Mike Hess (d. 1892)
Mike Hess was prospecting in the Yukon River drainage in 1885. During the summer he recovered $127 worth of gold in eleven days using a rocker on the Yukon River about 125 miles above the mouth of the Pelly River. He was there for some time with [Howard] Franklin, [John] Matson, and [Thomas] Boswell who took out $500 each for their summer's work. Fraser recovered about $250 to $300. They moved to Fort Reliance in the fall and planned to prospect on the White River the next summer. Hess described the route into the country in the first issue of Sitka’s The Alaskan newspaper. He had planned to travel to the Copper River, a trip that the First Nations say can be done in fifteen days from Fort Reliance. They make frequent trips to the Tanana River in about eight days. The Tanana people come to Fort Reliance to trade, travelling across the headwaters of the White and then down the rivers. They do this because although the portage is shorter, it is easier to pack their furs 200 miles down the river than carry them the 150 miles overland. The Hess party was supplied with provisions from St. Michael and will remain in the country hunting and trapping during the winter and returning to prospecting in the spring. Hess sent out a sample of green quartz that he thought might contain nickel. He located it on the riverbank twenty miles below Fort Reliance.1)
Hess discovered placer gold in the Hess Creek basin about 1892.2) Hess Creek, or Mike Hess Creek, is a tributary of the Yukon River near Rampart City, Alaska.3)
Mike Hess is buried in the Forty Mile cemetery.4)