Ever since the cry "Klondike!" drew prospectors in the 1890s, the Yukon's economy has boomed and slumped with the price of gold and other minerals. During the late 1980s annual earnings topped 500 million dollars. Yet today white-water rafters and fishermen outnumber gold panners. More that 313,000 tourists make summer pilgrimages to the Arctic frontier. They find glaciated peaks, untouched wilderness, scenic splendors, and abundant wildflowers and wildlife. Athapaskan Indians still hunt caribou and moose. Resolution of native land claims could spur mineral exploitation, but disputes between miners and conservationists augur intensifying debate on levels of development. The sparseness of the year-round population is no accident: Winter temperatures fall to minus 50°C, permafrost makes construction costly, and fresh produce is limited, even in Whitehorse, where the majority of the population lives.