CLEP US History II

Answer: C - In 1896, gold was discovered in the Alaska Territory, which prompted the Klondike Gold Rush from 1897 to 1899, drawing 100,000 prospectors into the Pacific Northwest. It was the greatest period of expansion into the region since the height of the Oregon Trail period in the 1840s. As the amount of gold found in the Yukon dwindled in 1849, prospectors left the region for Nome, Alaska, when gold was discovered there that year. Alaska’s weather could be quite harsh, prompting many of the opportunists who ventured to Alaska to migrate southeast after they abandoned their searches, later settling in Washington and Oregon.