Yukon who is who

Belinda Mulrooney (1872 - 1967)

Belinda Mulroney was born in Ireland and grew up in Pennsylvania. She operated a sandwich stand during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and then travelled to San Francisco in 1894 and set up an ice cream parlour. She lost everything in a fire so then worked for a time on a Pacific Coast Steamship Company ship running between California and Alaska.¹⁾

Mulrooney arrived in Dawson in the summer of 1897. She started a restaurant on First Avenue soon after her arrival but was forced to close in the early fall because of a scarcity of provisions. In July 1897, she stampeded to Eldorado Creek and noticed a favorable location for a townsite at the junction of Bonanza and Eldorado creeks. She located a lot and started building a hotel and store called the Grand Forks Hotel. She had no competition for the greater part of the year. She purchased another lot during the winter of 1898 and put on a large addition to the hotel. In the spring of 1899, she sold the hotel to Max Endelman and William Shuker for $24,000. She erected the Fairview Hotel in Dawson in the summer of 1898. It was the largest building in town at the time with three stories and thirty rooms, a dining room, office and bar all lit by electric lights.²⁾

During the summer of 1898, there was demand for drinking water and Mulrooney was instrumental in promoting the Hygica Water company. She was the main promoter of the Telephone Company and concentrated the telephone businesses by purchasing the opposition line from Thomas O'Brien during the summer of 1898. The telephone line connected Dawson with Grand Forks and Dominion to the mouth of Caribou Creek, and there were plans to connect to Sulphur and Hunker creeks in 1899.³⁾

In 1899, Mulrooney's business holdings included one half of No. 40 Above Bonanza, a 250-foot claim purchased from Antone Stander on Upper Bonanza, and No. 39 Above Bonanza and the claim next to it that produced a considerable amount of gold. No. 26 fraction above Discovery on Bonanza was leased during the 1899 summer by Miss Mulrooney and she personally supervised twelve experienced miners taking out $1000 a day. In 1899, she purchased 57 Below on Bonanza, a lay on 47 Below Dominion, and a valuable bench claim on Cheechako Hill. She also owned No. 210 Below Lower Dominion; one third of No. 12 Below Gold Run, and in 1899, purchased the hillside adjoining the Gold Run claim, one half of the Gold Hill bench claim, 200 feet in a direct line above the Lancaster claim, one half interest in a Gold Hill bench opposite No. 3 Eldorado, one third interest in a bench claim opposite No. 2 Eldorado, a three-fourths interest in the second tier of bench claims opposite No. 26, the right limit of the Hydraulic Reserve on Hunker Creek, and one-fourth interest in bench claim No. 31 on the right limit of Eldorado Creek. A number of the bench claims were partially worked in 1899 and showed favorable results. She worked at the mine on No. 26 Bonanza during the summer and told a Dawson newspaper that she liked mining, did the management herself, and only hired a foreman because it looked better to have a man running the mine.⁴⁾

A local bank chose Mulrooney to run the Gold Run Mine which was deeply in debt and Mulrooney had it back in the black in eighteen months. She was sued by the mine owners for improperly letting lays on mining properties, and the bank holding the mortgage sued her for the debt.⁵⁾

In 1899, the Fairview Hotel was under lease to Gates and Cox, well known and popular residents of Dawson.⁶⁾ The hotel burned in the 1899 fire.⁷⁾ In 1900, Mulrooney married Charles Eugene Carbonneau, a champagne salesman and a barber from Montreal, who claimed to be a French count. They were separated by 1904 and divorced in 1906.⁸⁾ His reputation was tarnished in the Klondike by the 1902 bankruptcy of the Anglo-French Klondyke Syndicate and accusations of his salting the No. 12 Gold Run claim.⁹⁾

Mulrooney moved to Fairbanks, Alaska in October 1904 and established the Dome City Bank with her younger sister Margaret. She eventually retired to Yakima, Washington, built a large mansion, and supported her family for as long as she had money.¹⁰⁾