Joseph H. Brooks (~1867 – 1934)
	
Joe Brooks was living in Vancouver before the Klondike Gold Rush. He arrived in Skagway with seventeen mules in July 1897. He was a successful freighter, transporting goods for the Klondike stampeders.((2012 website: http://www.klondike-gold.com/canadianheroesandscoundrels.htm)) The J.H. Brooks, Packer and Freight company headquarters was in the St. James Hotel. He was famous for taking fifteen mules over the Chilkoot Pass.((Skagway Sleuth, “Joseph H. Brooks.” //Skagway Stories,// 13 July 2010. 2020 website: http://www.skagwaystories.org/author/skagwayinfo/page/60/.)) His team grew to 335 animals and he made as much as $5,000 a day. He carried gold nuggets in his pockets and used them to buy drinks for everyone in the bars. Brooks commonly rode his horse at a fast speed down Skagway’s muddy streets, holding his two sons, one under each arm.((2012 website: http://www.klondike-gold.com/canadianheroesandscoundrels.htm))
	
William Donnenworth was one of Joe Brook’s drivers. Donnenworth quit his job at a sawmill at False Creek, British Columbia in the fall of 1897. He sailed north on the //Amur.//  He arrived at Skagway in six days, and two hours later was working for Brooks. Donnenworth was in charge of a twenty-horse pack train taking freight to the summit of the White Pass. Each horse carried 150 pounds divided into two packs, and freight was one dollar a pound. The snow was twenty feet deep at the summit and the trail was like a tunnel.((Charles W. Clemons, "Drove Yukon stage during Gold Rush." //Province// (Vancouver), 17 June 1944.))
	
Joe Brooks returned to Skagway in 1934 to gather information for a book, and died in July on the Chilkoot Pass Trail. He is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery.((Skagway Sleuth, “Joseph H. Brooks.” //Skagway Stories,// 13 July 2010. 2020 website: http://www.skagwaystories.org/author/skagwayinfo/page/60/.))