Tue, October 08, 2013
Gaming for Gold, Part II
In this blog’s ongoing series of Alaska-themed board games, we bring you a few more inspired by the Klondike gold rush.
First, “Klondike Gold”:
In this game that dates to the 1940s, players travel a meandering route that was at least inspired by real geographic locations. Note Skagway in the lower left corner of the board (that’s Soapy Smith’s saloon on the waterfront), followed by the Chilkoot Pass, the Yukon River, and finally Dawson City and the Klondike gold fields.
Interesting that the cover art on the box so prominently features a totem pole, a cultural artifact not actually found in the Klondike:
Next we have “The Klondike Puzzle,” a geographically unaspiring game, circa 1897:
The object of the hand-held game was to maneuver the board to get three oddly shaped gold nuggets to fall into the center pan. What the game lacked in cartographic ambition it made up for in fun (I hope).
Next, “The Klondike Game,” year unknown:
What’s most interesting about this game is not the board, but the box:
It bills itself as “a game of adventure”—but that’s a mighty pastoral scene featuring some well-fed miners and an awfully placid Yukon River. Contrast it with “The Game of Going to the Klondike” (note the human skull in the lower left!):
Stay tuned to this blog for more board game fun in the coming weeks.
