Photos show ramshackle shops, mine trenches and ships dodging icebergs during Alaskan ‘Gold Rush’

Stunning black-and-white photos reveal ramshackle shops, mine trenches and a ship dodging an ice berg as more than 20,000 people rushed to find their fortune in an Alaskan town 120 years ago.

An estimated 112 tonnes of the prized metal was pulled from the ground in Nome, on the frozen western tip of Alaska, during the famed Alaskan, or Klondike, ‘Gold Rush’. 

The window into the town, where homes, schools and banks had to be built quickly as thousands flocked to the area, has been revealed by an old photo album being sold by auctioneer Elstob & Elstob based in Bedale, North Yorkshire, Britain. 

One photo allegedly shows ‘the most northerly’ school in America, while a second says it shows ‘the most northerly railway station’. A family of eskimos was also pictured riding in a car.

Auctioneer David Elstob said: ‘It is a fabulous album full of wonderful views and the photos are in a really nice condition. It is unusual for an album like this to be discovered in north Yorkshire, and there has been a lot of international interest in it already.

‘The photos are full of people and activity, and it is nice that the indigenous population feature in so many of them. It is fascinating to see how a town emerged in the middle of nowhere.’

The Alaskan, or Klondike, ‘Gold Rush’ was triggered after gold was unearthed in the region in 1896. The chance to get rich led to more than 100,000 people emigrating to mine the frozen wastes of Alaska and the icy banks of the Klondike river, Canada. 

The sale of the photos, which are expected to more than £100, takes place on February 29.