Kathleen Eloise Rockwell gained her fame as a dancer and vaudeville star. She grew up in Washington state, and her stepfather was comparatively well off, so she lived in a large mansion. But the families fortunes fluctuated, and this created tension in the family .... her parents sent the rebellious teenager to boarding school (
and we all know how that ends 
), but she was expelled for breaking the rules. The family broke up and she moved with her mother to New York.
She had an unsuccessful attempt at breaking into vaudeville in the chorus, where she eked a living but no fame, and aged 26 she then she decided to move somewhere where men had lots of money. A place where a moose in a dress looked sexy, and no one cared if a willing gal could sing or dance ... but during the '
Gold Rush', the land route was controlled by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who held a tight leash on prospective miners and various hangers-on trying to get to the Yukon and find their fortunes in the gold fields. They had
seen many girls like Kate before, so they refused her entry. Undaunted she is reputed to have
donned a boy's outfit and jumped on a boat headed for the Yukon .... she arrived in Alaska in 1899. Thus was born the
legend of the original "Klondike Kate" 
She started working as a tap-dancer in Whitehorse, but moved to Dawson City as a member of the Savoy Theatrical Company. She was was very popular with the miners (
but who wasn't?), and it was them who was dubbed her "
Klondike Kate". Her most popular act was the “flame dance.” for which she she wore an elaborate dress adorned with red sequins and a large cape. Under the cape she carried a cane affixed to more than 200 yards of red chiffon. Removing the cape she danced and twirled the chiffon which resembled flaming fire.
After their dances, stage performers like Kate had the job of spending the rest of the night mixing with the patrons and encouraging them to spend their money at the bar .... she no doubt supplemented her stage earnings for gold ..... During her first year in Dawson City, Kate made $30,000 while wearing expensive gown such as her $1,500 gown from Paris. It was while she was in Dawson that she met one Alexander Pantages, at that time a struggling waiter and bartender, who eventually rose to become theatre owner based mainly on her money .... plus some sharp practices
To say he was unscrupulous is to put it politely, but she entered in to an intense love affair with the Greek Pantages and their rows and reconciliations became the stuff of legend in the Yukon and elsewhere. They probably both played around, and they were both not above
swindling unsuspecting miners, and this treacherous quality eventually infected their own relationship. She later accused him of
reneging on a promise to marry her as well as attempting to
swindle her out of her share of the money ..... she was probably correct, but he no doubt could have pointed at some of her activities.
While Kate was away earning money, Pantages met and married a younger girl from the “
right side of the tracks.” Kate was heartbroken, and sued Alexander for breach of promise to marry her. “
The woman declares that by her earnings as a vaudeville performer in the Klondike during the early strike she enabled Pantages in five years to jump from poverty to riches, from a waiter in a dance hall in Dawson to the position of theatre magnate,” reported the Dawson Daily News in June 1905. The case was settled out of court, leaving Kate with a settlement of between $5,000 and $60,000, depending on the sources .... it was likely to have been at the higher range in view of her previous earning levels.
In 1902, the Klondike Gold Rush was already dying out and she headed south, first to British Columbia where she set up an early "storefront theater" showing movies, but eventually moved to eastern Oregon, where she seems to have played been a social recluse. She was never able to hit upon a way of reviving any of the fame she had briefly held in Alaska, although she made full use of the memories at "Sourdough" reunions in the 1930s. These provided her with a measure of fame, as did the training of young Hollywood starlets in the 1940s.
Near the end of her life she married a miner named John Matson, who remained in Alaska, while she stayed in Oregon. They were together for 13 years and they wrote each other two letters each year. In 1946, one of Matson’s letters did not arrive on schedule Kate began to worry, and soon after his body was found frozen about 12 kilometres from his remote cabin.
Later, Kate settled in Oregon and married twice before passing away peacefully in 1957, at age 80. Her last years were spent mostly as a living symbol of the Gold Rush. She died in 1957.
Trivia:
- Ernie Pyle has a chapter about Klondike Kate (who he calls 'Kate Rothrock') in his book 'Home Country'.
- In September of 1938, Time magazine ran a story on a 'Sourdough' reunion ""Swapping tall stories, but doing little whooping in the Multnomah bar which, like other Oregon taprooms, serves no hard liquor, were such diverse sourdoughs as Henry Macaulay, the first mayor of Dawson, and scores of old Yukon prospectors, storekeepers, mails clerks"... Kate would have known Mr Macaulay.
- Klondike Kate could make up to $500 a night in Dawson City’s dance halls during the Klondike Gold Rush.
Pictures:
What Katie saw .... Yukon and Dawson City 1899
