Frank Phiscator (1862 – 1905)
Frank Phiscator was born at Baroda, Berrien County, Indiana to parents Rebecca Myers and John P. Phiscator.1) Frank left Indiana the year before the gold rush, having failed in the fruit business. He had never heard of the Klondike until he reached Seattle. He was grub-staked by a friend from Michigan, and they started north together. They were caught in a storm after they left Circle City, Alaska and reached the Klondike in the middle of winter.2)
Phiscator staked Eldorado Creek Claim No. 2 in 1897. He prospected the ground for six days before he was convinced that the ground was rich.3) William Stalley and C. Worden were Phiscator's partners on the claim. In forty days they washed out $125,000 worth of gold, and Frank received $50,000 as his share. Stalley and Worden divided $75,000 between them.4)
Frank was briefly married to a woman named Edna and they divorced in 1898.5) The divorce was granted on the grounds of desertion and Frank was given custody of their child also named Frank.6)
For four years the ground was worked by laymen, who all made fortunes in addition to enriching the owner but in 1902 Mr. Phiscator was preparing to work the claim over as though it had never been touched. Thirty-five men were employed over the summer and he planned to keep thirty men at work during the winter. The creek bottom is 400 feet wide at the upper end of the claim and he proposed to build a dam about twenty feet below the upper line with sluice gates installed to feed water into the sluice runs. The winter work was conducted in an open cut protected by awnings. When a Dawson News reporter visited the mine in 1902, the miners were using a 15-horsepower boiler, a derrick with boom, nine thawing points, a steam hoist, a 3 1/2-inch centrifugal pump and a pulsometer. They planned to install a 35-horsepower boiler, a double drum hoist, wheel scrapers, and two 8-horsepower engines.7)
In 1905, a still very rich man, Frank Phiscator killed himself after a week of drinking.8) Frank’s son was his sole heir to an estate of between $500,000 and $600,000 plus a number of farms in Michigan after the death of the current family occupants.9)