Goetzman, H. J.

H.J. Goetzman worked as a photographer in the Yukon from 1897 until 1904. Trained as a commercial photographer, Goetzman recorded the scenery, life and activity of the route to the gold fields through Alaska and Canada, Dyea, the Chilkoot Trail, White Pass Canyon, Bennett, Dawson, and the Klondike gold fields. He ran Goetzman's Photographic Studio in Dawson from 1898 to 1904. At the height of the gold rush he employed seven photographers. In January 1901, he released a photo album with views of Wrangell, Alaska, the White Pass, down the Yukon River to Dawson, up the gold creeks to Eagle City, Alaska, and on to St. Michael and Nome. He also published a souvenir booklet in 1901 with 200 views reproduced as half-tones. In October of 1902, he photographed the upper Yukon River for the White Pass Company to use as advertising material. Over the seven years he resided in Dawson, Goetzman moved his studio to several different locations. In 1904, Goetzman sold his studio, negatives, and photographic supply house to J. Morte and H. Craig and moved to San Francisco. Many negatives were lost as the result of water damage from a fire in April 1907.

In 1896, the Klondike Gold Rush started in the Yukon Territory, Canada, with the discovery of gold in Bonanza Creek on the Klondike River. In the summer of 1897, miners arrived in San Francisco and Seattle from Alaska via two steamers, collectively carrying five thousand pounds of gold from the Klondike River in the Yukon Territory of Canada. Over the next two years thousands of prospectors rushed to reach the gold fields. The gold rush transformed Dawson, which was originally a native summer fishing camp, into the "Paris of the North." The town was staked out by Joe Ladue and named after George M. Dawson, Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, who explored the region in 1887. By 1898, Dawson was the largest Canadian city west of Winnipeg with 40,000 residents. Elaborate hotels, theaters and dance halls were erected. It also included such amenities as telephone service, running water and steam heat. With the news of gold in Nome, Alaska, people started to leave in large numbers; 8,000 people left Dawson in the summer of 1899 alone. By 1902, the population was less than 5,000. Eventually, major mining operations took over most of the Klondike gold fields in the years following the gold rush.