A.D. Nash
A.D. Nash and P.C. Richardson brought the news of the Klondike strike to Seattle in February 1897. The men staked some of the earliest claims on Bonanza Creek and, on 18 December 1896, they travelled out of the Klondike with William Moore who had a contract to deliver mail from Juneau along the Yukon River. An early winter freeze had turned Moore back at Fort Yukon and the three men travelled south from Dawson together.1) The three men parted company at Dyea, and Nash and Richardson travelled on to Seattle where they became the toast of the town. Their news of the strike was substantiated by the letters they brought with them, and the Seattle Post Intelligencer proclaimed in the February 12th edition of the newspaper that their arrival set the match to the excitement that became the Klondike gold rush. Moore’s arrival in Victoria caused less of a stir and he had trouble finding backers for a wagon road from Skagway through the White Pass2)