Carcross is situated at the northern end of Lake Bennett, which was along the Yukon River-based portion of the route that some 30,000 stampeders followed to the Klondike gold fields (Dawson City) in 1897/98. The overland portion of the route was the Chilkoot Trail between Skagway, Alaska and Lake Bennett, which was a traditional trading trail controlled by the coastal Tlingit First Nation. The Gold Rush changed everything for the Carcross/Tagish First Nations people - many of them worked as packers and guides on the trail (each Stampeder was required to have a literal ton of provisions before being allowed across the Canadian border) and their seasonal hunting spot (Carcross) became an important supply point and town site.