William Ganderson (1874 – 1935)
William Ganderson was born in England and lived in Huntingdonshire.1) He was in the Yukon in 1898 and staked claims between then and 1913.2)
Ganderson enlisted to serve in the First World War in October 1916.3) At that time, he held a number of quartz claims and also placer claims on Hunker and Independence creeks. These claims were held free from cancellation during the war.4) Ganderson was recruited by Captain George Black and was in England by August 1917.5) He returned to the Yukon after the war and lived on Hunker Creek.6)
Geologist Hugh Bostock visited Ganderson in 1932 on Independence Creek where he everything fixed to run the mine by himself with a minimum of work. He told Bostock he had unearthed a whole mastodon skeleton and some students from Fairbanks took it away. They missed a molar which Bostock sent to the museum and they confirmed that it was a mastodon not the more common mammoth.7)
William Ganderson died at St. Mary’s Hospital at age 65 and is buried in the public cemetery.8)