Albert H. Day (b. 1860)
Al Day was born in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. Brothers Hugh and Al prospected and were successful miners in the Stikine River area of British Columbia in the early 1880s. In 1884, the Days prospected in the Yukon River drainage and came out to the coast, presumably Juneau [or Sitka] in the fall. In spring 1885, they partnered with Ike Powers. They successfully bar mined on the Stewart River in 1885 [and 1886]. In the spring of 1885, Densmore, John Hughes, Ike Powers, Steven Custer, and Al and Hugh Day were rocking on a bar twelve miles up the Stewart River when Jack McQuesten came past with the New Racket taking Thomas Boswell upriver. McQuesten told them about the good results further upstream on the Stewart and offered them a ride if they would work on the boat. Powers, Custer and the Day brothers took him up on the offer, but Densmore and Hughes declined having decided to leave the Stewart River.1) The Days spent the winter of 1885/86 at Fort Reliance.2)
At some point in 1886, they worked at Joe Ladue’s trading post at the mouth of the Sixtymile River. Al was injured when a sawblade came apart, lodging a piece of steel in his forehead. He was shipped down to the North-West Mounted Police post at the mouth of the Fortymile River where Doctor Wills removed the steel.3)
The brothers continued to explore the interior for the next ten years. In 1893, the Days prospected along the Stewart River and that year they met and married two French Canadian girls.4) In June 1896, the Day brothers were mining on Miller Creek in the Sixtymile River drainage.5) They stampeded to the Klondike when gold was discovered there. Brothers Hugh and Al mined Claims No. 30 and No. 31 Below Bonanza Discovery and Claim No. 11 on Bear Creek. They also made an application for land that became the Day Addition to the Harper and Ladue Townsite.6)