Pete McDonald
Pete McDonald came into the country in 1886.1) In the summer of 1889, MacDonald and George Matlock went to Nuclato, Alaska and came back with First Nation wives.2)
Frank Buteau and partners Pete McDonald, George Matlock, and John Campbell bought the claim at Troublesome Point on the Fortymile River in 1889. In March 1890 they went up Chicken Creek and whipsawed lumber for a flume to divert water from Franklin Gulch to Troublesome Point. This was the first hydraulicking operation in the Yukon.3) In 1889, Peter MacDonald and his wife, Sally, were working with George Matlock, Frank Bateau, and a man named Campbell at the mouth of Big Gold Creek in the Fortymile district. Bob English and Mike Hess were prospecting nearby.4)
In the fall of 1892, McDonald poled up the Yukon River with several others and announced that he was bringing in two horses the next spring. He did this, bringing them over the Chilkoot Pass, and scowed them to Forty Mile.5) MacDonald used the horses to haul logs out of the river and for packing in the summer. Summer packing had been a problem when the dogs were grounded. Supplies that came in on the boat had to be poled up the creeks or were stored to be hauled by the dogs later in the fall. He built a small cabin for the horses in the winter and brought in native hay on the back-hauls from his pack trips. The cabin was too warm, and one horse died.6) McDonald was at Circle around 1894. Ray Stewart bought Pete’s horses and started hauling freight to the creeks.7)
Pete McDonald signed the founding charter of the Yukon Order of Pioneers at Forty Mile in December 1894.8) MacDonald later mined Claim No. 48 below Discovery on Bonanza Creek. He was buried by the Yukon Order of Pioneers in Dawson.9)