Chilkoot Pass

Mountain pass on the Alaska–British Columbia border, the gold-rush route from Dyea to the Yukon lakes. Buck’s team hauls over it in The Call of the Wild.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
The Call of the Wild	Jack London	journey waypoint	Buck’s team hauls over the Chilcoot Divide to Lake Bennett.

The Call of the Wild — Jack London (1903)

Source: Original · Readwise highlight

It was a hard day’s run, up the Cañon, through Sheep Camp, past the Scales and the timber line, across glaciers and snowdrifts hundreds of feet deep, and over the great Chilcoot Divide, which stands between the salt water and the fresh and guards forbiddingly the sad and lonely North.

• Role: journey waypoint
• In the book: On the first day of travel the team runs up the canyon, over the Chilcoot Divide and down the lakes to the huge goldseekers’ camp at Lake Bennett, where boats are built for the spring break-up. Buck’s apprenticeship in harness begins on this stretch.
• Why it matters: Named, concrete stages of the Klondike gold-rush route anchor the story in real geography.