Draft:Arctic Brotherhood

The Arctic Brotherhood was a fraternal organization founded in 1899 by participants in the Klondike Gold Rush.

History
The Arctic Brotherhood was formed in February 1899 by a group of gold rush stampeders participating in what would come to be defined as the Klondike Gold Rush. They had arrived in Skagway, Alaska, on the City of Seattle passenger steamship.

Membership was limited to white men over the age of 18. Members also had to live in Alaska; the Yukon Territory; the Northwest Territories; or or British Columbia north of parallel 54 degrees. The group started with eleven initial members, which soon grew to 300. At its height, the Brotherhood had 10,000 members across the north.

Organization
The first meeting hall was dubbed Camp Skagway No.1

Brotherhood membership declined along with Skagway's economy in the early years of the 20th century. In July 1923, President Warren Harding became the last initiated member of the Arctic Brotherhood. This took place during Harding's "Voyage of Understanding" trip, when he became the first sitting president to visit Alaska.

The Arctic Sisterhood
An offshoot of the Arctic Brotherhood for women existed.

Arctic Brotherhood Halls

 * Skagway, Alaska: The Arctic Brotherhood Hall is now owned by the city of Skagway and serves as its municipal Visitor Center. In the winter of 2004-2005, the building underwent an extensive restoration. All 8,883 pieces of driftwood on the front of the building were removed: 40 percent had rotted and were replaced, while 60 percent remained preserved.
 * Dawson City, Yukon:
 * Seattle, Washington

Notable members

 * Warren Harding (honorary)
 * William Howard Taft (honorary)
 * Theodore Roosevelt (honorary)
 * William McKinley (honorary)
 * King Edward VII (honorary)