Mascot A 1901 stage from Dawson brought the first news of a gold strike on a creek on the west bank of the Yukon River below Selwin and about seven miles on the Whitehorse side of Island Point Roadhouse. A Frenchman named Mascot prospected it in the fall of 1900. He had the ore assayed and then staked and recorded the claim at Fort Selkirk in 1901. The word leaked out and Mascot was surprised to find the entire Mascot Creek staked when he returned to his claim. The overnight stampede brought people from Selwin and Renton Roadhouse and points along the trail. A Canadian Development Corporation (CDC) driver was one of the first to stake and he got a claim above Mascot’s at midnight. By daylight the next day, twenty-nine claims were staked and there was a thriving mining camp of two dozen tents along the gulch. Mascot thought the gold was rich at $18 to the ounce.((Originally in the //White Horse Star// (Whitehorse), 27 February 1901 and reprinted in the //Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 20 June 2012.))