Legends abound
Popular mythology has cultivated a fascinating image of a handful of NWMP officers staring down a violent mob of (largely American) prospectors and camp followers, imposing order in the face of daunting odds. While the accomplishment was considerable, the imagery is flawed. It is important to understand that the stampeders and would-be prospectors were not a mob of vicious frontiersmen. Instead, they represented a broad cross section of North American society, with a substantial number of other nationalities thrown into the mix. They were, in the main, a peaceable lot, heading North to pursue a dream - and they feared disorder, social chaos and violence almost as much as the police did. There were a few ruffians, to be sure, and the police and other Canadians loved to highlight the contrast between crime ridden Skagway, where the notorious Soapy Smith held sway, and the tranquil communities in the Yukon. But the miners themselves deserve a fair measure of the credit for the calmness of the Yukon experience. Furthermore, the federal government had left little to chance. In an era when municipal police forces were relatively small and the hand of government lay very gently on the shoulders of Canadians, the Yukon enjoyed a massive, almost omnipresent, police presence. To ensure that no part of the Yukon was out of the vigilant gaze of the authorities, the federal government ordered the opening of a string of police posts throughout the region, sent more than 300 officers to the district, and buttressed the NWMP presence with 200 members of the Yukon Field Force of the Canadian Army. The Yukon was, effectively, blanketed with a determined, fast-acting, rigid and highly formal police presence.

The most prominent member of the force in the north was Sam (later Sir Sam) Steele, who commanded the police in the Yukon at the height of the rush. Steele was authoritarian and decisive, an imperialist who held Yankees in contempt. He once described the men coming to the Klondike as the "sweepings of the slums." He acted as the local magistrate as well as commanding the police, and sentenced thieves, thugs, and other wrongdoers to long terms cutting firewood behind the police barracks. Sentences of a year or more for theft were common, and parole was rarely granted. Steele prided himself on making things hot for evildoers, as he put it, and was an important force in keeping the Territory orderly. Pierre Berton quotes a famous story about Steele which encapsulates his personality: an American miner appeared in court before him and was convicted. "Fifty dollars and costs," said Steele. "Why," blustered the man, "I've got that in my pocket." "And ten weeks on the woodpile" said Steele, "have you got that in your pocket too?" The miners appreciated Steele's efforts; when he left the Yukon towards the end of the rush, they presented him with a bag of gold.

The North West Mounted Police ensured that the Klondike Gold Rush remained a Canadian event. They controlled the Klondike Gold Rush from the point of entry in the Yukon through the enforcement of Canadian laws. They created a safe, non-violent, and tightly controlled environment, one much appreciated by the vast majority of stampeders. Though rigid in their adherence to most laws and regulations, the police were not overly moralistic. They tolerated the inevitable evils of gambling and prostitution, and then ensured that the gamblers, dance hall girls and prostitutes operated in an appropriate, that is, an orderly fashion. They canadianized an episode that, without their presence, would have been a largely American affair, and received the support of most of the gold rush community. It is probably too much to say, as some have argued, that the presence of the North West Mounted Police protected the Yukon from an American take-over. In any case, the United States never showed any official interest in acquiring the region.

Diverse Challenges
Not all of the police efforts at canadianizing the Klondike worked as well. The major access routes to the Yukon - the Chilkoot Pass and the White Pass - both passed through the Alaska Panhandle, thus placing the Yukon Territory at the mercy of American customs and politics. With the two countries embroiled in a bitter war of words over the Alaska-Canada boundary, the Canadian government was anxious to secure an alternate, all-Canadian route to the far northwest. They turned, once again, to the Mounted Police, who were asked to chart a workable trail from northern Alberta, through northern British Columbia, to the Yukon. In September 1897 Inspector J.D. Moodie left Edmonton with a police expedition. The journey to the Yukon via the headwaters of the Pelly River was a nightmare, lasting over fourteen months, and when Moodie's party finally reached Tagish in November 1898, it was obvious that the route was impractical. The idea of encouraging subsequent travellers to reach the Klondike via this all-Canadian trial was quickly abandoned.

The NWMP were very effective as a police force, although most of their work was preventative, rather than investigative. Two major cases, a murder committed by George O'Brien and the killing of two fellow river travellers by La Belle and Fournier, frightened Yukoners, principally because the murderers remained on the loose for some time. Demonstrating great tenacity, the NWMP dispatched officers to track down the murderers, in one case hunting their quarry down on the Arizona-California boundary. O'Brien, LaBelle and Fournier were all returned to Dawson City for trial, conviction, and execution. The quick and satisfactory resolution of these cases provided further evidence of the determination of the NWMP to enforce the law and to track down offenders. Serious crime was minimal throughout the gold rush years, by both the standards of southern Canada and the previous experience in gold mining camps. The court docket and the NWMP jails were filled with petty offenders, but murders were few and far between.

Heroic symbol
The North West Mounted Police emerged as one of the defining symbols of the Klondike Gold Rush. They were celebrated at their time for their ability to bring order to a potentially chaotic situation. Their swift, decisive and effective actions endeared them to Canadians and the Canadian government, and ensured the continued operation of the national police force. The NWMP had proved their value to the nation once again, and earned a central place in the hearts and minds of Canadians for their effective work. During and immediately after the gold rush, in the works of Robert Service, Jack London and literally hundreds of novelists, poets, diarists and journalists, the NWMP were immortalized and their work embellished. Soon after the rush ended they were awarded the title "Royal." A mystique engulfed the Klondike experience of the police, who emerged as stalwart defenders of the British Empire and of Canadian jurisprudence. These men of integrity and grit stared down would-be villainous desperados and shaped the unruly mob that swarmed over the Chilkoot Pass and White Pass between 1897 and 1900 into a calm, controlled, and competent group of miners, shopkeepers and community members. To the police fell the lion's share of the credit for the comparative peacefulness of the Klondike stampede.

The passage of time has only added to the Klondike legend of the NWMP. During the 1950s, the television program Sergeant Preston of the Youkon (with his faithful husky King) further popularized the work of the police, and it is not surprising that the Disneyland Hotel in California has immortalized the police and the television program in their Sergeant Preston's bar. In movies and television programs (the popular Due South television program was full of Klondike-style imagery), novels and tourist promotions, the image of the Mounties in the Yukon became a permanent part of Canadian folklore. If the Klondike Gold Rush is, internationally, the single most famous event in Canadian history, the Mounted Police remain the single most recognizable symbol of the country. The legend of the infallibility, competence, nationalism, and integrity of the North West Mounted Police is substantially true and is in large part a result of the important role they played in keeping the Klondike Canadian.