James “Slim Jim” Wynn (b. 1843)
James Wynn was born in Cornwall, England and travelled to the United States as a boy.1) In the fall of 1873, he and John H. McCormick travelled by canoe from Port Essington, on the Skeena River, to Wrangell. From there they went to the Cassiar country, being among the first to reach the scene of great excitement after a gold strike. The stampede did not occur until the spring of 1874. Slim Jim, McCormick, Pete McIntyre and Johnny McKenzie [sic] located the famous Caledonia placer claim on Dease Creek. It was one of the fourth richest claims in the Cassiar, producing at least $150,000 in the four seasons the men mined it. They were young and McCormick said the money went as easy as it came.2)
Slim Jim and Johnny Mackenzie [sic] crossed over the Chilkoot Pass and reached Lake Lindeman on 3 July 1880. They were close behind the Bean party, the first prospectors allowed over the Chilkoot Pass by the coastal Tlingit.3) Although Francois Mercier wrote differently, there is no other evidence to suggest that Wynn was in the Yukon district before 1880.4)
Slim Jim Wynn and Johnny Mackenzie prospected the Hootalinqua [Teslin] River and verified Holt’s story of finding gold on the gravel bars. They returned to Juneau to spread information about the route into the interior to the miners at Juneau and Sitka.5) In 1885, Wynn was bar mining on the Stewart River, and recovered $6,000 from the gravel bar named for him.6)