Klondike Big Inch Land Promotion

Quaker Oats bought {{convert|19.11|acre}} of land in the Yukon Territory of Canada for the price of US$1000 and printed up 21 million deeds for {{convert|1|in2|spell=in}} of land. The lot, noted on the certificates by its legal description of Lot 243, Group 2, Plan 6718, was located the Yukon River across from Dawson City at {{Coord|64.030|-139.503}}.{{cite web |last1=Thomson |first1=P.E. |title=72192 CLSR YT |url=https://clss.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca/clss/plan/detail?id=72192%20CLSR%20YT |website=Canada Lands Survey System |publisher=Natural Resources Canada |access-date=25 April 2025 |date=19 June 1987}} On advice of counsel, Quaker Oats set up and transferred the land to the Great Klondike Big Inch Land Company to make the company the registered owner and manager of the deeds.

Starting in January 1955, 93 newspapers across the United States ran advertisements that read "Get a real deed to one square inch of land in the Yukon gold rush country" and "You'll actually own one square inch of Yukon land".{{cite news|title=Folks still make claims in Sgt. Preston's Yukon|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19860920&id=tlkiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XqgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1066,5068721|accessdate=30 December 2012|newspaper=The Montreal Gazette|date=1986-09-20}} The promotion was tied to the Sergeant Preston of the Yukon television show which Quaker Oats was sponsoring at the time.

The promotion instructed people to mail a form along with a box top from either Quaker Puffed Wheat, Quaker Puffed Rice or Muffets Shredded Wheat to the Quaker Oats company. In turn, a {{convert|5|by|8|in|cm|adj=on}} deed to one square inch of land in the Klondike was sent back. In February 1955, Quaker Oats was blocked from trading the deed for a box top by the Ohio Securities Division until it received a state license for the "sale" of foreign land.{{cite web|last=Price|first=Mark J.|title=Local history: Quaker Oats prize creates Yukon land rush in 1955|url=http://www.ohio.com/lifestyle/history/local-history-quaker-oats-prize-creates-yukon-land-rush-in-1955-1.257639|publisher=Akron Beacon Journal Online|accessdate=30 December 2012}} To get around the injunction, the company stopped the trade-in offer and instead put one of the deeds in each box of cereal produced.

Since none of the deeds were actually registered, the documents were never legally binding and owners of these deeds were never actual owners of any land. The deed excluded mineral rights on the property.

Due to $37.20 in back taxes, the land was repossessed by the Canadian government in 1965, and the Great Klondike Big Inch Land Company dissolved in 1966. The land is now adjacent to the Dawson City Golf Course.{{cite news |title=Film recalls mini Klondike rush |url=https://www.yukon-news.com/life/film-recalls-mini-klondike-rush-6969042 |access-date=19 July 2007 |work=Yukon News}}

To this day, Yukon officials receive letters and phone calls about the deeds. The land office of the Yukon currently contains an {{convert|18|in|cm|adj=mid|-thick}} file folder of correspondence regarding the promotion.{{cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=The Klondike Big Inch|url=https://yukoninfo.com/the-klondike-big-inch/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200823133827/https://yukoninfo.com/the-klondike-big-inch/|archive-date=23 August 2020|accessdate=30 December 2012|website=}}

• Challenge of the Yukon, the radio show tied to the Klondike Big Inch Land promotion
• Dawson City, the city the land is situated on.
• Souvenir plot

{{reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20180914102742/http://www.emr.gov.yk.ca/lands/interesting_facts.html Picture of the original advertisement in the Seattle Times on the Yukon Government Website]

Category:History of Yukon

Category:Advertisements

Category:1955 in the United States

Category:1955 in Canada

Category:Quaker Oats Company

Category:1955 in Yukon