Early Days on the Yukon and the Story of Its Gold Finds

Among those who came to the Yukon seeking adventure, before the Klondike discovery, was Robert Henderson, from Big Island, off the north coast of Nova Scotia. He had been a sailor for some years, and in that capacity had been pretty well over the globe. Of an adventurous nature, he took to hunting for gold, not so much to become rich as to find adventure, for those who know him best do not believe he would work the richest claim on earth if he had to stay on it till it was worked out. So constituted we find him in all his sojourn in the Yukon, and he is there now, continually looking for new fields. So, when others were tramping over the Fortymile and Birch Creek regions, “Bob” was in another quarter.

In July, 1894, Henderson and two associates Kendrick and Snider, arrived at Ogilvie, where they found the ever-smiling Joe Ladue in charge. He was ready for them with a good story about the prospects on Indian River, which joined the Yukon nearly twenty miles below them. It was comparatively virgin ground, and that was enough for “Bob” Henderson. His associates, however, were not so easily enthused, and went back to Colorado, whence they had all come only a few weeks before. Indian River is parallel in its course with the Klondike, and as the distance between them in an air line is only fifteen to twenty miles, the watershed between them is sharp in its slopes, and so well adapted to catch and hold the gold contained in its gravels as they are gradually worked lower and lower by the rushing waters.

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At the mouth of the Klondike he saw George Washington Carmac [sic], whom story has connected prominently with the discovery of the Klondike, and some think the discovery of the Yukon itself. Henderson, in accordance with the unwritten miners’ code, told Carmac of the discovery he had made on Gold Bottom, and invited him to come up and stake. Carmac was then engaged in salmon-fishing with his Indian friends and associates, the male members of whom were Skookum, or “strong” Jim, and Tagish (sometimes Cultus, or “no good”) Charlie. As Henderson tells the story Carmac promised to take it in, and take his Indian associates with him, but to this Henderson strongly objected, saying he did not want his creek to be staked by a lot of natives, more especially natives from the upper river. Carmac seemed to be offended by the objection, so they parted. I have this story substantially the same from both Henderson and Carmac, the latter, of course, laying a little stress on the objection to the Indians. I have had long interviews with both Jim and Charlie, and some of the others camped with them on the Klondike at that time, and reduced the purport of our talks to writing. As I have said, both Henderson and Carmac gave me the same story about Henderson having told Carmac of the new discovery, and the Indians assured me that they knew “Bob,” as they call Henderson, told George, as they called Carmac, of it and asked him to go and stake on it; that much, therefore, may be assumed without doubt. The stories told me by the Indians may be questioned, but they were very sincere in their tone and assertions when telling me. I took the precaution to interview them separately and afterwards get them all together and criticize and discuss the narrative of each in committee of the whole, as we might term it. Put in as concise terms as I can frame it, Jim’s story tells us that he, Charlie, and George were, as we know, camped at the mouth of the Klondike fishing, but as a straight fish diet becomes monotonous in time, in order to procure some variety it was agreed that they would get out some saw logs, take them down to Fortymile, and sell them to the saw-mill down there. The current rate was twenty-five dollars per thousand feet board measure. Much depended on Jim in this work, and he did a good deal of examination in the woods around the place to find the best and most convenient logs. This work took him some distance up a creek afterwards known as Bonanza, which joins the Klondike less than a mile above the mouth. He informed me he found some very good logs up this creek at various places, and in order to learn whether or not they could be floated down to the Yukon, he had to make a close examination of the creek bed. In doing this he said he found some colours of gold at various places in the gravel, and particularly at where claim sixty-six below discovery was afterwards located he found what he considered very fair prospects. He told the fishing-camp of this find, but it did not arouse much interest. Jim, according to his own story, was anxious to further investigate, but as George was chief councillor in the camp and did not appear much interested in the matter it was allowed to drop temporarily.

About twenty days after Henderson called at the camp, George told him to get ready for a tramp to find Bob. Jim, Charlie, and George started up Bonanza on the quest, with a gold pan, spade, axe, and such other tools as were necessary for a prolonged stay from camp, and such provisions as their means afforded, and according to the Indians the supply was not extensive nor diversified, being mostly fish. Travelling up the valley of Bonanza through the thick underbrush at that season was tedious and fatiguing, and the mosquito-laden atmosphere added torment to fatigue. A short distance below where they afterwards made discovery, both Jim and Charlie told me they, while panning during a rest, found a ten-cent pan. There is a slight discrepancy; each claimed that he made the find, but when confronted, it settled down to the mutually satisfactory statement that while resting they thought they would pan for fun. Jim took the pan and washed such dirt as Charlie gathered for him, so they both found it, though neither expected it. This discovery caused a ripple of excitement in the community, small as it was, and it was decided that if the Gold Bottom trials failed they would devote further attention to this place. The Indians both told me they asked George if they would tell Bob of this find, and that George directed them to say nothing about it till they came back, if they did, and investigated further, then if they found anything good they might tell.

