James A. Ritchie

Captain James A. Ritchie was born in Britain. He was an experienced ship master and pilot on the Mississippi River before he was hired by Francis Rattenbury in 1898 for the Bennett Lake and Klondyke Navigation Co. fleet of small river sternwheelers.((John L. Motherwell, //Gold Rush Steamboats: Francis Rattenbury's Yukon Adventure.// John Motherwell, 2012: 23.)) 

After the sternwheeler //Prospector// was built in Whitehorse in 1901 by a prominent Victoria boat builder, Capt. James A. Ritchie was given command. The //Prospector// pioneered service on the Stewart River and made the first attempts to navigate the Pelly and Macmillan rivers. William E. Meed [Yukon Dock Company] took photographs along these routes, and downstream on the Yukon River to Eagle, Alaska, a route later served by the //Prospector.// Meed complied a collection of over 200 photographs of the region and it is held at the University of Washington Libraries.((“William E. Meed Photographs.” University of Washington Libraries. 2019 website: https://content.lib.washington.edu/meedweb/index.html))

A Mr. Ritchie [unrelated?] was the manager of the Five Finger Coal Co. He located and recorded a number of claims on the left limit a few miles south of Five Fingers. Coal was also being mined at Five Fingers on a small scale.((Helene Dobrowolsky, "Carmacks & Area Historical Research Project." Notes on Mining.)) Ritchie's Island is located on the Yukpon River, about 20 miles below Fort Selkirk.((John L. Motherwell, //Gold Rush Steamboats: Francis Rattenbury's Yukon Adventure.// John Motherwell, 2012: 23.))