Note from Andrea: I’m just finishing up my marking for my condensed summer course, so we have another special guest post for you today! When I found out that Heather Green was researching beer in the Klondike, I just knew I had to talk her into a blog post. Enjoy!
Heather Green recently received her PhD from the University of Alberta studying environmental and indigenous histories of gold mining in the Klondike region of the Yukon from 1890 to 1940. She is an incoming Wilson Postdoctoral Fellow at McMaster University where she will research trophy hunting tourism in the southern Yukon from 1920 to 1950.
This blog is the early research for a larger collaborative project with Matt Papai (University of Alberta) on the connections between local identity, environment, and beer production in the Yukon. Both collaborators are craft beer enthusiasts, and the idea for this project arose in 2015 from discussions about the environmental impacts of Northern beer production while researching in the Yukon and Alaska. Our next steps include examining liquor laws, temperance, and prohibition movements in the Yukon, as well as tracing commodity chains of brewing ingredients into the North. We also hope to investigate how successful O’Brien’s ad campaign was in reaching the public.
The craft beer movement has gained momentum over the past few decades with new microbreweries popping up each year all over North America and around the globe. In Canada, the microbrewery movement began in the 1980s, primarily in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Vancouver, British Columbia. Today, you are guaranteed to find at least one craft brewery in most towns and cities in Canada. Around the world one thing seems to ring true no matter where you go – breweries, and the beer they produce, hold a connection with place and local identity.
Geographer Derreck Eberts called microbreweries “’tools of local identity’ which help to reconnect people with the places in which they live.”[1]Through a process Ebert labeled as “neolocalism,” microbreweries invoke geography and place in their branding and marketing. Some breweries are named after the places where they are located, some after natural features, and some after the sense of identity that a community shares. For example, the Breton Brewing Company located in Cape Breton, NS draws on a sense of pride, grit, and determination connected with life on the island. Their website describes their rationale for naming the brewery as such:
Cape Breton has always been as harsh as it is beautiful, as barren as it is rich. Anything wondrous growing here, does so more out of determination than fertile soil. […] The brewery is named for the land it hails from. The beer, for the legends that have made our Island what it is. Every sip represents our homage to a longstanding Cape Breton tradition: to make greatness in the most unexpected of places.[2]
Like many other microbreweries, the Breton Brewing Co. name their beer in connection to place or local history. Their Black Angus IPA is named after “the largest natural giant ever recorded,” a Scotsman who immigrated to Cape Breton named Angus MacAskill, nicknamed ‘Giant Angus’ or ‘Black Angus.’ They have other beers connected with Scottish and Irish ancestry, which also strongly relates to a shared Cape Breton past and a selective identity.The Yukon Brewing Co., located in Whitehorse, YT also alludes to place and local identity in naming their beer. Names include Midnight Sun, Lead Dog, Yukon Red, Yukon Gold, Chilkoot, and Bonanza Brown.
Yukon Brewing’s logo connecting the brand with the idea of a frozen North.
Yukon Brewing began in 1997, but it was not the first brewery in the Yukon. Preceding it by nearly a century was the O’Brien Brewing and Malting Company, more commonly known as the Klondike Brewery. The Klondike Brewery is an early example of a microbrewery in Canada’s North. While the nature of the Klondike Brewery as a microbrewery came more from necessity and limitations of its remote location than choice, the language that owner Thomas O’Brien used in his advertisements fits Eberts’ concept of neolocalism, suggesting that the Klondike Brewery was an early example in the long tradition of breweries attempting to connect their beer with sense of place and local identity.
Bars and saloons played an important role in the Klondike’s social life. There, people met friends, exchanged information, got the latest news from Outside, and made business deals.[3]However, drinking beer in the Yukon was an expensive hobby during the Klondike Gold Rush (1897-1900) and immediately after. Before the Klondike Brewery, beer was shipped long distances from the South, raising its cost for barkeeps and customers alike. Further, the nature of shipping into the Yukon limited deliveries to spring break up. Imports from cities such as Seattle and Vancouver could run as high as $1,580 in 1903 (with approximately $400 shipping fees on top of product price) for thirty cases of beer.[4]However, once the population of Dawson declined following the Gold Rush, southern companies no longer considered Dawson a healthy market and it became costlier, and more difficult, for saloon owners to ship in beer.
| Total Yukon Population | |
| 1898 | 40,000 |
| 1901 | 27,219 |
| 1911 | 8,512 |
| 1921 | 4,157 |
Yukon Population Data, 1898 to 1921.