Travelling was so tiresome and tedious in the valley that, when they came to the confluence with the creek now called Eldorado, they took to the divide between it and Bonanza, and followed the crest of this divide around the head of Bonanza Creek, where, finding the marks made by Henderson, they descended to him. Arrived there they were nearly bare of provisions, and completely out of tobacco, a serious predicament for Jim and Charlie. Henderson, either through shortage himself or dislike of the Indians, or both, would not let them have anything, though Jim and Charlie both assured me they offered to pay well for all they could get, which Jim was both able and willing to do. As they did not find any prospect approaching in value the ten-cent pan on Bonanza, they remained a very short time at Henderson’s camp, and made their way back to the head of the creek which first gave fame to the Klondike-Bonanza. Before they got far down it their provisions were entirely exhausted, and as they prospected on the way down, and Jim was hunting for meat, their progress was slow; and their hunger was becoming acute, with exhaustion and weakness fast following. To shorten the story of Jim and Charlie, for they dwelt long on this part of the narrative, Jim at last, when they were all too tired and weak to do further prospecting, got a moose. He had fired at one before, but missed; the first time in his life he assured me, and he had a good rifle too, Winchester, he exclaimed proudly.

After killing the moose, Jim says he called on the others, whom he had left some distance away, to come to him. While waiting for them to come he looked in the sand of the creek where he had gone to get a drink, taking with him a bit of the moose. He found gold, he said, in greater quantities than he had ever seen it before. When the others joined him the moose meat was cooked, and they had a feed. Then he showed them the gold in the sand. They remained two days at this place panning, and testing the gravel up and down the creek in the vicinity. After satisfying themselves that they had the best spot, and deciding to stake and record there, they got into a dispute as to who should stake discovery claim, Jim claiming it by right of discovery, and Carmac claiming it, Jim says, on the ground that an Indian would not be allowed to record it. Jim says the difficulty was finally settled by agreeing that Carmac was to stake and to record discovery claim, and assign half of it, or a half-interest in it, to Jim, so on the morning of August 17th, 1896, Carmac staked discovery claim five hundred feet in length up and down the direction of the creek valley, and No. 1 below discovery of the same length; both the full width of the valley bottom, or from base to base of the hill on either side, as the regulations then read. No. 2 below was staked for Tagish Charlie, and No. 1 above for Skookum Jim. The gold they panned out of the surface gravel on discovery was put into a Winchester rifle cartridge shell and the party went to camp at the mouth of the Klondike. There a small raft of saw logs was prepared for the saw-mill at Fortymile. Carmac and Charlie went down on it, and Jim was sent back to the claim to watch it, as the country all around there was alive with men looking for the Henderson discovery. In proof of this I have only to quote from my notes to show that two days after Carmac and party staked, that is, August 19th, 1896, Edward Monahan and Greg Stewart staked two claims that subsequently were found to be Nos. 28 and 29, below discovery about three miles, and the following day D. Edwards, J. Moffat, D. Robertson, and C. Kimball staked what proved on continuous survey to be Nos. 16, 17, 18, and 19 below discovery. An event which led to a great deal of misunderstanding and trouble, which will be fully related later, transpired on August 22nd, that is, what was called a miners’ meeting was held on the hillside opposite to claim No. 17 below discovery. Twenty-five men were present, and there must have been nearly as many more wandering about the valley looking for Henderson’s discovery. Now as we have seen, Carmac, Jim, and Charlie left discovery claim in the forenoon of the 17th, and as that is at least eleven miles from the mouth of the Klondike, consequently a good day’s tramp through the woods and swamps of the region, and they did not reach the Yukon till that evening, if they did that day at all, we are positive they could not give any notice on the Yukon River of the new discovery till the 18th. As they had to gather the logs for the raft they took to Fortymile, and it took a long day to float down, they could not possibly reach there, the main camp of the district at the time, till the 21st, so we can feel assured that the men who staked on the 19th and 20th, and those who attended the meeting on the 22nd, could not all owe their information to Carmac and his associates, and he can hardly be properly credited with the discovery of the Klondike. Henderson has always bitterly resented Carmac’s neglect to send him word of the new discovery as he –Henderson-says Carmac promised he would do, if he found anything better than where they were working on Gold Bottom. The result to Henderson was that he did not learn of the new discovery which was brought about though his labours and invitation to come to Gold Bottom till after all the ground on both Bonanza and Eldorado was staked. Henderson could not, owing to short season and falling water, lose the time to go to the office at Fortymile and record his claim on Gold Bottom, until after Andrew Hunker had located on the creek below him, and had gone down to Fortymile, and not only recorded a discovery claim, but had the creek named after him, notwithstanding that Henderson had marked a large tree at the unction of this creek with the Klondike when he left his boat there on his way up in July, “This creek to be known as Gold Bottom Creek.” As the mining regulations then were, only one discovery was allowed in “a district,” the boundaries of which were fixed by the Government Agent. A discovery was allowed on Bonanza Creek to Carmac, and another on Gold Bottom, or as it was misnamed Hunker, to Hunker, and no more would be allowed in the Klondike district. The result was Henderson, after his two years hard work, and his proclaiming his find and inviting every one he met at all interested in mining, and some he knew were not, to try the new field, got only an ordinary claim in it.

