Archives West Finding Aid

After gold was discovered by George Washington Carmack and his family on August 17, 1896, in Alaska near the Tanana River in the Klondike, prospectors from all over the nation stampeded the territory in the hopes of finding fortune. Between 1897 and 1898, more than 140,000 individuals traveled to Alaska to mine its gold fields. The Galesburg-Alaska Mining and Developing Company were of that number, their efforts were well documented by their resident photographer, Jasper "Jap" Wyman. Wyman left record of nearly 400 photographs. While Wyman was the photographer of the group, the skills of the 25 men and one woman varied widely from geologist to banker and blacksmith to butcher.

To avoid paying steep supply prices in Alaska, the group assembled one of the most complete outfits to head north at that time including such items as 20,000 pounds of flour, 7,500 of bacon, 4,500 of dried fruits, and 1,000 of butter in cans. They booked passage on the large sailing ship G.W. Watson and for transportation they strapped a 41-foot stram launch called the Silver Ware to the ship's deck, lumber to build a steam boat, and a flat-bottomed barge. During the weeks it took to assemble their outfit, the Galesburg-Alaska group stayed in and explored Seattle.

The Klondike was where most prospecting took place and Dawson City was the hub of activity. To avoid crowds, the Galesburg company decided to follow the Yukon up to the confluence of the Koyukuk River, near Arctic City. After weeks of traveling and scouting territory, the group moved into camp near Help-Me-Jack Creek on October 8, 1898. The camp was later referred to by the company as West Beaver due to its proximity to Beaver City. To help themselves survive the winter, they built small, rusitc log cabins. The cabins were 16-by-16 foot and comprised of spruce logs with a wood stove that could keep four or five men warm. The walls and flat roofs were covered with moss and dirt, the floors were made of logs, and the windows were covered in paper or cloth as glass was not avaialble. They worked through the Arctic winter, temperatures reaching as low as 65 degrees below zero. Mining was difficult as most gold was deep in frozen soil, near bedrock. Encountering no luck in such harsh conditions, the group decided to wait for the weather to improve and the ice to thaw. Struggling through winter together created a community of sorts and to while away the evenings, the men would play "bean poker," a form a poker created by the group as they had beans and chores such as copping firewood and laundry to trade on hand but no ready money. By May 1899, the temperature was in the mid-50s and the ice was beginning to melt. The group was occassionally rewarded for their wait with surface gold, but nothing more. The group spent 13 months looking for gold but ultimately headed home after their inability to find substantial amounts of gold. Those that returned home to Illinois booked their passage through Seattle.