Archives West Finding Aid

After deserting the United States Marine Corps in 1882, George Washington Carmack (1860-1922) settled in the Yukon Territories among the Tagish Indians with his common-law wife Kate and their daughter Graphie. Kate's brother Skookum Jim Mason, a Tagish Indian, and Tagish Charlie, Jim's nephew, were George's mining partners and also made their fortunes mining for gold.

George Carmack and several friends, including Skookum Jim, went up the Klondike River to Rabbit Creek looking for gold in 1896. Carmack was officially credited for the discovery of gold on Rabbit (later Bonanza) Creek on August 17, 1896 although it is commonly believed that his friend Skookum Jim made the actual discovery. The claim was staked in Carmack's name possibly because they felt that a claim by an Indian might not be recognized. The news of the gold strike spread and started the Klondike Gold Rush.

George and his family later moved to Hollister, California, to live with his sister, Rose Watson (later Rose Curtis). Eventually, George left California and his wife and daughter. In 1900, George married Marguerite Laimee in Olympia, Washington. Kate, illiterate and nearly destitute, initiated a protracted legal battle to prove she was George's wife and eligible for alimony, but eventually dropped the case in favor of trying to reclaim her husband. When this failed, Kate settled in Carcross, Alaska, where she lived until her death in 1920.