Clark Woodward Sprague (d. 1928)

Captain Clark Sprague was born in Wisconsin and started his river experience in 1876 on the Columbia River, based out of Portland, Oregon. He came north during the Klondike stampede and joined with others to form the Monarch Transportation Co.1) The steamer Monarch was built in Ballard, Washington in 1898 by the Columbia [River] Navigation Co. and towed to St. Michael by the SS Rival. Captain Sprague took delivery and on 30 June took seventy passengers from St. Michael to Dawson.2)

The Monarch and the Sovereign, both owned by the Columbia [River] Navigation Co. in July 1898, were racing to get to Dawson first. W.H. Churchill, Dawson agent for the company, announced that a first-class ticket with meals and a birth from Dawson to Seattle would be given to the first person to report the arrival of either of the company’s boats.3) Captain Sprague’s Monarch was the first outside steamer to arrive from St. Michael on 21 July 1898.4) It made the trip up to St. Michael in seventy days and came from St. Michael to Dawson in twenty days and twenty hours.5) Passengers on the Sovereign thanked Captain Danaher for his efforts to accommodate passengers who had freight that should have been on the Monarch.6)

Captain Sprague was in charge of the Yukon River steamer Mona in 1898 and also commanded the Sovereign at some point in his career.7) The Monarch was put on the St. Michael to Fairbanks run.8)

1) , 7) , 8)
Jerry E. Green, Yukon Riverboat Captains. 2019 website: http://www.users.miamioh.edu/greenje/#S
2) , 4)
W.D. McBride, “Saga of Famed Packets and other Steamboats of Mighty Yukon River.” Caribou & Northwest Digest, Spring 1949: 100.
3)
“Who will win the ticket.” Klondike Nugget (Dawson), 2 July 1898.
5)
“The first boat in Dawson.” Klondike Nugget (Dawson), 23 July 1898.
6)
“Good wishes to the Captain of the Sovereign.” Klondike Nugget (Dawson), 27 July 1898.