Alaska can be a very inhospitable place so it never ceases to amaze me at the toughness of the Alaska miners.  The 1870’s saw the first gold rush to south east Alaska in the Harris Mining District of which the town of Juneau was the center of.  As the new century approached gold deposits were being found further north including gold on the beaches of Nome.  These findings initiated a true gold rush to Alaska which in turn built the cities that we have now.  It is important to note that without the gold rushes, the American West would have settled at a much slower pace and the development of this country would have taken an entirely different route.  Additionally the gold made the U.S. one of the richest nations on earth which provided the impetus for our government to become a leader on the world’s political stage as still a very young nation relative to the European countries abroad.  There was a heavy price to pay for this gold though as new starry eyed miners noted that the summer was rather short and the winters, well they come fast and hard, especially in the mountains.