Joseph Anderson “Jack” Acklen (1864-1912)
Joseph Anderson Acklen (Ackland) was born in Nova Scotia [or Illinois]. He and Nancy Ellen White (1867 – 1933) were married in 1894 in Estrella, California. Prior to traveling to the Klondike, J.A. Acklen had been employed as a landscape gardener in southern California, where he had gained some knowledge of open ditch irrigation. Acklen travelled into the Yukon from Los Angeles, California. 1) He come over the ice in the winter of 1897/98 and spent the summer on experiments in raising vegetables on both sides of the Yukon River as well as by the Klondike. He proved that lettuce, radishes, onions, turnips, rutabagas, beets, green peas, carrots, parsnips, and even potatoes can be raised in favourable localities along the foothills of the Klondike. (“Credit to Whom Credit is Due.” Klondike Nugget (Dawson), 7 September 1898.)
During the summer of 1898, Acklen sold a large quantity of fresh vegetables and also donated vegetables to the hospital patients. Some of his experiments were not successful and he found the south side of the hills along the north bank of the Klondike was the best for gardening. He has spent over $20,000 in cash over what profited from the gardens this summer in preparing the ground in various localities, planting the seed and caring for the crop as it grew. He also planted a few grains of barley and oats and they are fully mature in his garden. This is significant as hay is selling for $300 a ton in Dawson. (“Credit to Whom Credit is Due.” Klondike Nugget (Dawson), 7 September 1898.)\
Acklen acquired a piece of land on high ground, on the right limit of Klondike River, near the mouth of Bonanza Creek. There he built Acklen Villa and established a farm and flower garden. (Dawson City Museum, “Acklen family fonds.” Biographical sketch.) Two pails of vegetables shown in a 24 September 1898 photograph sold in Dawson for $53.75. (Erik Hegg photograph, University of Washington HEG671.) Aklan put in a $2,000 order for seeds and implements. He expected to have ten acres of ground under cultivation in 1899. A portion of this would be in oats and barley. (“Personals.” Klondike Nugget (Dawson), 10 September 1898.)
Acklen’s wife [Nancy] joined him in 1899, along with their daughter Charlotte (1895 – 1972) who was born in California. They had a second child, Joseph Warren White, born 1900 in Dawson. J.A. was listed as a florist in the Canadian census for 1901. (Dawson City Museum, “Acklen family fonds.” Biographical sketch.) Oats on the Ackland [Acklen] farm grew to an average height of about two feet and the hulls filled out and ripened. (Walter R. Hamilton, The Yukon Story. Vancouver: Mitchell Press Ltd. 1964: 141.) By 1901 Acklen had spent $35,000 but has not been as successful as some of his neighbours. Gold was discovered on the Acklin land and gardening gave way to mining. Acklen formed The Potato Patch Group to mine the farm. (“Home Grown Vegetables.” The Semi-Weekly Klondike Nugget (Dawson), 11 September 1901.)
Acklen discovered gold on his property while digging an irrigation ditch from a nearby creek. He washed out some gravel for a few seasons but needed a better water source. He walked northeast and found Moosehide Creek, a tributary of the Yukon. He petitioned for secure water rights and the right to construct a ditch and flume across the Moosehide Slide above town. By 1905 Acklen had secured water grants for Moosehide Creek and the Twelve Mile River, conditional on the construction of flumes and ditches by 1907. He partnered with Douglas Mackenzie in the ditch project. Acklen was one of the first individuals to envisage the potential for hydraulic mining in the Klondike. His vision was to divert water from the Twelve Mile and Moosehide to a reservoir on his property 250 feet above the Klondike River. From there the water could be siphoned across the Klondike and up Bonanza Creek with a pressure sufficient for hydraulic mining and sluicing on water-poor bench claims. He sought interviews with the Guggenheim agent, A.N.C. Treadgold, who was in the area looking for business opportunities. A deal was made and Acklen sold his water-rights, titles and privileges to the Guggenheims for $400,000. The Acklen Ditch was eventually completed with Guggenheim capital. Acklen left Dawson ca. 1906, settling his family in Seattle, Washington. From there he travelled to various old mining camps in the United States and squandered his fortune. He returned to Dawson City in 1910, reportedly claiming to have been recently in Peru. He was drinking heavily and was declared insane in Iditarod, Alaska in 1911. (Dawson City Museum, “Acklen family fonds.” Biographical sketch. 2019 website: http://www.dawsonmuseum.ca/archives/fonds-descriptions/?id=19&q=Acklen) There is a photograph of the Acklen family, circa 1910, that shows Nancy and Jack Acklen with their children, Charlotte and Joe, and their Asian cook Lee. (Dawson City Museum, Acc # 2008.11.5.) After Acklen’s death, Ellen Acklen married Charles Pyne in Fairbanks, Alaska and they spent years in the Yukon and Alaskan goldfields. The Dawson Museum holds photographs and textual material related to the Acklen and Pyne families, and images of the Acklen Ditch. (Dawson City Museum, accession 2008.11)