Yukon who is who

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John Matson (1863 - 1946)
	
John Matson was a Swedish prospector and miner. He was prospecting in the Yukon River drainage in 1885. During that summer he joined Mike Hess, [Howard] Franklin, and [Thomas] Boswell to use a rocker on a gravel bar about 125 miles above the mouth of the Pelly River. They each recovered $500 in gold and then moved to Fort Reliance in the fall. They were supplied with provisions from St. Michael [brought in by McQuesten at Fort Reliance] and planned hunt and trap for the winter and then 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.))

Matson attended many of Kate Rockwell’s artistic performances in Dawson. When 70-year-old Matson heard that 53-year-old Kate was experiencing hard times, he wrote to propose to her. She accepted and they were married by Rev. George Pringle in Vancouver in 1933. Bert Parks, secretary of the Yukon Sourdough Association, was Matson’s best man. Many of Matson’s friends thought that Kate took advantage of him. She never moved to the Klondike to settle, nor did John spend his declining years outside with his wife.((Ellis Lucia, //Klondike Kate.// New York: Hastings House Publishers, 1962: 237-263.))
	
Matson was a trapper as well as a miner and he may have operated his trapline without the aid of a dog team. In April 1941, //The Whitehorse Star// reported that John Matson pulled his sleigh 100 miles from Matson Creek to Dawson to sell his fur catch.((Flo Whyard, “1941: Ft. Norman-to-Mayo road urged.” //The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse) 28 April 1997.))
	
In November 1946, Joe Sestak found John Matson’s body in his cabin on Matson Creek.((//Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 1 November 1946.))