Mabel Aguilera

Professor Colquitt
ENGL 524
April 30 2019

UNSUNG HEROES: THE WOMEN OF THE KLONDIKE GOLD RUSH

“Of all the girls and boys who grew up together in Black Hawk, Tiny Soderball was to lead the
most adventurous life and to achieve the most solid worldly success” (146).

In Book IV: The Pioneer Woman's Story of My Ántonia, Willa Cather briefly references
the historical events that occured in the Klondike Creek after gold was discovered in 1869
(Editors), as she narrates the short story of Tiny Soderball—an immigrant woman—who
contrary to societal expectations is able to build a steady and flourishing future for herself.
Cather carefully crafts Soderball’s journey according to the chronological factors that lead to the
success of thousands of men and women who embarked on this journey to Alaska. This attention
to detail enhances the hardships endured by countless individuals who found themselves
unequipped to survive under the drastic living conditions the mining job entailed. Through the
characterization of Tiny Soderball, Cather daringly features an omitted side of American history.
“When I was about nine… Few of our neighbors were Americans—most of them were
Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, and Bohemians. I grew fond of some of these immigrants
particularly the old women, who used to tell me of their home country” (L. Brent). Cather shared
during an interview with Latrobe Carroll in 1921, three years after the official publication and
public distribution of My Ántonia. “Their stories used to go round and round in my head at night”
(L. Brent). It is no secret that Willa Cather drew poetic inspiration directly from her personal life.
The revised introduction of My Ántonia composed by Sharon O’ Brien notes, “Many friends
from her Red Cloud childhood inspired characters” in her novels (Willa). Based on the
transparency of this claim, Cather’s view of her friend Lyra Garber, might be associated with the
creation of the fictional character, Tiny Soderball.
Lyra Garber, a Red cloud resident who had initially “moved with her family to
California where her father kept hotels in Nevada County… and finished school in San
Francisco” (Cather). Curiously enough, the fictional character of Tiny Soderball also shares a
similar journey as her story begins in a hotel and ends in San Francisco. After relocating to
Idaho, Lyra reportedly “cut her ties to Nebraska” after marrying a banker. Similarly, Tiny is
described as only speaking “with any feeling to two human beings” from her past in Nebraska.
Although Tiny does not marry, she is portrayed and defined by her materialistic fixation. Jim
recalls, “she said frankly nothing interested her much now but making money” (Cather). Lyra
Garber and Tiny Soderball share parallel upbringings, as well as monetary interests.
A reason for Lyra Garber to be a source of inspiration could be traced back to Cather’s
composition of A Lost Lady. Five years after the publication of My Ántonia, Cather shares how
her observations of “Silas and Lyra Garber during their Red Cloud years became the prototypes
for Daniel and Marian Forrester in A Lost Lady” (Cather). The sudden and unforeseen death of
Lyra Garber spiralled down memories she had not recalled in years. In a letter she dedicated to
Irene Miner Weiz, Cather wrote “of the strong feeling awakened in her by Lyra Garber’s death
as the most necessary and rarest source of inspiration” (Bennet). This single event could explain
why Cather decided to write Lyra Garber as the protagonist of A Lost Lady rather than the minor
role she might’ve initially inspired in Tiny Soderball.

Cather detailed story-telling abilities subtly allude to historical events:

“That daring, which nobody had ever suspected in her, awoke. She sold her business and
set out for Circle City.... Reached Skaguay in a snowstorm, went in dog-sledges over the
Chilkoot Pass, and shot the Yukon in flatboats… Two days later Tiny and her friends,
and nearly everyone else in Circle City, started for the Klondike fields on the last steamer
that went up the Yukon before it froze for the winter. That boatload of people founded
Dawson City” (146).

“That awakening feeling” was shared between hundreds as the “Gold Fever” began to
spread. Tiny’s decision to sell her business was a common theme, “Soon people were selling
their farms… abandoning their jobs… and packing up… to make the long trek north” (Porlsild).
However, the most important reason for Tiny’s quick decision making could be credited to the
fact that, “Women of all social classes jumped at the chance to turn their backs on their past lives
and try their luck in a new community where nobody would question why a single woman was
suddenly relocating” (Bornstein). Without the societal limitations established in Black Hawk,
Tiny could start over in Alaska and lead a life based on interest and not necessity.

