About Liarsville.

I meant to give a little history about Liarsville in yesterday's blog, but I got blogged down. In the late 1800s, when gold from Alaska was delivered to Seattle, it started the famous Alaska Gold Rush. Well, most of the gold was actually in Canada and it was a very long haul to get to the gold fields. Of course, with the first news of the gold, newsmen Rushed to the Alaska ports to cover the event. This was big news in the lower states and sold a lot of newspapers. The reporters arrive in Skagway and made their way along the relatively level plain at the base of the mountains only to find that the actual gold fields were several months of arduous marching away. Most of them stayed at a base camp just before the mountains and filed their stories from there.

The stories falsely portrayed all the men getting rich with gold and this fueled much of the Rush of the late 1890s. The truth was that very few found any gold, that even fewer found gold in any quantity to get rich. Most prospectors didn,t find enough gold to pay their expenses and many died trying to get over the passes and across the glaciers. Entering Canada, the RCMP insisted that anyone proceeding further had to carry a years supply of food, clothing and provisions. Some could not afford it and had to turn back.

The real "gold" was made by the entrepreneurs who sold to the prospectors, the outfitters, the saloons, and the brothels. Thus, the area was thought of as being a den of liars and was dubbed Liarsville, which it stands to this day.