When Carmac and Tagish Charlie reached Fortymile and related the new discovery not many paid much attention to it at first. Carmac had never followed mining as a business heretofore, though he had prospected some, and as he had just recently come to Fortymile and was not very well known, there was not that importance attached to his statements which might have been had he been a longer resident, and had he followed mining as a business. Also his association with the Indians for so long had created a prejudice against him in the community. When I first entered the country in 1887 I found him at Dyea Pass. He was then closely associated with the Tagish, or Stick Indians, as they were called. It was understood between these and the Chilcoot and Chilcat, or coast, Indians that the country north of the summit of the pass belonged to the Sticks, and all the coast to the south of it to the coast tribes. Carmac spoke both languages in a limited way, and had considerable influence with the Sticks. I employed him to help me over the pass and through his influence got a good deal of assistance from his Indian friends. Skookum Jim and Tagish Charlie were both there, and packed for me. Skookum well earned his sobriquet of “Skookum” or “strong,” for he carried one hundred and fifty-six (156) pounds of bacon over the pass for me at a single trip. This might be considered a heavy load anywhere on any roads, but over the stony moraine of a glacier, as the first half of the distance is, and then up a steep pass, climbing more than three thousand feet in six or seven miles, some of it so steep that the hands have to be used to assist one up, certainly is a stiff test of strength and endurance. After we crossed the summit and while building our boat I employed Jim in various capacities, and always found him reliable, truthful, and competent to do any work I gave him. Afterwards, while working on his claim on Bonanza, I had more experience with him, and it only corroborated the opinion I have expressed of his character. Charlie I did not know so well. Poor Charlie, while celebrating during the holiday season last winter, fell off the railway bridge at Carcross on the White Pass Railway and was drowned. I had seen him last summer, and had quite a long chat with him about the old days, and the discovery journey to Henderson. Again on my way out last fall I had a lengthy interview with Jim, Charlie, and all the rest of the tribe at Carcross. The old days were gone over, and the old tales told, I am pleased to say with very little variation from the first version I heard of them.

Skookum Jim

Jim is an enthusiast on prospecting, and his object in life now, apparently, is to make another big discovery that will be all his own. He is particularly anxious to discover a big quartz lode, and fully realizes the importance to the country of such an accomplishment. He possesses a practical knowledge of prospecting that is far beyond what one would expect to find in an uneducated savage. Further, he is qualified as a a prospector in a way that but few white men are, for he carries nothing on his outings, which last weeks at a time, but a rifle, hatchet, and gold pan. His food he shoots, and his hatchet is responsible for his shelter. He spent some time with me in consultation about a prospecting journey from Carcross over the divide between Tagish Lake and the Teslin River, and from there across country to the Pelly, McMillan, and Stewart. We discussed at length all the information we had both of the route and the best way to go about the work. He was waiting the fall of a little more snow to enable him to make way with his sled, which he intended to haul himself. There is something unusual in a man planning an expedition of this kind, it might be said alone, for though an old white man intended to accompany him, Jim would have to bear most of the burden. He was taking very little with him, trusting to his implements for all he wanted. The trip would occupy most of the winter, under the most favourable circumstances, but if something good was found early in the season he would return at once to proclaim it and record title to what was staked.

I might say much more in relation to the discovery of the Klondike, and the impression prevailing at the time Carmac and Charlie came down to Fortymile to proclaim it, leaving Jim to guard the claims staked, but it would only be an elaboration of what has already been stated.