Harold Schmidt (d. 1969)
Harold Schmidt was a mining engineer working in the Yukon and Alaska.1) In 1941, Harold and his partners operated a dredge on Jack Wade Creek, a tributary of the Fortymile River, in Alaska. Wade Creek Dredging was a successful business but in 1941 the dredge broke down at the end of the season. The partners owed over $100,000 mostly to the Northern Commercial Co. Nevertheless, Harold borrowed money to get married. Marion and Harold were married on December 6, 1941 just hours before the bombing of Pearl Harbour.2)
The United States was at war but allowed some minimal mining and in late January 1942, the Schmidts and another partner were planning the upcoming season’s work. The dredge could not be repaired so they needed to use dozers and sluice boxes twenty-four hours a day. The plan worked and the company paid their debts.3)
On 1 September 1942, the US Army closed down the company and expropriated four of their bulldozers. The machines were to be shipped upriver to Whitehorse and used by private contractors on the Alaska Highway project. The dozers had to be walked out to Dawson along a route that became the Top of the World Highway. Harold walked the new D8 and Marion went along for the ride. The advance party reached the Yukon River at midnight and the riders took a small boat across to the Royal Alexander Hotel.4)
After delivering the cats, Harold optioned a cinnabar property in the lower Kuskokwim River, flew to San Francisco, with the H.W. Gould Company as backers, to set up the New Idria-Alaska Quicksilver Mining Company. With the exception of one producer in Canada, the Allies’ supply of mercury was cut off as Spain and Italy were the producers. The new company rushed into production and the mine site became the Schmidt’s new home. Harold managed this operation as a mining engineer until the end of the war.5)
In the 1960s, Schmidt was mining on Quartz Creek in the Klondike gold fields. The gold on his claim was very fine and he invested in a process that he said would recover very fine, colloidal, gold. He mortgaged a ranch in California to cover the costs, but the process did not work and the inventor never repaid the money. He considered the money a salary for working on the process. Schmidt died of a heart attack right after he received that letter. His wife and family worked the claims to pay off the mortgage, and then continued to operate the family mine.6)