Frank A. Cleveland
Frank Cleveland was an experienced contractor on large projects in the United States before he arrived in the Klondike. He built the breakwater at Ashland, Wisconsin, a job that called for 250,000 cubic feet of stone. He moved a sandstone monolith as an attraction at the Chicago World’s Fair.1) A man called Cleveland was a partner to Juneau hardware store owner C.W. Young in 1897. Cleveland and Young were among many Juneau businessmen to send wagons and horses to Skagway in July to accommodate the early stampeders.2)
In 1899, Frank Cleveland and his partner J.O. Patterson bid on a contract to construct part of a new road along the ridge parallel to Bonanza Creek to connect Dawson with the outlying creeks in the Klondike goldfields. There were twenty-five bids for the construction of the Ridge Road, and two bids were awarded. Patterson and Cleveland won five miles at $1,900 per mile, and Fraser, Fawcett & Cameron won six miles at $1,750. Only eleven miles were initially awarded because of time and money constraints. Patterson and Cleveland had eighty men working on the section from the Klondike River ferry up to the ridge. Federal money did come through in the end and thirty-one miles were built that season. Patterson and Cleveland were awarded the last five miles and finished a fifteen-mile contract ending at the mouth of Gold Bottom Creek in mid-September 1899. They also received a contract to construct a five-mile spur road to Hunker Creek, and another 6.5-mile road connecting Grand Forks to the Ridge Road. The company had their mess tent and headquarters at Halfway House, between the west fork of Flannery Creek and the west fork of Last Chance Creek. The Ridge Road to Dominion Creek was completed by 28 September 1899. The spur roads were finished by 13 October 1899.3)
Looking forward to the opportunities the new road would bring, Cleveland bought Peter Annance’s interest in a teaming business and also bought an interest in two roadhouses along the route.4) Joe Cook and Frank Cleveland owned Cook's Roadhouse built by Cook in October 1898 on the Ridge Road. The roadhouse was on the summit between Hunker, Dominion and Sulphur. They also owned the Dome Roadhouse at the head of Gold Bottom Creek and freighted out of Dawson.5) There was a lot of traffic between the creeks in 1898. In early November, the Yukon Council passed an ordinance granting Messes. Howard and Buck the right to build and maintain a tramway over the divide between Hunker and Sulphur.6)
In November 1902, when a gold strike was made in the Mayo District, F. A. Cleveland and Louis Williams applied for a lease on a portion of the waterfront in Gordon Landing Townsite, Mayo District. The two apparently wanted to build a sawmill.7)
In 1903, R. W. Calderhead was managing the Merchants’ Mail and Express company. The company purchased four horses in Atlin, and Bert Woolridge delivered them to Whitehorse. In the same year, F. A. Cleveland retired from the company to operate an independent line between Whitehorse and Dawson.8)