George Steel George Steel was from Missouri. He had lost an eye when he was a young man. In the Yukon, he partnered with Ira Van Bibber and they trapped at the headwaters of the Pelly River. They were trapping on Willow Creek, across the Pelly River from their winter headquarters, when Steel accidentally shot himself in the gut and wrist. Van Bibber put on a poultice of soft spruce tree gum and that kept the wound open to drain. It took three days to pull Steel in a sleigh over the bare ground thirty miles downriver. They spent the night in a cabin and borrowed a boat the next day to ran down the dangerous river full of ice. They froze into an ice jam, but the ice was too soft to walk on. Ira tore some boards off the boat and walked to shore on them. He built a bridge with brush out to the boat and George crawled to shore. They made a camp and the next day Ira travelled down river to Henry Braden's cabin.((H. Gordon-Cooper, //Yukoners: True Tales of the Yukon.// Vancouver: River Run Publishing, 1978: 95-101.)) Van Bibber got help and a team of dogs from Henry’s Braden’s grandfather at Braden’s Canyon. Lord Talmash, an English remittance man who lived at Fort Selkirk, helped them work the sled through the bush.((Henry Braden, //Moccasin Telegraph// - 167th edition, 16 July 2006. Internet newsletter created by Sherron Jones.)) Van Bibber and Braden brought Steel down to the cabin with a dog sled. It took twelve days for the river to set and then they hauled him to Selkirk on the ice, and then sent him to Dawson on the winter stage. It was twenty-four days before he reached Dawson, and twenty-six days before he was operated on, but he lived.((H. Gordon-Cooper, //Yukoners: True Tales of the Yukon.// Vancouver: River Run Publishing, 1978: 95-101.)) The next season, Steel and Van Bibber travelled up the Pelly and trapping around Frances Lake. In the spring, Steel went back to Missouri, married a girl, and went ranching in Idaho.((H. Gordon-Cooper, //Yukoners: True Tales of the Yukon.// Vancouver: River Run Publishing, 1978: 95-101.))