EXTRA! ALASKA FORUM

[Alaska]

Published by Rampart, Ak, 1901

4pp., on a single folded sheet. Each page printed in four columns. Folio. Misfolded, and neatly split along the center vertical fold, with resulting large margin in first leaf. Tiny closed edge tear, old tideline in upper margin of first leaf, evenly toned. About very good. The extremely rare extra issue of the ALASKA FORUM, printed entirely as a promotional publication to attract miners to Rampart, Alaska during the gold rush. The four pages of the EXTRA include various reports of the fabulous finds in the area of Rampart, "on the Yukon River, in American territory, about mid way between St. Michaels and Dawson City, or approximately one thousand miles from each." Headlines include news such as "A New Eldorado," "Richer than Ever," "Bench Diggings," and "Paystreak is Located." Additional articles concern areas overlooked in the past, opportunities for quartz prospectors, the need for machinery, capital, and summer mining ("Rampart No Longer A Winter Camp Exclusively - More Summer Work Than Ever Before." Clearly published to promote mining and, by extension, economic development in Rampart and the surrounding region, the column-long editorial on page 2 states: "It is the intention of the publishers of the ALASKA FORUM, by means of this special issue, to bring to the attention of people in the Eastern states the claim of Rampart City, Alaska, as the gold mining center of this Territory. To that end, thousands of copies of the FORUM are being distributed over New England and the Eastern states. We believe, and we are backing that belief with good money, that the growth of this town cannot fail to be rapid, once capitalists and others are led to appreciate the unrivalled advantages Rampart offers to investor and wage earner alike. With the growth of the town will come the no less certain growth of this FORUM, and therein we find justification for this issue." While the exact number of copies printed of this EXTRA is not known, we have been able to locate only two other copies of this Sept. 1, 1901 special issue, at the Beinecke Library and the DeGolyer Library. Printed between Sept. 27, 1900 and Aug. 4, 1906, few copies of any issue of ALASKA FORUM have survived. Of the ten locations listed in OCLC, four libraries (including all three Alaska institutions) hold only microfilm sets. The University of Washington holds twenty individual issues from 1904 and 1905, NYPL has issues from 1905, Denver Public Library has a single issue from 1905, the American Antiquarian Society holds just the Sept. 25, 1900 issue, and the Beinecke holds an additional single issue from 1901. A remarkable surviving promotional publication from the Alaskan gold rush. OCLC 22038311 (Alaska Forum, 1900-1906) (ref). Seller Inventory # WRCAM54818

Bibliographic Details

Title: EXTRA! ALASKA FORUM
Publisher: Rampart, Ak
Publication Date: 1901