MacGregor wrote that by mid-winter 1898, “…the town was knee deep in Klondikers.” Figure 1. When parties slowly began arriving in Edmonton by train in the summer of 1897, the business community quickly seized upon the opportunity and began actively advertising Edmonton as the, ‘ All Canadian Route to the Klondike’, ‘ The Back Door to the Yukon’, and ‘ The Poor Man’s Route to the Yukon.’ By Christmas, there were people from Chicago, eastern Canada, the Atlantic seaboard, Europe, and Australia camped in small groups all over town. By the summer of 1898, the stampede was over with local merchants having taken in $500,000. However, this amount was nothing compared to the following year when parties of gold seekers, upon news of rich gold strikes in the Yukon, began outfitting themselves in Edmonton on their way to the Klondike. No small amount for a town of roughly 1200 people. In 1896, gold production in Edmonton reached $55,000, with local banks purchasing gold dust off miners at $15 an ounce. Part I of The Lure of Gold in Alberta’s History can be read here.