Robert “Bob” Matheson
	
Bob Matheson and Bill Stewart, from near Goderich mined at Franklin Bar on the Fortymile River.((Yukon Archives, John Grieve Lind, MSS 166 81/58)) Mrs. Matheson arrived at Forty Mile in 1893. Mrs. John J. Healy and her servant girl Bridget Mannion arrived in the same year. Mrs. Bill Callahan, another 1893 arrival, gave birth to a baby boy on Davis Creek in that year. ((Yukon Archives, W. D. Johns, Robert Coutts fonds, 78/69 MSS 092 f.20.)) 

Matheson prospected on Chicken Creek, Alaska for several years, but the diggings attracted little attention until the spring of 1896, when almost all the men from Franklin Gulch staked claims there and prepared to spend the winter prospecting.((J.E. Spurr, "Geology of the Yukon Gold District, Alaska." //18th Annual Report, US Geological Survey,// Washington: Government Printing Office, 1897b: 332.)) Matheson discovered gold on Chicken Creek in 1896, just below the mouth of Stonehouse Creek. It was considered the best bet in the country, having both summer and winter workings. The area was practically abandoned in 1897 for the Klondike. In 1898 there were 175 miners there and by 1900 many small placer mines were along the creek. A post office was established in 1903 and by 1906 there were about 400 people living there. The Taylor Highway came through in 1949.((Warren Yeend, "Gold Placers of the Historical Fortymile River Region, Alaska." //U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 2125,// US Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 1996: 34.))