Fitzcarraldo on the Chilkoot!

This is almost too much! Merely viewing Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, is struggle enough, but just think about hauling not ONE, but several steamboats over the Chilkoot Pass! OK, maybe not as big, and in parts, but still, it must have been an epic adventure every big as that depicted in Fitzcarraldo. That such endeavors are hardly mentioned and pass for everyday adventures of the times speaks hugely of the level of common struggle of every person to get over the Pass.

The Witch Hazel (1895), A.J. Goddard (1898), and F.H. Kilbourne (1899), The latter two built of hulls of STEEL plate hauled over the pass!!
The Olive May. First her boiler powered a sawmill on Lake Bennett, then was mounted on the steamboat.

Back to the Main Klondike Boatbuilding Page

Contact: Fritz Funk (fritzf@alaska.net)