A BRIEF HISTORY of PLACER MINING in the YUKON by G.W

Indian and Northern Affaires 1nd1ennes l+I AHairs Canada et du Nord Canada A BRIEF HISTORY OF PLACER MINING IN THE YUKON By G.W. Giibert A BRIEF HISTORY OF PLACER MINING IN THE YUKON By G.W. Gilbert George Giibert is mining claims Inspector for the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in Yukon Published under the authority of the Hon. Pierre H. Cadieux Minister of Indian and Northern Canada. Whitehorse, YT 1989. as -Y002-000-EE-A 1 Cette publication peut aussi etre obtenue en francais. As A.A. Wright points out in his excellent history Prelude to Bonanza, the treaty of 1825 that resulted was to have a profound effect on Although it is more than eighty years since the futL•re of the Yukon. The Russians insisted the world's last great gold rush -the Klondike '.:1at the eastern non-coastal boundary of Alaska the word Yukon still brings to mind buckets of be the 139th meridian, but in exchange for con nuggets, the Chilkoot Pass, and Dangerous Dan cessions in the Alaska "Panhandle", they McGrew. As a major producer of placer gold, agreed to the 141 st. Longitude 139°W passes Yukon Territory ranks well down the list; its through King Solomon Dome and Burwash notoriety was established for other reasons Landing; had this been defined as the boundary, advanced communications technology and the the Klondike Gold Rush would have taken place fact that the rush occurred during a severe de in Alaska! pression. FIRST WHITE MEN IN YUKON Some relative production figures in millions of ounces of placer gold compared wit' i the During the Russians' 126-year stay in Alas Yukon's 12 are: Cariboo 3, Australia 18, Alas ka, they did not explore inland as far as the ka 20, and California 48. Unlike placer fields in present Yukon Territory. In fact, they did not more temperate climates, however, which have ascend the Yukon River as far as the Hudson's been largely taken over by more familiar indus Bay post at Fort Yukon until 1863. The first white tries, the Territory holds a good deal of potential men to set foot in the Yukon were apparently in a land that has little to offer but minerals. If the members ot'the British Navy - Admiral Franklin placer operations proposed for 1980 are im and his party - who reached the Arctic coast in plemented, then the Klondike Rush may be rele 1826. The purpose of their expedition was to gated to the position of the world's second-last map the area and to prove (finally) there was no great gold rush. Northwest Passage to India. Frankli~'s report on the area, however, was unintentionally responsi NATIVE DISCOVERY OF COPPER ble for the accelerated exploration of the north ern Yukon. Placer mining had been carried on in the Territory long before the gold rush of 1898. In ascending the lower part of "Alexander Mackenzie's River" in 1827, 38 years after The first placer miners were undoubtedly Mackenzie, Franklin took the wrong channel and the Indians who recovered native copper from found himself on a river which would later be Kletsan Creek at the headwaters of the White named the Peel. His report that most of the na River near the present Alaska -Yukon tives were wearing beautiful furs prompted the boundary. Hudson's Bay Company to investigate. Their mining methods were understandably Meanwhile (circa 1828) the same company primitive: the gravels were stirred with caribou was exploring the southeastern Yukon: John horns and any visible nuggets picked out by Mcleod had already ascended the Liard and hand. Although production was probably minim Frances Rivers as far as Simpson Lake. Trading al, by the time the first white men arrived, copper posts or forts were established by Robert Camp had become a valuable trading commodity bell during the following twenty years: at throughout much of the Pacific Northwest for use Frances Lake in 1842, at Pelly Banks in 1845, in weapons, tools and ornaments. and at Fort Selkirk in 1848. In the north, other company employees built Peel's River Post When the Russians discovered and (Fort McPherson), N.W.T., in 1840, La Pierre claimed Alaska in 1741 the Hudson's Bay Com House on the Bell River in Yukon Territory about pany was already exploring westward through 1842, and in 1847, Fort Yukon at the mouth of Rupert's Land from eastern Canada. Both the the Porcupine River, over 100 miles inside Rus Russians and the H B C were interested almos! sian territory. exclus1vely in the fur trade. Eventually a bound ary had to be established between them, so Ostensibly, these activities had little to do negotiations between the Russians and the Brit with mining but in fact, they established access ish started in 1824. routes, basic