The Forty Mile River joins the Yukon about 50 miles down stream from the present day site of Dawson. (Forty Mile, like many places in the early days, was named for its approximate distance from Fort Reliance, a trading post established by Harper, McQuesten and Mayo about 6 miles from where Dawson would later be built.)

Howard Franklin and Henry Madison discovered coarse gold in the Fortymile River drainage in 1886. The gold rush that followed brought over 10,000 people to the area and the town of Forty Mile was established at the mouth of the river to support mining operations in the area. The new town soon boasted saloons, the Buxton Church of England Mission, a theatre, restaurants, as well as a two-storey store owned by McQuesten, Mayo and Harper.

Forty Mile was also the site of Fort Constantine, the first North West Mounted Police fort in the north. It was the first real Canadian Government presence in the area, and the Mounties were responsible for handling the mail, maintaining the registry of claims, collecting royalties on gold being mined, and many other duties not directly related to law enforcement.

The Discovery

The Yukon drainage was well prospected by 1896 and it was only a matter of time before the large concentration of gold in Bonanza Creek would be found. There is great debate among historians over who actually discovered gold in the Klondike, and who really deserves credit for starting the Klondike gold rush. It is generally agreed that the major characters in the story are Robert Henderson, George Carmack, his wife Kate who was a member of the Tagish First Nation, her brother Skookum Jim, and their nephew Dawson Charlie.

Henderson was mining on Gold Bottom Creek, just over the divide from Rabbit Creek (later renamed Bonanza) and had invited Carmack to come and stake near his claims. Some say that Henderson insulted Carmack’s Tagish relatives by making it plain that they were not welcome on “his” creek. It was on the way back from Henderson’s camp that the Carmack party made the strike that would trigger one of the greatest gold rushes in history.

Who was the first person to actually lay eyes on the gold in Bonanza Creek? We will probably never know for certain. Both Jim and George claimed to have been the one, while some maintain that Kate Carmack found gold while washing dishes in the creek.

In any case George Carmack staked the Discovery Claim on Bonanza, with Skookum Jim and Tagish Charlie having a claim on either side. Carmack did not send word back to Henderson’s claim about the find, as was the custom at that time. Henderson did not hear about the Bonanza strike until all the claims in the new gold fields were staked.

Who deserves credit for starting the gold rush? It was George, Jim and Charlie who made the strike and spread word through the district that Bonanza was a rich creek. On the other hand, Henderson supporters maintain that the Carmack party would never have been on Bonanza Creek if not for his advice. In the 1920’s he was officially recognized by the Canadian government for his role in starting the Klondike gold rush and was awarded a pension and some claims in another watershed.

Mining Technology

Early mining was carried out by “skim digging” the thawed river gravel bars. Miners would wait for the water levels to recede and use “rocker boxes” to collect the gold.

Permafrost was both a boon and a hindrance to mining in the north. It slowed digging, but no “cribbing” was required to shore up the sides of shafts dug in to frozen ground.

Since gold is so heavy, it tends to work its way down through the gravel layer and concentrate on the relatively solid bedrock underneath. Early miners dug shafts down to bedrock and followed pay streaks by digging tunnels or “drifts”.

In order to dig a shaft or a drift, the gravel had to be thawed, usually using a wood fire. Thawed gravel was winched to the surface with a hand powered windlass and sat in a stock pile called a “dump” to await spring when the creeks and rivers were free of ice and there was enough water to wash or “sluice” out the pay dirt and recover the gold. All of this was back breaking work, and since sluicing could not be done without water, miners often worked all winter with no sure way to know exactly how much gold they would recover in the spring.

The basic mining tools were pick, shovel and gold pan. Rocker boxes were more efficient than panning for separating gold from gravel, and also worked with minimal water, which was especially important during hot summers when water was scarce.

A Miner’s Cabin

Most cabins on the creeks were small and typically had few windows. Glass was extremely hard to transport to the Klondike, and so was expensive and difficult to come by. Many cabins had windows made of the ends of glass bottles held in place with mud chinking, or a sheet of light coloured cloth. Most cabins were built quickly and by hand, so they were often very small. A small cabin was also easier to keep warm in the winter. Notice the books near the bed. Although many miners led a simple and basic life, many were quite well educated. The irony of a miner living in a one-room cabin with no windows and a dirt floor while reading Shakespeare is striking