanks has been generous in lending me
thrift, sewing, gardening, harvesting, preserving, can- turn-of-the-century postcards, photographs, bills of
ning, and delicious Victorian cooking. I also want to fare, and what she fondly terms “good junk” with bless-
thank my uncle, Bob Atkinson, for giving me my fi rst edly few strings attached. Much of her collection has
food history, by Eleanor Early. never before seen print.
Th anks to Diane Brenner of the Anchorage Museum Th anks also to Renee Blahuta, Joe LaRue, Nancy and
of History and Art; Bruce Merrell of the Alaska Collec- Ed Ferrell of Juneau, Glenda Choate, Steve Levi, Claire
tion at the Z. J. Loussac Library (Anchorage); director Murphy, Jane Haigh, John Albert Johnson, Howard
Kathryn H. Shelton and curator of collections Gladi Cliff ord, Jim Walsh, Jill Shepherd, Haleen Johnston
vii
Ingals, Massachusetts food historian Joseph Carlin, Some information about Felix Pedro comes from Th e
Ruth Moon Carson, Jean White, and Beatrice Adler. Tanana Gold Fields, published in Fairbanks in May 1904.
Th anks to Elizabeth A. Tower, Anchorage histo- Quotes from Robert Fitzhugh come from Hunter:
rian, for lending me a typescript of the diary of George Th e Yukon Gold Rush Letters of Robert Hunter Fitzhugh,
Hazelet, as well as a copy of the unpublished diary of Jr., 1897–1900, edited by Ann Carlisle Carmichael.
George Dooley of Chicago. Quotes from Florence Hartshorn of Log Cabin
Portions of the chapter about food on the Chilkoot about turkeys on the White Pass Trail and the 1897
Trail were delivered as a lecture to the Daughters of the outfi t list were located in Klondike Women: True Tales of
American Revolution at a gold rush luncheon at the the 1897–98 Gold Rush, by Melanie J. Mayer.
Anchorage Museum of History and Art, July 17, 1997. Certain details of the Chilkoot Trail, Skagway, and
Quotes from A. C. Ferris, Sarah Royce, Mariano Gua- typical stampeder food were gleaned from Th e Sour-
dalupe Vallejo, Alonzo Delano, Prentice Mulford, Mary dough Pot, by Will H. Chase.
Ballou, and Vicente Perez Rosales regarding foods of Quotations from the letters of Alfred G. McMichael
the California Gold Rush come from Gold Rush: A Liter- come from Klondike Letters: Th e Correspondence of a
ary Exploration, edited by Michael Kowalewski. Gold Seeker in 1898, edited by Juliette C. Reinicker.
Th e story of Alvin A. Coff ey is preserved in the Facts about birch sap come from “Sap Production of
library of the California Society of Pioneers in San Paper Birch in the Tanana Valley, Alaska,” a paper by
Francisco. Richard Ganns, John Zasada, and Carrol Phillips, pub-
Details about Californians Mrs. Noble Martin and lished in the Forestry Chronicle (February 1982). Infor-
Mrs. F. A. Van Winkle come from the Chronicle, San mation was also derived from “Syrup Makers Turn
Francisco (September 9, 1900). Love Into Business,” in the New York Times (Septem-
Certain details of the Edmonton Trail were gleaned ber 27, 1995), and from “From Sap to Syrup, It’s Sticky
from Th e Yukon Story by Walter R. Hamilton. Business,” by Jon Hahn, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Information about the experiences of Charles W. (June 22, 1995).
Adams appears in A Cheechako Goes to the Klondike. Th e tale of bootlegging in an Anchorage church
Some facts about food and lodgings along the comes from Gerrit Heine Snider’s Centennial: 100 Sto-
Chilkoot Trail appeared in We Alaskans (Sunday maga- ries of Alaska.
zine of the Anchorage Daily News), as “Gold-Rush Grub Some details about the Fourth of July in Dawson
a Challenge for the Few Who Could Cook” by Ann come from “Fourth of July Celebration Was a High
Chandonnet (May 11, 1997). Time in Old Alaska Towns” by Ann Chandonnet,
Th e 1896 menu from the Nevada Restaurant and Juneau Empire (July 2, 2003).
Cafe was found in A Klondike Scrapbook: Ordinary People, Some of the information about celebrating Th anks-
Extraordinary Times, based on the photos of Clarke and giving in Alaska and the Yukon Territory comes from
Clarence Kinsey, by Norman Bolotin. “Giving Gustatory Th anks in the Early Days” by Ann
Th e menu for the 1930 banquet at Lake Linderman Chandonnet, Juneau Empire (November 19, 2003).
Lodge appears in One Came Late, by Phillip E. Allen. Some details about John F. A. Strong come from
Stanzas from “El Dorado 29” are quoted from El “Th e Guv Wasn’t a Major—or Citizen,” by Ann Chan-
Dorado 29: Along with Other Weird Alaskan Tales Done donnet, Juneau Empire (March 24, 2004).
into Verse, by Francis Maule. Th anks to culinary historian Sandra L. Oliver of
Th e reminiscences of Peggy Rouch Dodson come Maine, whose 20 years of painstaking labor on her
from her autobiography, Girl in the Gold Camp. book Saltwater Foodways served as an inspiration.
viii (cid:1) Acknowledgments (cid:2)