Joseph Buffington Quigley (1869 -1958)
Joe Quigley was born on a farm near Kittanning, Pennsylvania. He left home at age fifteen and travelled over the continent for seven years. He arrived in Juneau in 1891 and started for Dyea with a group of other prospectors. Their trip over the Chilkoot Pass was difficult and some of the men abandoned their journey before reaching Forty Mile.1)
Quigley prospected with varying success on the Fortymile and Sixtymile rivers. He was settled on Glacier Creek in 1893 when he and old-timer Jerry Baker decided to move to the Circle diggings. Baker and Quigley split ways in 1897, and Quigley partnered with Thomas Cook on Claim No. 35 on Eldorado in the Klondike. That winter they sold their claims for ten-thousand dollars each.2)
Quigley was inducted into the Yukon Order of Pioneers in 1897. He was with Bob Beam and John Krishy when they located claims on a creek that became Quigley Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River. The claims were not rich so Quigley and Krishy prospected on Hunker Creek before Quigley decided to leave the Klondike and explore the Tanana River.3)
Around 1905, Quigley started prospecting in the Kantishna River headwaters where he stayed until an accident in 1930 caused him to abandon mining.4)