Things I know about – Conrad City

Mining ruins overlooking Conrad City in the Yukon.

Today I’m starting a new blog feature called “Things I know about.” Each installment will be my take on a given subject. I am not going to do any research or check my facts. This first-person perspective should be a lot of fun because I know about a few things. Or, at least I think I do. Today we are going to talk about Conrad City in the Yukon. Why? Because it’s one of the things I know about.

Conrad City was named after Colonel John Conrad

Some guy named Colonel John Conrad came to the Yukon just after the Gold Rush, hoping to make his own fortune. The Yukon economy was in shambles and nobody knew how it was going to recover. Along comes Colonel Conrad who was from Kentucky. You see, he wasn’t a military colonel. Conrad was a Colonel in the same way Colonel Sanders in a Colonel. Presumably, Conrad also loved fried chicken.

What the heck was he doing in the Yukon?

During the Gold Rush, surveyors named Dail and Carmacks were able to find some promising mining areas north of Skagway in the Yukon. This area extends from Dail Peak, just past the Yukon border, to Montana Mountain about 15 miles away.

Conrad wanted to mine these mountains but there were some obstacles. For one, they were very isolated. They were also high up in the alpine where conditions aren’t always very nice. Conrad wasn’t deterred. He created a big plan to establish 11 mines, build a new town with a port for hauling away the ore, and then secured investors.

Some guy warned the investors it was a bad idea

Yukoners were so desperate to kickstart their economy, everyone became very excited about Conrad’s plans. The project would employ numerous people and create new businesses. In 1902, plans were finalized, and construction was to start the following spring.

Meanwhile, there was this nerdy science guy warning everyone that the geology of the mountains made mining a losing proposition. I can’t remember his name. Let’s say it was Brownie McDownerton. This guy wrote a letter to Yukon government officials and investors and they all told him to go pound sand.

Those dudes built a lot of stuff to mine the ore

Conrad’s crews dug mines shafts out of solid rock with pickaxes, often by candlelight. They build a gravity-fed tramway to remove the rock and the ore. It was more than ten miles long and was the first of its kind. The guy who built it was some Swiss guy who went on to make his own fortune designing the ski lift. They also built a town and a wharf for sternwheelers to remove the ore. That’s just nuts.

Everything was going great until it wasn’t

At first, the mines were productive. Money flowed into Conrad like headwaters of the Yukon River that flowed past the town. By 1905, people were talking about making Conrad City the capital of the Yukon. By 1906, the mines were dry and Conrad City was little more than a ghost town.

It turns out that Brownie McDownerton was right all along. The veins of ore were fractured, which meant they could only be followed so far before they were lost forever. It turns out that science is usually right, which just makes people hate scientists even more.

Then what happened?

Even though the mines dried up, the Yukon’s economy was saved. Conrad moved back down south but he is still lauded as a Yukon hero. They even named a mountain after him, which you can see on a Yukon tour from Skagway. You can also visit a few remaining structures and artifacts in what’s left of Conrad City.

Thanks for joining us for Things I know about. I will be back with another story very soon.