Tim McNeese The Yukon River (2005)

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.By 1897, McQuesten was the wealthiest man in Circle City,perhaps in the entire Yukon region.Circle City was growingand the miners arrived each year in greater numbers, and in1887 gold strikes reached $1 million.The entire future of theYukon Valley seemed centered in one place, and McQuestensaw a bright future for his remote Alaskan town; one thatwas paved in gold.That year, though, new strikes were beingmade 200 miles upriver, signaling a shift in fortune for thosealready living in the vicinity of the Yukon River and for tens ofthousands more who would soon flock to the area.By 1897, theword Klondike would never be spoken of in the same way.(For additional information on the Paris of Alaska, enter Circle City, Alaska into any search engine and browse themany sites listed.)The KlondikeGold Rush72 THE YUKON RIVERobert Henderson was the son of a Nova Scotia lighthouseRkeeper who, as a teenager, had become obsessed with theidea of finding gold.He was a tall, thin man in his late thirties,with a gaunt hawk s face, fiercely knit brows, and piercingeyes, 62 and for more than 20 years, he had searched the worldover, from Australia to Canada, in search of the precious metal.In 1894, while Circle City was being settled, he was already inAlaska, along with several fellow prospectors, poling a boatalong the Yukon River hundreds of miles to the north.TheFortymile was largely already staked out, claimed by hundreds ofwould-be miners.Henderson and his friends decided to try theirluck where few had bothered to search.After panning along thePelly River and finding little metal, Henderson and his friendsreached a trading post at the mouth of the Sixtymile River, a storeowned by two other prospectors, the aforementioned ArthurHarper and Joseph Ladue.With Harper away from the post,Ladue, a dark-skinned Frenchman who had been on theSixtymile since 1882, greeted Henderson and his companions,who were already contemplating abandoning the Yukon Valley;their prospecting efforts having proved fruitless.During a conversation with the new arrivals, Ladue offeredto stake the men if they would prospect near his post, situated100 miles up the Yukon from Fortymile.Any significant goldstrike would lure a wave of gold seekers, which would providea boost for Ladue s trading efforts.Henderson s companionswere through with the Yukon, however; they were ready toreturn to Colorado, where they had already searched forgold.As for Henderson, he was ready to give the local rivers atry.Ladue pointed him toward the untested banks of a localtributary, Indian River, 30 miles from Ladue s post.For thenext two years Henderson searched the Indian River and itstributaries for gold.During those years, the Nova Scotia native did find traceamounts of gold, but the riches he had spent most of his lifeThe Klondike Gold Rush 73searching for continued to elude him.His panning producedenough gold to keep Henderson in supplies and little more.Then, on a warm August day in 1896, Henderson climbed asmall mountain called the Dome.Several creeks that reachedIndian River flowed down the Dome s flanks.Hendersonspeculated that additional creeks on the back side of the Domeflowed into another river, the Thron-diuck, which local minersoften mispronounced as the Klondike. Determined to knowfor certain, Henderson scaled the bald mountain.At thesummit, he saw the rivers he had envisioned and a greatplateau creased and gouged and furrowed by centuries ofrunning water. 63 These feeder streams for the Klondike soonbecame the focus of Henderson s ongoing quest for gold.He walked to the nearest creek, waded out into its waters, andscooped up a pan of gravel, just as he had done countless timesbefore.This time, however, bits of gold appeared.A mile down-stream, several pans yielded an average of a half-dollar s worthof gold.Continuing to work the feeder streams for a few weeks,Henderson panned $750 in gold flakes, more than an averageYukon miner dug up in a year.He was forced to break off hisefforts to return to Ladue s trading post for more supplies,where he gave the Frenchman the good news.On returning to his newly found stake, Henderson happenedto meet up with a local hunter, George Carmack, and two ofCarmack s fellow hunters, a pair of Indians known as SkookumJim and Tagish Charlie.Carmack s father had been a prospectorin the gold camps of the 1849 California gold rush, and Georgewas born near San Francisco.At age 16, he had set out forAlaska on a ferryboat, but he had never developed an interest ingold seeking, instead wanting to live with local Indians, fromwhom he learned the art of hunting.Even though Carmack andthe Indians were not prospectors, Henderson told them abouthis newfound discovery.Despite the hopeful news, the threehunters did not immediately join Henderson.After a few days,74 THE YUKON RIVERwith dreams of gold and easy pickings, Carmack and his Indianfriends decided to hike over to Henderson s camp.The threemen did not follow the river but headed up the valley of RabbitCreek, poling a canoe up the Klondike River for two miles, andthen hiking overland to the mouth of Rabbit Creek to try theirhunters hands at prospecting.They found some gold, butcontinued to move on to other creeks and rivers until theyreached Henderson s camp.After reaching Henderson s claim, the anxious prospectorand the Indians had an argument over Henderson s refusalto sell them some tobacco.The clash caused Carmack and hisfriends to leave Henderson and to set out in search of theirown diggings and they found gold immediately.As theymoved from stream to stream, the gold was almost constant.After several days, the three prospectors found themselves backon Rabbit Creek, and they camped along the waterway onAugust 16, 1896.The next 24 hours would dramatically changetheir lives and the history of the Yukon.The stories of their great gold discoveries along Rabbit Creekdo not correspond.According to Carmack s version, he claimsto have found the first big nugget along the creek.SkookumJim and Tagish Charlie claimed that Jim had produced the firstsignificant find while Carmack was asleep under a tree.Jimhad just shot a moose and was cleaning a dishpan in the creekand made the find a gold nugget as large as a man sthumb.64 Jim shouted for his comrades and soon the threemen were squatting in Rabbit Creek, scooping up pans of gold-littered gravel, with the average pan yielding $4 in gold.(If aminer s pan produced 10 cents in gold, that was considered agood find.) Carmack claims he saw the raw gold laying thickbetween flaky slabs like cheese sandwiches.I felt as if I just65dealt myself a royal flush in the game of life. The threeprospectors were certain that they had stumbled on a find ofincredible proportions and, indeed, they had [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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