Thomas O’Brien, seeing a demand for beer, formed the O’Brien Brewing and Malting Company in 1904. O’Brien was a well-known and respected Dawsonsite. He was a sourdough – a term which refers to people from the South who came into the Yukon before the Klondike Gold Rush – and an early Yukon entrepreneur. He arrived in Forty Mile, just north of what would become Dawson, in 1887 and worked as a trader and prospector, eventually opening a store with his partner, Billy Moran. O’Brien was among the first rush into the Klondike in 1896, and, a year later, he and Moran built a warehouse and store in Klondike City where he owned many properties and other businesses.[5]O’Brien firmly established himself in the social fabric of the Klondike, buying the Yukon Sun newspaper in 1900, serving as president (1905-1907) and active member of the Yukon Order of Pioneers, working in local politics as the leader of the Liberal Party from 1905-1907, and serving on the Yukon Council from 1905-1906. Unlike many others who came into the Klondike during this period, he made his fortune in the Yukon and stayed there making it his home until his death.[6]
The Klondike Brewery operated from 1904 to 1919 and was located in Klondike City. It produced steam beer, lager, bock, porter and ginger beer along with champagne cider. The brewery also produced non-alcoholic drinks such as ginger ale, cream and lemon soda, aerated water, and sarsaparilla. The Klondike Brewery sold its products wholesale to saloons, hotels, and retail outlets. By the end of 1904, O’Brien’s beer (the only local option) was outselling imported beer in the most popular saloons in Dawson, such as MacDonald’s (later renamed the Red Feather Saloon when O’Brien and three others took it over in 1915), who bought exclusively from O’Brien by 1907.[7]The Klondike Brewery was cheaper than other options, going for between 50 cents to 75 cents a bottle, as opposed to $1.00 a bottle for other brands. The brewery had great success in its first five years, producing 55,679 gallons in 1904, which increased by 19% in 1905 (as indicated in the chart below). Consumed imports dropped 47.5% between the 1904/05 and 1905/06 fiscal years.
However, sales began to drop and there was a sharp decline in Klondike Brewery production after 1908.[8]The reasons for this are not entirely clear, though a growth of temperance and prohibition attitudes in the Yukon combined with a declining population likely were the cause. Throughout the course of the brewery’s life, O’Brien used newspaper advertisements to drum up business. Before it opened in 1904, O’Brien regularly printed updates in his own newspaper, the Yukon Sun, on the progress of the brewery and created anticipation for its opening day in April of 1904. O’Brien was confident in his product early on, suggesting in the Yukon Sunthat his beer “will make the Pabst article taste like soda water without any soda in it” and would sell at a price that would allow his company to “put any other beer out of the contest.”[9]He also posted advertisements in the Dawson Daily News. Between 1905 and 1916, O’Brien drew on three main themes in his brewery ads: place, myth, and health.
Yukon Sun, March 6, 1901.
In ads that evoked a sense of place, O’Brien celebrated Klondike beer using typical Klondike imagery – they emphasized the brewery’s “home grown” origin, even though O’Brien frequently advertised that his ingredients were from Outside, and of the highest quality. Even before the brewery opened, the Yukon Sunboasted it would be the “most extensive brewing plant in the North” (even though there was only one other brewery in the North at the time, in Alaska).[10]In 1905, O’Brien established “Bock Beer Day” which became an annual tradition in the Yukon for the duration of the brewery, and was celebrated on May 24th.[11]This notice included the fact that the Klondike brewery was the only one that produced bock in the North, and declared that it would be an event in the history of the Yukon, inviting customers in to participate in a memorable, and proud, day. A few weeks later, another ad alluded to the Yukon’s harsh winters by stating, “The Warm Weather is Surely with Us and the Thirsty Cry for Beer!” suggesting that Yukoners deserved a beer to congratulate themselves for making it through another winter.[12]Throughout the tenure of the brewery’s operation, O’Brien and Joseph Segbers, who bought the business from O’Brien in 1915, continuously relayed the fact that buying Klondike beer meant supporting local business and keeping money in the Yukon.[13]
Closely related to ads that made connection to the Yukon as a unique place were ads that emphasized the myth of the Yukon Pioneer. O’Brien called upon the image of the sourdough in marketing his brewery. The most obvious of these was an ad that he ran annually between 1914 and 1917 that had a bold headline shouting, ““The Sourdough’s Favorite Beverage.”[14]As the population declined and the brewery lost sales, O’Brien spent more newspaper space stressing the permanency of his business. In using terms like “sourdough” he attempted to appeal to the loyalty of those who remained after the Rush. The sourdough was a true Yukoner, who was there before the Rush, but it could also create a sense of pride among those who stayed and settled calling the Yukon home. This was indicated in ads that mentioned their soft drinks, targeting families, and by 1914 the brewery made home deliveries.[15]The brewery itself had strong family affiliations as O’Brien’s three sons worked there between 1910 and 1917. O’Brien’s personal reputation also helped strengthen the branding of the brewery as a pioneering venture. Demonstrated in the ad below, O’Brien advertised his warehouse in Klondike City as early as 1901. His involvement in various business ventures and politics proved he was a committed Yukoner who worked to develop the region. Before the brewery opened, the Yukon Worldreported on the brewery and stated that O’Brien, “has always been on the frontier all his life. There is no more typical pioneer than Mr. O’Brien.”[16]Upon his death in August of 1916 the Dawson Daily News described O’Brien as a Yukon Pioneer and Empire Builder.[17]The combination of O’Brien’s notoriety and his ads championing Yukon pride worked to secure a certain image of his beer, and his customers.
