Richard Poplin
Charles McConky, Ben Beach, George Marx [or Marks] and Richard Poplin left Juneau in the spring of 1883 to prospect the interior. The rich deposits at the Treadwell mine were raising questions about a mother lode hidden in the coastal mountains. They crossed the divide in the early spring and were stopped by ice at the Yukon River headwaters. They built boats and continued when the ice disappeared. They went up the Stewart River about four miles and found a bar that contained fine gold. Above that they found many more bars with the same result. This was the beginning of bar mining on the upper Yukon River.1)
The men recovered $10 a day using a rocker on the bars. They travelled to Fort Reliance in the fall but, on hearing that the steamer New Racket was broken down, travelled on to Tanana Station for the winter. In the spring George Marks [or Marx] left for the Kuskokwim River and took Richard Poplin and McConkey to Fort Reliance. They spent the summer on the Stewart River and left in the fall by way of the McQuesten River.2)
Poplin had returned by June 1885 with Pete Wyberg, Frank Morphat, and Jerry Bertrand. They passed Boswell's party on Chapman's Bar and went up to Steamboat Bar about seven miles further up. Boswell's party cleaned up $6,000. Poplin's got $3,500 according to Jack McQuesten, and $35,000 according to William Ogilvie. In the late summer, Slim Jim Wynn cleaned up $6,000 on Wynn's Bar 100 miles up the Stewart. Boswell went to Ft. Reliance for supplies but did not tell Ladue and other miners of the rich bars on the Stewart.3)