MAGIC WORDS Klondike What alchemy -- for the Klondike was a magic place. -- Spike Walker, Alaska: Tales of Adventure from the Last Frontier (2002) Mystique: The late 1800s "was an age of yearning, and the Klondike had taken on a mythic aura. It was more than a goldfield, more than a piece of geography: it was Beulahland, the panacea to all the fears and torments of the era, an answer for the lonely, an inspiration to the God-fearing, a bulkwark against the frailties of the flesh. For if the creek beds were said to be paved with gold, were not also the streets of the New Jerusalem?"12 "There was a certain magic in the word Klondike that conjured up visions of un limited profits."1 Origins: During the gold rush (starting in 1897), the Canadian government established in the Yukon territory a region whose name, Klondike, emerged as a "magic word" that thrilled the entire nation.14 In Literature: • "It was the valley of the Klondike, magic word." -- Rex Beach, The Winds of Chance (1918) • "[E]very store window screamed the magic word Klondike." -- Will Hobbs, Jason's Gold (1999) • "[T]he magic word of Klondike was carried into camp." -- Harry De Windt, Through the Gold-Fields of Aliska to Bering Straits (1898) • "The name had always seemed part of a magical incantation, used to call the wonderful out of the actual. Now here I was face to face with the Klon dike." -- Thomas McGuire, 99 Days on the Yukon (1977) Klopstock Mystique: As Elizabeth von Arnim suggests, though Klopstock is unmusical to the ear, the word has the power to induce "tears of rapture" when spoken with intense joy.15 Origins: Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-180 ) was a German poet who inspired "joyous idealism."16 12 Pierre Berton, The Klondike Quest (198 ) 1 Pierre Berton, Prisoners of the North (2004) 14 Susan Kollin, Nature's State (2001) 15 The Solitary Summer (1899) 16 Kuno Francke, Social Forces in German Literature (1896)