After 1913 especially, Klondike Brewery ads emphasized the health benefits of drinking their beer. An ad that ran on December 9, 1913 in the Dawson Daily Newsprodded its readers to “Hear the Doctor,” arguing a certain amount of alcohol was necessary for digestion and ensured a healthy stomach. A 1914 ad stated Klondike Brewery products were “free from injurious chemicals, are health producing, and no family should be without it,” where another simply stated, “For Good Health Drink O’Brien Brewing and Malting Co.’s Beer”[18]It is possible that this healthful ad campaign was a response to the developing temperance movement in Dawson that saw liquor as a social ill. It is more likely that this campaign was a response to local health and sanitation conditions in Dawson City. Sanitation services did not arrive with the Gold Rush population, and people dumped sewage and garbage into the rivers, resulting in health hazards and the corruption of the Klondike and Yukon rivers’ water supply. Instances of typhoid, dysentery, and diarrhoea ran rampant in Dawson in the early 1900s. It wasn’t until the 1930s that Dawson had a proper (and regularly functioning) drainage system. So, it is reasonable that Dawsonites may have chosen alcoholic beverages, or some of the many other alcohol-free drinks O’Brien produced (including aerated water). Dr. Alfred Thompson, a respected doctor in town, was part owner of O’Brien Brewing and Malting Co., and perhaps his association with the Brewery gave more weight to these types of ads.
O’Brien referred to his beer as “The Beer that Made Klondike Famous and Milwaukee Jealous,” an interesting statement possibly comparing his beer with the gold that brought thousands of people into the Klondike region.[19]O’Brien Brewing was one the longest-lasting and more successful post-Gold Rush businesses in the Yukon operating for fifteen years before it closed in 1919 when prohibition was passed in the territory.[20]But even before prohibition, the brewery faced challenges from a shrinking population, production costs, and restrictions on liquor licenses. Once the Klondike Brewery closed the Yukon remained without a brewery until Yukon Brewing opened in 1997.
When O’Brien died on August 24th 1916 from liver trouble, his funeral closed down Dawson businesses and government operations for the day. It is of no doubt that Tom O’Brien felt a sense of attachment to the Klondike and a large part of his individual and community identity was tied to place. He moved to the Yukon as a young man and remained until his death. Advertisements for the Klondike Brewery in the Yukon Sunand the Dawson Daily Newsmake clear O’Brien’s attempt to create customer loyalty by appealing to place and identity. However, the question still remains: did consumers feel the same?
Notes
[1]Derreck Eberts, “Neolocalism and the Branding and Marketing of Place by Canadian Microbreweries,” The Geography of Beer: Regions, Environment, and Societies, Mark Patterson and Nancy Hoalst-Pullen, ed. (Kennesaw: Springer, 2014): 190.
[2]http://bretonbrewing.ca/
[3]Margaret Carter, “O’Brien Brewing and Malting Company, Ltd.”, S.I.A. Study Tour of the Yukon and Alaska, Ken Elder, ed. (Ottawa: Society for Industrial Archaeology, 1990).
[4]Richard Stuart, Dawson City: Three Structural Histories(Ottawa: Parks Canada, 1980), 35.
[5]Eric L. Johnson, The Bonanza Narrow Gauge Railway: The Story of the Klondike Mines Railway(Vancouver: Rusty Spike Publishing, 1997), 5.
[6]Ibid., 103.
[7]Stuart., 35.
[8]David Burley and Michael Will, SpecialBrew: Industrial Archaeology and History of the Klondike Brewery, Occasional Papers in Archaeology No. 11 (Whitehorse: Government of Yukon, 2002), 16.
[9]Yukon Sun, “Hop Distillery Nearly Finished,” January 29, 1904. Yukon Sun, “Hops Distillery Nearly Finished,” February 19, 1904.
[10]Yukon Sun, “Brewery Nearly Ready to Brew,” February 10, 1904.
[11]Dawson Daily News,“Bock Beer Day,” May 17, 1905.
[12]Dawson Daily News,“Beer Season Now Open!,” May 25, 1905.
[13]Dawson Daily News, “Big Slash in Beer,” August 9, 1913. Dawson Daily News, “Keep the Money in the Klondike,” August 9, 1917.
[14]Dawson Daily News, “The Sourdough’s Favorite Beverage,” August 17, 1914.
[15]Dawson Daily News, “Beer! Beer! Beer!,” December 23, 1914.
[16]Yukon World, March 31, 1904.
[17]Dawson Daily News, “Thos. W. O’Brien Laid to His Eternal Rest,” August 28, 1916.
[18]Dawson Daily News, “Beer! Beer! Beer!,” December 23, 1914. Dawson Daily News, “For Good Health Drink O’Brien Brewing and Malting Co.’s Beer,” October 24, 1914.
[19]Dawson Daily News, “The Beer that Made Klondike Famous and Milwaukee Jealous,” August 1915.
[20]Burley and Will, 22.
Special thanks to Heather Green for a fantastic blog post! While I do not drink beer myself (I know, gasp), I know that it is a beverage preferred by many a Canadian historian, including my husband! I hope you enjoyed this week’s blog post. If you did, please consider sharing it on the social media platform of your choice. And don’t forget to check back on Thursday for a review of the latest episode of Back in Time for Dinner. See you then!
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