geographical information and supply depots for the prospectors who would 1870. so the Yukon remained in HBC control follow. until that date. EARLY GOLD DISCOVERIES PROSPECTING PARTIES REACH THE YUKON It was HBC explorer Robert Campbell who first reported gold in the Yukon at Fort Selkirk about 1850. (The original fort was on the south By 1872 the Cariboo gold rush had cooled bank of the Pelly across the Yukon River from its and prospecting parties struck out in search of present site). Campbell saw gold on a gravel bar new pay gravels. Two of these parties chanced in front of the fort but was apparently not im to meet on the Liard at Nelson Forks and de pressed. (This may have been the same bar that cided to join forces. Robert Henderson rocked three ounces of.fine gold from in 1894). Three members were to become famous in the history of the Yukon: Arthur Harper, Leroy Between 1848 and 1858 there had been McQuesten and Albert Mayo. Prospecting the three major gold rushes in the world-in Califor Liard proved too slow and laborious, so they nia Australia and the Cariboo - therefore there decided to drift down the Mackenzie and enter we;e many experienced prospectors searching the Yukon via Rat Pass and the Porcupine. for new placer deposits. (They were probably unaware that prospectors had preceded them up the Liard and found In 1861 gold was discovered on bars in the paying bars above the mouth of the Smith River Stikine River; this area was adjacent to the in British Columbia). Harper reported that they Yukon and foreshadowed penetration of the found colours on the Liard, nothing on the Mack Territory by miners. The Russians, although enzie, "fair prospects" on the Peel, some col they had never shown any interest in mining, ours on the Porcupine, and finally, "colours sent the corvette Rhynda to ensure that the min everywhere" on the Yukon. ing was not being carried out in their territory, as the Crimean War five years earlier had not Immediately upon arriving at the Yukon Riv helped Russo-British relations. er in 1873, Harper undertook an expedition up the White River to investigate the reported The following year at Fort Yukon, Reverend source of native copper, a sample of which had McDonald reported gold which he could have been shown to him by an Indian at Fort Yukon. gathered with a spoon on a small river not far This trip was unsuccessful. At the same time the from Fort Yukon. This was undoubtedly "The Liard prospectors, who had wintered with the bar Preacher's Creek", a fork of Birch Creek in the miners on the Stikine, discovered rich creeks at Circle gold fields. not rediscovered until 1893. Dease Lake. By 1874 there were 1,500 miners in the area and predictably, many of these formed Frederick Whymper, in an account of his parties to prospect the surrounding regions. explorations in 1866 and 1867 on behalf of the ill-fated Collins Overland Telegraph line to Siber One such expedition ascended the upper ia, noted that "tiny specks of gold had been Liard into Yukon Territory. At Sayyea Creek they found by HBC men in the Yukon". He did not discovered coarse gold in 1874-the first in the elaborate. Territory. The deposit was not rich compared to Dease Lake: four men worked for 115 days to Events in 1867 were to have far-reaching recover 77 ounces including some one-ounce effects on the Yukon. To the horror of its popu nuggets. The remote and inhospitable nature of lace, the. United States purchased Alaska from the region caused much hardship for the twelve Russia, which heaved a sigh of relief. Mean man party and after four of its members died of while, a confederation was formed uniting all scurvy (on Scurvy Creek) the diggings were British lands in North America. The new Cana abandoned. dian Parliament opened negotiations the follow ing year to buy Rupert's Land (i.e. the bulk of Similar parties prospected on the Frances, the present Canadian territory) from the HBC. A Yusesyu and Hyland Rivers but found no econo settlement, however, was not reached until mically viable deposits. One exception was the mouth of the Finlayson River on Frances Lake where a miner recovered about $8 or $9 per day the one on which "Black Mike's" tourist gold -probably about wages if the high cost of sup panning operation is situated. plies was considered. In any event, this miner stayed a very short time on this deposit in 1876. The following year, in spite of the gold strike at Juneau, twenty miners left that settlement and FORT RELIANCE climbed the Chilkoot. They prospected the Pelly River thoroughly at least as far as Hoole Canyon but results were less than spectacular.

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