Yukon who is who

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William Preston Grainger (~1862-1907)
	
William Grainger was born in Kentucky. He prospected in the Wheaton River district in 1895.((Dick McKenna, “They Moiled for Copper.” //TheYukoner Magazine,// Issue No 24: 39-60.)) In the summer of 1897, Grainger was mining claim No 16a, a fraction on Gold Bottom Creek.((“Report for the Timber and Mines Branch, statement of receipts by Dominion Land Agents at Dawson, 16 June 1897 to 14 July 1897. Official Report of Debates, House of Commons, Volume 46, Canada House of Commons, 1898: 466.))
	
In 1898, he and John McIntyre poled their way up the Yukon River and looked for the copper reported by early stampeders hunting in the vicinity of Whitehorse in 1897. On 14 July, McIntyre spotted an outcrop and staked the Copper King mine while Grainger staked the Copper Queen just to the north.  The Copper King site was a more promising site and Grainger bought a half interest for $1,000. The men went to Vancouver for the winter, the first time they had been out for some years. They returned in the spring of 1898 with a supply of dynamite and hard rock mining equipment to sink a shaft with handsteels.((Dick McKenna, “They Moiled for Copper.” //TheYukoner Magazine,// Issue No 24: 39-60.)) Handsteeling is a method of hardrock mining. Holes are drilled using three-quarter inch drill steel that comes in lengths of two to five feet. One end is hand forged to a chisel-shaped cutting edge. One man held the steel while the other swung an eight-pound hammer to strike the blunt end. Two good miners could drill a ten to fifteen-foot hole through hard rock in an eight-hour day.((R.C. Coutts, “Grab Samples.” //The Yukoner Magazine,// Issue No. 13, November 1999: 40.)) 
 	
By July 1900, Grainger and McIntyre had nine tons of high-grade bornite ready to ship. It was forty-six percent copper, contained gold and silver, and netted them $776 after costs. Over 1,000 claims were staked in the Whitehorse Copper Belt by the fall of 1900. The Copper King and nearby Carlyle provided the highest grade of ore shipped from the district. The Copper King averaged fifteen percent copper and the Carlyle twenty-three percent.((Dick McKenna, “They Moiled for Copper.” //TheYukoner Magazine,// Issue No 24: 39-60.))
	
In 1906, there was a stampede to stake claims in the Wheaton River area and a railroad boxcar of miner's supplies was parked at the Robinson siding. In the few months after the strike hundreds of claims were staked. The Whitehorse //Weekly Star// reported in July 1906 that W. C. Grainger and H. W Vance had applied for a townsite at Robinson.((Colin Beairsto, "Today and Tomorrow Country: Wheaton Mining History." Prepared for Heritage Resources Unit, Yukon Government. March 2005: 8.))
	 
In 1907, the Copper King mine had not been worked for some time, but copper prices took an upswing. In May, a crew was readying the mine for inspection by a potential investor.((//Weekly Star// (Whitehorse), 10 May 1907; Helene Dobrowolsky and Rob Ingram, "A History of the Whitehorse Copper Belt." DIAND Open File 1993-1 (1):11, 13.)) Grainger and G. Joyce went down a shaft and when they did not return a search was made for them by the other men working on the claim. They were found dead at the bottom of the shaft, having been asphyxiated. An investigation by coroner Surg Pare found no one to blame.((Royal North-West Mounted Police Annual Report. Sessional Paper No. 28. 1908: 19.)) 

The Whitehorse newspaper reported that Grainger had believed in the future of the mine and worked his claim for nine years whenever his means would permit. The misspelt Mount Granger and the Granger subdivision are named for him.((//Weekly Star// (Whitehorse), 10 May 1907; Helene Dobrowolsky and Rob Ingram, "A History of the Whitehorse Copper Belt." DIAND Open File 1993-1 (1):11, 13.))