Louis B. Rhoads 
	
L. B. Rhoads came north from Colorado and Wyoming, where he had placer and quartz mining since 1882. He located in the Fortymile district in 1895 and moved to the Klondike in 1896.((//The Klondike Nugget// (Dawson), 1 November 1899; “Some Whose Riches Were Not Made In The Mines.” AlaskaWeb.org, 2020 website: http://alaskaweb.org/mining/nonminers.html.))
	
Louis Rhodes [sic] was located on Claim No. 21 Above Discovery on Bonanza. He cleaned up $40,000 but only took $5000 outside with him in 1897. He was the first man to prove the ground in the Klondike by shafting to bedrock about sixteen feet down from the surface.((A.C. Harris, //Alaska and the Klondike Gold Fields,// 1897: 88.)) 

A few weeks after the discovery of gold on Bonanza Creek, Rhodes had thawed to permafrost and uncovered a rich paystreak that paid $61 to the pan. This created excitement in the miners and they rushed to cut wood for thaw fires. Soon the atmosphere was thick with wood fire smoke along the length of Bonanza. Picotte and Hall purchased Zarnowsky's #17 Eldorado and Clarence Berry bought #5 from Frank Keller and Fred Hutchinson leased #7 Eldorado from Louis Enbous. Then Antone Stander uncovered a $100 pan on Eldorado and that was cause for trading and leasing. There was a shortage of labourers with enough grub to carry them through the winter, and candles for use in the drifts were almost unobtainable. If found, they were worth a dollar each.((Yukon Archives, Bob Coutts fonds, 78/69 MSS 087 f.7))
	
Rhoads was the original locator of Claim 21 on Eldorado and he purchased Claim No. 23 before selling both claims to the Reliance Mining and Trading Co. In 1897, they retained him to manage both properties and in 1899 he was one of the most successful and competent mine superintendents in the Klondike. No. 23 was not being worked, but Rhoades had a crew of twenty-three men, working ten-hour shifts, on No. 21. Both claims are rich, turning out a fortune each year.((//The Klondike Nugget// (Dawson), 1 November 1899; “Some Whose Riches Were Not Made In The Mines.” AlaskaWeb.org, 2020 website: http://alaskaweb.org/mining/nonminers.html.)) In June 1898, Ellis Lewis, one of the owners of No. 23 Eldorado, left the Yukon as a wealthy man on the //Bella,// bound for retirement in California. Lewis was an old Alaskan and successful miner who had been in the country for ten years.((Edward F. Bush, //The Dawson Daily News: Journalism in the Klondike.// Canadian Historic Sites No. 21 in Canadian Historic Sites, Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History, Ottawa, 1979: 82.))
	
L. B. Rhoads died or left the Yukon in September 1901 for San Jose, California.((Clary Craig, post office worker list of people dying or leaving Klondike.” Yukon & Alaska Genealogy Centre, YukonAlaska.com, 2020 website: http://yukonalaska.com/pathfinder/gen/CaliforniaDb.htm.))