Yukon who is who

Joseph H. Brooks (~1867 – 1934)

Joe Brooks was living in Vancouver before the Klondike Gold Rush. He arrived in Skagway with seventeen mules in July 1897. He was a successful freighter, transporting goods for the Klondike stampeders.¹⁾ The J.H. Brooks, Packer and Freight company headquarters was in the St. James Hotel. He was famous for taking fifteen mules over the Chilkoot Pass.²⁾ His team grew to 335 animals and he made as much as $5,000 a day. He carried gold nuggets in his pockets and used them to buy drinks for everyone in the bars. Brooks commonly rode his horse at a fast speed down Skagway’s muddy streets, holding his two sons, one under each arm.³⁾

William Donnenworth was one of Joe Brook’s drivers. Donnenworth quit his job at a sawmill at False Creek, British Columbia in the fall of 1897. He sailed north on the Amur. He arrived at Skagway in six days, and two hours later was working for Brooks. Donnenworth was in charge of a twenty-horse pack train taking freight to the summit of the White Pass. Each horse carried 150 pounds divided into two packs, and freight was one dollar a pound. The snow was twenty feet deep at the summit and the trail was like a tunnel.⁴⁾

Joe Brooks returned to Skagway in 1934 to gather information for a book, and died in July on the Chilkoot Pass Trail. He is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery.⁵⁾