William Scouse (1862 – 1918)
William Scouse was a Scottish coal miner. He came to America in 1880 and worked in the Pennsylvania coal mines. He spent time in Kansas, Washington, Nanaimo and the Queen Charlette Islands [Haida Gwaii]. In 1896, he and three partners arrived in the Yukon River valley and were in central Yukon when gold was found on Bonanza Creek.1)
Four Scots coal miners from Nanaimo, British Columbia staked claim numbers 14, 15 ,16 and 17 on Eldorado. There were three brothers named Scouse and their partner John [Black Jack] Wilkinson. They abandoned claims 16 and 17, and they proved to be among the richest in the gold fields.2) Scouse was the first miner to haul up a bucketful of gold-bearing gravel from his claim on Eldorado Creek. The pay dirt was worth $57, a month's wages for a southern worker.3)
Scouse owned Claim No.14 Eldorado with Bill Young, Jim McNamee, and Alex McDonald. He also owned Claim No. 15 with William Sloan.4) His diary tells of he and his partners sinking a shaft three metres down through black muck at minus 40 degrees. On 4 December, the weather was mild with a little snow, and Scouse records pans of pay dirt, some worth as much as $20. The next day there was pan worth $45. This would be almost $3,000 in 2016 dollars. On 6 December, twelve pans totaled $272.78 in gold ($17,000 in 2016), and on the next day the best pan was worth $122.18 (almost $8,000 in 2016).5)
William Sloan went on to become British Columbia’s Minister of Mines and Scouse acquired financial interests in Dawson and Seattle. After Scouse married in 1902, he spent summers in the north and winters with his wife [Zidania] in Washington state.6)
In 1918, Scouse was still making $10,000 a year from his properties. He went south on the Princess Sophia in the fall of 1918 and drowned when the ship sunk.7) In 2016 the Canadian Museum of History acquired Scouse’s diary, his personal and business papers, and a collection of jewelry with raw gold nuggets. Scouse’s diary ends in 1896.8)