Charles John Anderson (1859 - 1939)

Charlie Anderson was born on a farm in East Gotland, close to Norkoping, in Sweden. He came into the north well before the Klondike gold rush with five travelling companions: Norwegian Louis Langlow from Stranda, Hutcheson from a fine family background in London, Sather from the east part of Norway, Heitmann from the north part of Norway, and Konrad Dahl from Trondheim, Norway. They arrived at Forty Mile and found their way to Glacier Creek where they all found work at good pay. Langlo, Hutcheson, Anderson and a Greek miner saved enough to buy into a mine.((J. B. Langlo, “The Langlow Family in Alaska and the Yukon: Pioneer Lars J. Langlo.” //ExploreNorth,// 2020 website: http://www.explorenorth.com/library/history/bl-langlow2.htm.))\\

When gold was discovered on Bonanza Creek, the miners in the country rushed to stake claims. Wilfred Olar, Al Parks, and Al Fair [or Thayer] jointly owned No. 29 on Eldorado Creek and convinced Anderson to buy the claim. [Author Pierre Burton says he was drunk at the time.] Anderson had $7000 at Glacier Creek but the partners wanted money immediately so Anderson borrowed $800 from Mr. Wilson, the manager of the Alaska Commercial store at Forty Mile. He repaid the loan after a trip to Glacier Creek and reached his Eldorado claim on Christmas Day. He found unbelievable riches in the first hole sunk on No. 29 and he seldom left the claim. He superintended the workings and paid the highest wages in the camp.((Andrew Baird, //Sixty Years on the Klondike.// Vancouver: Gordon Black Publications, 1965: 103-105.))\\

Anderson later purchased a three-eighths interest in Claim 32 on Eldorado. Both claims were very rich in gold. In November 1899 he was working a crew of twenty-six men in two shifts on Claim No. 29. He pumped the creek up twenty-three feet and passed it repeatedly through the sluice boxes. The highest wage at the time was a dollar an hour, and some men were paid as low as sixty cents. Charlie paid his men a dollar fifty an hour. He was a very successful miner. Anderson went outside in the fall of 1898, the first time since he arrived in the north.((//The Klondike Nugget// (Dawson), 1 November 1899; “Some Whose Riches Were Not Made In The Mines.” AlaskaWeb.org, 2020 website: http://alaskaweb.org/mining/nonminers.html.)) He took out $300,000 for two years work on Claim No. 29. He gave a lay to a man who befriended him before he came to the Klondike. The friend expected to clean up $130,000.((Tappan Adney, //The Klondike Stampede.// Vancouver: UBC Press, 1994: 411-12.)) Anderson was not bothered about giving away money at the time. In later years, Anderson told his neighbours that he made $900,00 in Klondike gold.((Gary Grieco, “Charlie ’The Lucky Swede’ Anderson: The Truth at Last.” //Swedish Press,// 2009.  Island Bound Traveller, 2020 website: http://www.island-bound.com/Charlie--The-Lucky-Swede--Anderson.html.))\\     

There is a story that Anderson wanted to marry a showgirl and competition was stiff to win the forty-year-old, balding, shy, very rich, Swede. The contender supposedly put him up as stakes in a poker game and the winner was actress Grace Chambers. Grace was a star at the Monte Carlo music hall and was living with the gambler Edgar Mizner. Grace was beautiful, sophisticated, and without morals. She left Mizner and married Anderson after he deposited $50,000 into her bank account. They travelled to Europe and Mexico, he gave her gold and diamonds, and they lived in a big house with servants in San Francisco. Anderson went back to his mine in the north and when he returned his marriage was over.((Lael Morgan, //Good Time Girls.// Fairbanks: Epicenter Press, 1998: 58-59.)) Andrew Baird says the stories of him as a wasted drunkard were not true.(Andrew Baird, //Sixty Years on the Klondike,// Vancouver: Gordon Black Publications, 1965: 103-105.))\\

The San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906 wiped out Charlie’s fortune. It is unknown where he lived between 1907 and 1924 when he was in Van Anda on Texada Island. Island history says he worked for a few years in the Howe Sound area, mining in the Brittania Mines and at Sapperton, before returning to the island to work at the Billy Slater Mine. There is a story that Anderson and Percy Kirby spent many summers between 1925 and 1930 camping in mid-island on Texada looking for a lost gold mine. Anderson lived in a modest home and was well-liked by his neighbours. His sister, Annie Letenoba, travelled from San Jose, California to live with him for the last few years of his life. Anderson is buried in Van Anda’s Woodland Cemetery and his camera and binoculars are in the Texada Heritage Museum. His death certificate named his wife as Swedish-born Marie Bjornland.((Gary Grieco, “Charlie ’The Lucky Swede’ Anderson: The Truth at Last.” //Swedish Press,// 2009.  Island Bound Traveller, 2020 website: http://www.island-bound.com/Charlie--The-Lucky-Swede--Anderson.html.))