George W. Carmack papers, 1869-1994

George Washington Carmack (1860-1922) was a miner whose discovery claim at Bonanza Creek on August 17, 1896, started the Klondike Gold Rush.

After deserting the United States Marine Corps in 1882, George Carmack lived among the Tagish Indians in the Yukon Valley along with his common law wife, Kate Carmack, and their daughter, Graphie. Kate's brother, Skookum Jim, and Jim's nephew, Tagish Charlie, also made their fortunes mining for gold as partners of Carmack.

George and Kate later moved to a ranch near Hollister, California, and lived with George's sister, Rose Watson (later Rose Curtis). George eventually left California, parting ways with Kate as well as his former partners. He left Kate and Graphie with Rose, and in 1900 George married Marguerite Laimee in Olympia, Washington. Kate, illiterate and nearly destitute, began a difficult legal battle to prove she was George's wife and entitled to alimony. She eventually dropped the case in hopes of winning back her husband. When this attempt failed, she settled in Carcross, Alaska, where she died in 1920. After Carmack's death in 1922, Graphie, now married to Marguerite's brother, and Rose challenged Marguerite's appointment as administratrix of Carmack's estate. The case was settled out of court.

In 1990, James A. Johnson published Carmack of the Klondike. The book was republished in 2001 as George Carmack: The Man of Mystery Who Set Off the Klondike Gold Rush.