The mentioning of the Chilkoot Pass was almost expected since historically this one has
been regarded multiple times “as the most popular route to the Klondike goldfields” (Editors).
However, to my surprise, Cather made no mention of the restrictions imposed to women who
attempted to walk along this dangerous trail. Despite the harsh environmental conditions, women
were expected to respect Victorian etiquette rules, especially those regarding clothing. Women
who participated in these passings were shamed into wearing “ladylike” attire throughout the
duration of the entire journey. This included hiking in corsets and full-length skirts. A testimony
shared by one woman on the trail stated how “she felt she could identify with animals carrying
heavy loads” (Bornstein). Remaining properly dressed was more important than traveling safely
and comfortably. A reasoning for this was lead by the fact that historically, “Most of the
recorded instances of women wearing pants involve women of questionable morals, or lower-
class women” (Bornstein). A woman of “questionable morals” or simple “lower-class” entailed
an association with prostitution or dance-halls. Since these women were in the search of new
beginnings, they could not risk ruining their self-image before arriving to Dawson City. “The
lives of Klondike women were, in fact, more difficult and complicated than those of their male
counterparts, because of social customs of the late Victorian era, customs that dictated repressive
ideas of 'appropriate' female behaviour” (Spotswood).

Cather briefly introduces the concept Dawson City being founded. Dawson was seen as
“a unique and fluid space because it only existed for a short window of about two years and the
inhabitants came and went quickly” (Bornstein). This notion explains the increase in necessity
for hosting facilities. To Tiny’s fortune, “The miners gave her a building lot, and the carpenter
put up a log hotel for her. There she sometimes fed a hundred and fifty men a day. Miners came
in on snowshoes from their placer claims twenty miles away to buy fresh bread from her, and
paid for it in gold” (Cather). Cather’s narration proves to be historically correct and aligned with
law restrictions since during this time period, “It was illegal for a woman to own a bar, but they
were allowed to open their own restaurants, road-stops, and hotels” (Morgan). Parallels to real
life events can be seen as we compare Tiny’s journey to “Mrs. Pullen, who opened an inn near
the railway terminal at Skagway… One contemporary remembered that she was still running her
hotel in Skagway in 1910, and she ‘went through hardships aplenty, but she was never daunted’”
(Porsild). Perseverance, adaptation and determination played a key role in women succeeding in
the business world. Similarly, “Belinda Mulroney became wealthy by running a hotel and selling
supplies” (“The Klondike Gold”). Although the popular myth claims that everyone who
ventured into the Klondike Gold Rush became rich from gold, the side of history Cather
explores, enlightens readers about the existence of past individuals—particularly women—who
became rich from selling the “needed food and supplies for the trip to the goldfields” (“The
Klondike Gold”).

Cather’s narration style highlights her careful depiction of detail. In just one passage,
readers are able to learn about three unheard aspects of the Klondike Gold Rush. Willa Cather
demonstrated her ability to remain historically accurate to the events that molded Alaska’s
economy and culture, allowing her to emphasize and celebrate reality through fictional story-
telling.

Works Cited
Bennet, Mildred. Conversation. Red Cloud, Nebraska 17 May 1989.

Bornstein, Sara. (2009). Women of the 1898 Alaska-Klondike Gold Rush.

Cather, WIlla. Letter to Irene Miner Weisz. 6 January 1945. Bernice Slote Collection. University
of Nebraska, Lincoln; also Newberry Library, Chicago.

Cather, Willa. My Ántonia: Authoritative text, contexts and backgrounds criticism; edited by
Sharon O'Brien (Dickinson College). Publication: New York, NY : W.W. Norton &
Company, Inc., 2015.

Cather, Willa. "To Alexander Woollcott." 5 Dec. 1942. Letter 0424 of A Calendar of Letters of
Willa Cather: An Expanded, Digital Edition. Ed. Andrew Jewell and Janis P. Stout. Lincoln:
The Willa Cather Archive. Ed. Andrew Jewell. U of Nebraska-Lincoln. Web. 13 Dec. 2012.

Editors, History.com. “Klondike Gold Rush.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 17 Jan.
2018, www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/klondike-gold-rush.

L. Brent Bohlke, ed., Willa Cather in Person: Interviews, Speeches, and Letters (Lincoln: U of
Nebraska P, 1986).

Morgan, Lael. Good Time Girls of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush . Washington: Epicenter Press,
1998.

Porsild, Charlene L. Gamblers and Dreamers: Women, Men, and Community in the Klondike.
UBC Press, 1999.

Spotswood, Ken. “ExploreNorth.” ExploreNorth.com - Your Gateway to the North, 3 March

1998. explorenorth.com/library/yafeatures/klondike_women.html.

“The Klondike Gold Rush.” The Klondike Gold Rush,

content.lib.washington.edu/extras/goldrush.html.