Christian Bartsch (1869 - 1959)
	
Chris Bartsch was born in Chur, Switzerland.((Michel Gates, “A honeymoon in the Klondike, Part 1.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 30 August 2013.)) He was the son of a cattle dealer and one of his jobs was to drive cattle through the valleys of the Alps into Italy.((Grant MacEwan, //Blazing the Old Cattle Trail.// Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 2000: 189-194.)) He immigrated to Wisconsin in 1888.((Michel Gates, “A honeymoon in the Klondike, Part 1.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 30 August 2013.)) He heard about the Klondike strike and thought to make his fortune so he could marry Grace Graham, a schoolteacher in Hood River, Oregon. He took the steamer //George K. Elder// north from Portland, Oregon on 15 August 1897. In Skagway, he worked for Herman Myers of the Fyre Bruhn Meat Packing Company out of Seattle.((Michel Gates, “A honeymoon in the Klondike, Part 1.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 30 August 2013.)) \\
	
In October 1897, Henry Waechter and Sons arrived in Skagway with a hundred head of cattle. Their plan was to hold fifty head at Skagway and drive the rest to Dawson as fast as possible. Chris was hired to help take the advance herd over the winter trail. There were nine helpers and twenty-five saddle and pack horses. It took eight days to cover the forty miles over the White Pass to Lake Lindeman. Feed was carried for the horses, but the cattle had to graze where they could. They arrived at Lake Bennett to find the lake already frozen. They slaughtered the beef and waited for sleighs and more horses to be brought in from Seattle. The sleighs didn’t arrive until March when the weather was already warming, and the ice was unsafe. They salted the meat and built a scow which they used to reach Dawson.((Grant MacEwan, //Blazing the Old Cattle Trail.// Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 2000: 189-194.)) They built a slaughtering pen and a butcher shop to sell the rest of the Waechter herd that arrived in the spring.((Michel Gates, “A honeymoon in the Klondike, Part 1.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 30 August 2013.)) 
	
After that, Bartsch set up a butcher shop in Grand Forks, on Bonanza Creek, and a slaughtering pen on Gold Hill. He travelled to Seattle for more supplies and returned with butter to sell in Dawson. He travelled from Lake Laberge with Charley Dumbolton, who had a large raft of cattle and two rafts with his outfit and feed. They ran butcher shops in Grand Forks and Dawson.((Michel Gates, “A honeymoon in the Klondike, Part 1.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 30 August 2013.)) Bartsch and a partner established the Portland Market in Dawson. In September 1898, the business was advertising the sale of poultry, game and high-grade meats.((//Klondike Nugget// (Dawson), 24 September 1898; //Klondike Nugget// (Dawson), 17 September 1898.)) W. Rudio purchased Bartsch’s interest in the firm of Bartsch & Foley of the Portland Market in October 1898.((//Klondike Nugget// (Dawson), 1 October 1898.))  He was able to book passage on the last boat out of Dawson and returned to Hood River, Oregon.((Michel Gates, “A honeymoon in the Klondike, Part 1.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 30 August 2013.))
	
Bartsch was in Seattle in late 1899 arranging to bring sheep and cattle north.((Grant MacEwan, //Blazing the Old Cattle Trail.// Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 2000: 189-194.)) He established a partnership with the Carsten Brothers of Seattle.((Michel Gates, “A honeymoon in the Klondike, Part 1.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 30 August 2013.)) Chris and Grace were married before they left, and they spent their honeymoon en route. They left Seattle on 3 April 1900 with 500 sheep and fifty cattle on the //City of Seattle.// Bartsch added a female lead goat at Seattle and loaded the stock and his horses onto thirteen White Pass & Yukon Route freight cars. They arrived at Bennett at two in the morning and started as quickly as possible over the ice north. Four men drove the sheep, two drove the cattle and there was a four-horse team loaded with feed and a two-horse team and sleigh for Mrs. Bartsch. By Marsh Lake, Grace Bartsch was usually walking with her husband behind the sheep. They built a raft at the lower end of the lake and started the cattle and sheep overland. The Bartschs accepted a ride with three strangers on their way to Nome. It took ten tramway trips to take the freight around Miles Canyon and they constructed another scow at the bottom. Lake Laberge was a bad experience as the ice was soft and they had to get off partway along. The cattle made good time, but the horses and sleighs had trouble. The water was low in the Thirtymile River and so they drove the stock to Hootalinqua, and the livestock was put on five rafts each about 60’ x 30’.  Two double-deckers carried the sheep, two for the cattle and one for horses and equipment. They unloaded and drove around Five Finger, ran Rink Rapids, and reached Dawson on 24 May.((Grant MacEwan, //Blazing the Old Cattle Trail.// Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 2000: 189-194.)) \\
	
The Bartschs left for the south on 12 June and made two more trips to the Klondike.((Michel Gates, “A honeymoon in the Klondike, Part 2.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 6 September 2013.)) They left the Klondike for the last time in 1903 to live in Alberta.((Grant MacEwan, //Blazing the Old Cattle Trail.// Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 2000: 189-194.)) Chris worked for the Pacific Cold Storage Company as a buyer and manager, and they operated several ranches and business in the province. Chris and Grace retired to Calgary in 1937 where they lived until they both died in 1959.((Michel Gates, “A honeymoon in the Klondike, Part 2.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 6 September 2013.))