Discovery Claim is a

mining claim Mineral rights are property rights to exploit an area for the minerals it harbors. Mineral rights can be separate from property ownership (see Split estate). Mineral rights can refer to sedentary minerals that do not move below the Earth's surfa ...

Bonanza Creek Bonanza Creek (Hän: ''Ch'ö`chozhù' ndek'') is a watercourse in Yukon Territory, Canada. It runs for about from King Solomon's Dome to the Klondike River. In the last years of the 19th century and the early 20th century, Bonanza Creek was the c ...

, a

watercourse A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

in the

Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...

, Canada. It is the site where, in the afternoon of August 16, 1896, the first piece of gold was found in the Yukon by

prospectors Prospecting is the first stage of the geological analysis (followed by exploration) of a territory. It is the search for minerals, fossils, precious metals, or mineral specimens. It is also known as fossicking. Traditionally prospecting rel ...

. The site is considered to be the place where the Klondike Gold Rush started. It is located around south-southeast of

Dawson City Dawson City is a town in the Canadian territory of Yukon. It is inseparably linked to the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–1899). Its population was 1,577 as of the 2021 census, making it the second-largest municipality in Yukon. History Prior t ...

. The Discovery claim was designated a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...

on July 13, 1998.

Discovery

On August 16, 1896 George Carmack, an American prospector, his

Tagish The Tagish or Tagish Khwáan ( Tagish: ; ) are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group that lived around Tagish Lake and Marsh Lake, in Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory ...

wife

Kate Kate may refer to: People and fictional characters * Kate (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Gyula Káté (born 1982), Hungarian amateur boxer * Lauren Kate (born 1981), American author o ...

(birthname Shaaw Tláa), her brother Skookum Jim (birthname Keish), and their nephew

Dawson Charlie Dawson Charlie or K̲áa Goox̱ ʰáː kuːχ( – 26 December 1908) was a Canadian Tagish/Tlingit First Nation prospector and one of the co-discoverers of gold at Discovery Claim that led to the Klondike Gold Rush located in the Yukon territ ...

(K̲áa Goox̱), while travelling through the area, stopped to rest on the banks of one of the

Klondike River The Klondike River () is a tributary of the Yukon River in Canada that gave its name to the Klondike Gold Rush and the Klondike region of the Yukon Territory. The Klondike River rises in the Ogilvie Mountains and flows into the Yukon River at ...

's tributaries called Bonanza Creek, then called Rabbit Creek. They were there on the suggestion of another prospector Robert Henderson. One of them noticed a shiny object in the water. It was gold and Carmack took credit for finding it. It is uncertain whether it was George Carmack, Kate Carmack or Skookum Jim who made the discovery, but the group decided that George Carmack be named as the official discoverer out of concern that mining authorities would be reluctant to recognize a claim made by an Indigenous claimant.

Staking

On August 17, 1896, they staked out four claims, the first at Bonanza Creek. Two were for George Carmack. At that time, being the first to discover gold in an area entitled him to stake another, second claim. The other two claims were staked on behalf of Skookum Jim and Dawson Charlie. File:George Carmack - 01.jpg, George Carmack, who claimed the discovery File:Shaaw Tláa.jpg,

Kate Carmack Shaaw Tláa, also known as Kate Carmack ( – 29 March 1920), was a Tagish First Nation woman who was one of the party that first found gold in the Klondike River in 1896, and is sometimes credited with being the person who made the actual ...

, his wife, wearing her famous gold nugget necklace, 1898 File:Skookum Jim Mason.png, Skookum Jim, one of the discoverers, 1898 File:Dawson Charlie aka K̲áa Goox̱ - 01.jpg,

Registration

The following month on September 24 they registered the claims. This took place at the police post in Forty Mile away at the mouth of the Forty Mile River. The initial claim is described legally as Claim 37903, a 152.4 metre (500 ft.) by 609.6 metre (2,000 ft.) area.

Notes

References

Bibliography

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External links

{{coord, 63.9168, N, 139.317, W, type:landmark, display=title Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Sites in Yukon Gold mining in Yukon 1890s in Yukon