Kinsey & Kinsey. Klondike Lost: A Decade of Photographs by Kinsey & Kinsey. By Norm Bolotin. Introduction by Pierre Berton.

Alaska Northwest Publishing Co., 1980. Oblong wraps, 128 pages, 1st printing (not stated, no further printings indicated). Very good plus. Photographs in black-and-white by Darius, Clarke, and Clarence Kinsey of the Yukon, Canada, gold rush, and the Klondike. Special topics include but are not limited to The Trip North, Belinda Mulrooney, Growing Up in the Klondike, The Fairview Hotel, Grand Forks, The Women of the Row, Roadhouses, Legislated Morality, and Transportation.  Summary:

Klondike Lost: A Decade of Photographs by Kinsey & Kinsey (1980), written by Norm Bolotin and featuring a poignant introduction by renowned Canadian historian Pierre Berton, is a vital pictorial history that unearths a forgotten chapter of the late 1890s Yukon Gold Rush. The book focuses entirely on the rise and rapid evaporation of Grand Forks, a boomtown that briefly became the second-largest settlement in the Yukon Territory before completely disappearing from the map.

The Photographic Chronicles: Clarke and Clarence Kinsey

The heart of the book rests on a treasury of previously unrecorded and unpublished photographs taken by brothers Clarke and Clarence Kinsey (younger brothers of the famous Pacific Northwest logging photographer, Darius Kinsey).

• The Journey: Arriving from Seattle in 1898, the brothers—along with Clarke's new wife, Mary—were drawn to the North not just for gold, but for the immense enterprise of documenting a vanishing way of life.

• The Location: They set up their studio and staked their own mining claims in Grand Forks, uniquely situated south of Dawson City precisely where the lucrative Bonanza and Eldorado creeks intersected.

Key Thematic Focuses

• The Anatomy of a Ghost Town: Bolotin uses the Kinseys' photographs to meticulously reconstruct the everyday reality of Grand Forks. At its peak, it was a bustling hub with its own hotels, freight lines, saloons, and a distinct municipal identity. By the end of the decade, as corporate hydraulic mining swallowed individual claims, the town was systematically dismantled and abandoned, leaving virtually no trace behind.

• The Texture of Hard Rock Mining: Unlike the romanticized images of solo prospectors panning in creeks, the Kinsey photographs capture the grueling, mud-soaked, and frozen reality of deep-shaft mining. They illustrate the innovative—and environmentally punishing—methods used to thaw permafrost and extract ore.

• The Social Fabric: The book chronicles the florid and resilient population of the town. This includes the famous Belinda Mulrooney, the entrepreneurial force largely responsible for establishing Grand Forks; her husband, the eccentric "Count" Charles Eugene Carbonneau; and the local North-West Mounted Police, who served as pillars of order in a volatile environment.

Visual and Narrative Structure

Arranged chronologically, Bolotin’s text pairs seamlessly with the Kinseys' photographs. While technically less formal than their older brother Darius's work, Clarke and Clarence's imagery shines in its candid intimacy. They captured the community at both work and play—from soot-covered miners in the pits to families dressed in their finest attire for social gatherings.

Significance

Klondike Lost stands alongside Pierre Berton's own historical works as an essential archival record of the Canadian North. By rescuing the Kinseys' glass-plate negatives from obscurity, Bolotin provides an unvarnished, humanistic counterweight to the mythology of the gold rush. The book serves as a haunting biography of a town born from sudden wealth and erased by the march of corporate industrialization.