P.C. Richardson

P.C. Richardson and A.D. Nash brought the news of the Klondike strike to Seattle in February 1897. The men staked some of the earliest claims on Bonanza Creek and, on 18 December 1896, they travelled out of the Klondike with William Moore who had a contract to deliver mail from Juneau along the Yukon River. An early winter freeze had turned Moore back at Fort Yukon and the three men travelled south from Dawson together.1) The three men parted company at Dyea, and Richardson and Nash travelled on to Seattle where they became the toast of the town. Their news of the strike was substantiated by the letters they brought with them, and the Seattle Post Intelligencer proclaimed in the 12 February edition of the newspaper that their arrival set the match to the excitement that became the Klondike gold rush. Moore’s arrival in Victoria caused less of a stir and he had trouble finding backers for a wagon road from Skagway through the White Pass.2)

P.C. Richardson was awarded the first winter mail contracts in the Yukon and he assigned them to the Canadian Development Co. The company had both Canadian and American mail contracts. The mail below Dawson went by dog team.3) The P. C. Richardson company operated in the winter for letter mail only, and for a twice-a-month service was paid $84,000 per year for four years.4)

1)
Yukon Archives, “Mid Snow and Ice.” Alaska Weekly (Seattle) or Colonist, 1896?, Coutts coll. 78/69 MSS 080, f. 41.
2)
M.J. Kirchhoff, The Founding of Skagway. M.J. Kirchhoff, 2015: 13.
3)
W.D. MacBride, “Yukon Stage Line.” Unpublished manuscript, Dawson City Museum files.
4)
“The Arctic Express Company is building provision cabins all along the Yukon River and the freeze-up will find a string of dog teams all the way - mail twice a month $84,000 per year for the service.” Klondike Nugget (Dawson), 21 September 1898.