From the early 1880s to the eve of World War I, the gold discoveries stretched from the Bering Sea to the Canadian Interior and from the Gulf of Alaska to the Brooks Range. While a few individuals “struck it rich,” most of the gold strikes did not meet the miners’ dreams of riches.The discovery of gold set off two great rushes, the Klondike rush to goldfields near Dawson City and the rush to the hills beyond Cape Nome. Fueled by the economic depression of the mid-1890s, the dream of untold riches caused a mass migration to the north country from the United States and Canada.