Packboard- Chilkoot Trail, U.S. / Canada (Video)
Institution: Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
State: Alaska
Object: Backpack
Era: 19th Century
The Chilkoot Trail was an indigenous trading route owned and operated by Tlingit and Tagish communities. The route led 33 miles north from Dyea, Alaska to Lake Bennett in British Columbia, Canada. The same route was used by prospective miners during the 1896 Klondike Gold Rush.
The trail originally began as an obsidian network between the Tlinglit and Athabaskans. Eventually, trade goods expanded to grease, dried fish and fur, as well as pots, guns, textiles, sugar and other European shipped goods. The Tlingit continued to maintain control of the route during the arrival and eventual demise of the Hudson Bay Company in 1852.
Following the first wave of gold prospectors, business interests changed from trading to packing. The trail’s steep climb and harsh conditions made it too dangerous for foreigners to travel alone. Hence, local Tlingit and Tagish promoted themselves as supply carriers, known as packers. The average packer carried between 90 and 100 pounds of equipment.
The packboard, similar to the one seen above, was the wooden device used to carry content bounded by skins or fabric. Several decades later, Lloyd F. Nelson submitted a patent and rebranded this device as the “Trapper Nelson Indian Pack Board”. To this day, Nelson is credited as the father of the modern backpack despite direct influence from the Tlingit community.
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