George Carmack
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George Washington Carmack (September 24, 1860 – June 5, 1922)[1] was a Contra Costa County, California-born prospector in the Yukon. He was originally credited with the discovery of gold that set off the Klondike Gold Rush on August 16, 1896. Today, historians usually give the credit to his brother-in-law, Skookum Jim Mason.
After coming to the Yukon in the 1880s, he met and married a Tagish First Nation woman who went by the name Kate. Carmack was not popular with other miners who nicknamed him "Squaw Man" for his association with native people and "Lyin' George" for his exaggerated claims. Nevertheless, he did find a coal deposit near what is today the village of Carmacks, Yukon which was named after him. Since 1885, Mr. Carmack had been trading, fishing and trapping in the North such as the Yukon territory.[2]
In August 1896, he and Kate were fishing at the mouth of the Klondike River when Skookum Jim, his nephew Dawson Charlie and another nephew found them. Prospector Robert Henderson who had been mining gold on the Indian River, just south of the Klondike, suggested that he should try out Rabbit Creek, now Bonanza Creek, where the gold discovery was made.
He abandoned Kate in 1900 when he moved back to California with their daughter.
[edit] References
- ^ George Washington Carmack (1860 - 1922). Find-A-Grave. Retrieved on August 31, 2006.
- ^ Early days in the Klondike, Business. The Globe & Mail, June 10, 1922.
