James Church McCook and American consular diplomacy in the Klondike, 1898-1901

Abstract

The Klondike Gold Rush saw tens of thousands of Americans pour into the Canadian Yukon. Although the unprecedented event was of marginal diplomatic significance to Washington, the United States government responded by establishing an official American presence in the Klondike boomtown of Dawson City. Congress provided for a United States consulate in Dawson in January of 1898, and the following summer, James Church McCook arrived to serve as the first consul. McCook served for three and a half years as the only U.S. government official in what was essentially an American town on Canadian soil. A retired confectionary manufacturer from Philadelphia, McCook was representative of the amateur tradition of American consular diplomacy. His State Department correspondence revealed both the hardships of consular work and the notion of devoted service, while shedding light on Washington's relationship with Canada at the time of the United State' emergence as a world power.