Yukon who is who

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Howard Franklin
	
Howard Franklin, Thomas Boswell, Joseph Ladue, and Frank Densmore were in Juneau and excited by the gold that prospectors brought out of the Yukon River drainage in 1881. They were among a dozen prospectors who arrived at Jack McQuesten’s post at Fort Reliance in September 1882. They wintered at Fort Reliance and prospected on the Sixtymile and Fortymile rivers the next year. They were not able to winter again at Fort Reliance as McQuesten’s steamer carrying supplies had broken down before reaching the post.((Alfred Hulse Brooks, //Blazing Alaska’s Trails.// Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 1973: 325-26.)) Arthur Harper found some good paying ground on the Fortymile River in 1881 but was never able to relocate it.((Warren Yend, //Gold Placers of the Historical Fortymile River Region, Alaska.// U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 2125, 1996: 6-8.))
	
In 1883, George Pilz, an assayer from Sitka, travelled in with some Chilkats and four prospectors including H. Franklin and Mattison [Henry Madison]. Pilz took a look up the Klondike River while the others prospected the Fortymile River. Pilz and George Harkrader left the country and Franklin and Mattison stayed at Forty Mile with what supplies could be spared and some from Fort Reliance.((George E. Pilz, "Reminiscences: Pioneer Days in Alaska." Copied from the original manuscript, property of Mr. Charles E. Brunnel, College Alaska, 1935.)) 

In 1885, Franklin joined Mike Hess, [John] Matson, and [Thomas] Boswell to work a Yukon River gravel bar about 125 miles above the mouth of the Pelly River. They each took out $500 for their summer’s work. They moved to Fort Reliance in the fall and planned to prospect on the White River the next summer. Hess described the route into the country in the first issue of Sitka’s //The Alaskan// newspaper.((//The Alaskan// (Sitka), 28 November 1885.))
	
In 1886, Franklin and Madison prospected the Stewart River to the falls and up the McQuesten River as far as they could take a boat.((Snow Papers in Linda E.T. MacDonald and Lynette R. Bleiler, //Gold & Galena.// Mayo Historical Society, 1990: 25.)) Franklin, Madison, and Boswell, all from Juneau, were working a river bar together.((//The Alaskan// (Sitka), 19 February 1887.)) Franklin did not think that gold could be found on a river with that type of vegetation. They left the Stewart for the Fortymile River, and the Day brothers made over $30 a day on a Stewart River bar rejected by them.((Snow Papers in Linda E.T. MacDonald and Lynette R. Bleiler, //Gold & Galena.// Mayo Historical Society, 1990: 25.)) 

In September 1886, Franklin and five other prospectors panned all the gravel bars they encountered on the Fortymile, finding low values at each one. Franklin discovered coarse gold in an area of exposed bedrock on 7 September. The place was about 500 feet inside [outside] the American boundary line. The gold weighed about half an ounce and was the first coarse gold found in the Yukon basin. Franklin staked a claim about twenty-five miles up from the mouth of the Fortymile at a place that became known as Franklin Bar. Henry “Tuck” Lambert and Madden located another claim about ten miles above Franklin Bar. In 1887, Frank Buteau staked a claim at Bonanza Bar, midway between Franklin and Madden bars and he took out more gold than any other miner in the 1887 season. Franklin’s find was the first continuous paystreak found on any creek along the Yukon River.((Warren Yend, //Gold Placers of the Historical Fortymile River Region, Alaska.// U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 2125, 1996: 6-8.)) 
Franklin mined with two partners, Bill Stewart and George McCue. They registered a 1500-foot claim for the three of them and a discovery.((Herbert Heller, //Sourdough Sagas.// New York: Ballantine Books, 1967: 95.)) Soon after the first discovery, Franklin made an additional discovery of coarse gold on the South Fok of the Fortymile River. Franklin Creek, as it became known, was about forty-eight miles southwest of Eagle, Alaska.((“Howard Franklin.” Alaska Mining Hall of Fame Foundation. 2024 website: Howard Franklin (alaskamininghalloffame.org) ))