Yukon who is who

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.
Samuel Skiffington Mitchell (1864 - 1954)
	
Skiff Mitchell was born in St. Stephens, New Brunswick to parents Elizabeth Ann Carson and Samuel Skiffington Mitchell.((Yukon Archives, George Snow 80/89 reel #47.)) 
Mitchell came north to the Yukon River drainage in 1886. In 1887, he was mining on the Fortymile River with Mickey O’Brien. They used a water wheel for sluicing on their Franklin Gulch claim. High water took out their operation and they lost their season’s work.((Herbert L. Heller, ed., //Sourdough Sagas.// The World Publishing Company, 1967: 95.)) In December 1894, S.S. Mitchell was in Forty Mile to sign the founding charter of the Yukon Order of Pioneers.((Yukon Archives, D. E. Griffith, “Forty-Milers on Parade.” Coutts coll. 78/69 MSS 087 f.5.))
	
In 1896, Claim No. 1 on Eldorado Creek was staked by Jay Whipple and purchased in 1897 by Skiff Mitchell, Lloyd Wilson, Newman, and Edward Mizner. In the summer of 1898, Skiff had a large number of men engaged on No.1 ground sluicing and shoveling into a long string of sluice boxes.(("A Most Successful Lady Miner." //Dawson Daily News// (Dawson), Midsummer edition, 1899.)) In 1897, Claim No 18 on Eldorado Creek was owned by Skiff Mitchell, John Lind, Louis Sloss, and Densmore Wilson & Co. Sixteen men worked the claim and recovered $300,000.((Information from the 1902 //The Dawson News, Golden Clean Up Edition// in “Yukon History.” Canadian Gold prospecting Forum, 2019 website: http://gpex.ca/smf/index.php?topic=17421.20)) In 1898, Mitchel was supervising a ground sluicing operation on Eldorado No.1, and sluicing operations were extensive on Claim No. 13 Above the Lower Dominion discovery claim. The spring cleanup for the winter's work yielded $58,000.(("A Most Successful Lady Miner." //Dawson Daily News// (Dawson), Midsummer edition, 1899.))

In 1902, the partners on Eldorado Creek carried on work on a larger scale than before. Twenty-five men were employed through the season. The surface was scraped away with steam scrapers and the gravel lifted and dumped directly into the sluices. Mitchell took four to five feet of bedrock up, and the ground was thoroughly worked over for a distance of 400 feet and a width of sixty feet. A 15-horsepower boiler was used for furnishing power to the hoists and pumps.((Information from the 1902 //The Dawson News, Golden Clean Up Edition// in “Yukon History.” Canadian Gold prospecting Forum, 2019 website: http://gpex.ca/smf/index.php?topic=17421.20.)) 
	
Skiff Mitchell and Wilhelmina Lind were married in London, Ontario in 1900 and they lived in the Klondike after a lengthy honeymoon. They moved to Eureka, California in 1904. Mitchell’s stepson, Gus Karpes, helped deliver the Mitchell collection of papers and photographs to the Yukon Archives between 1978 and 1988.((Yukon Archives, Collection yuk-603 – Skiff Mitchell collection, 2019 website: https://albertaonrecord.ca/skiff-mitchell-collection.))