Eric August Troberg
Eric Troberg came to New York from Finland in 1893. He was working on a windjammer hauling lumber, and he jumped ship to travel by train to Seattle. In 1894, he was in Alaska working underground at Douglas Island and in 1897 he set off for the Klondike. He didn’t have enough supplies, or money to buy them, to get past the Mounties monitoring travellers at the Chilkoot summit. He and a partner, Christenson, hauled 70-pound sacks through the Pass for forty-nine cents a pound until they had the needed $500 to get into the Yukon.1)
In the early 1930s, Eric Troberg bought the DAAA (Dawson Amateur Athletic Association) building from Fred Elliot who was running it as the Family Theatre. Troberg purchased sound equipment from the rival Orpheum Theatre and updated the projection room to show “talkies.” The renovated Family Theatre opened in April 1933 under the management of Eric’s brother Walter. The DAAA burned during the night in December 1937 when it was undergoing renovation to install new projection equipment and theatre chairs. Eric and his son Ralph escaped the building without injury.2)
Eric Troberg prospected on the Indian River and joined with Harry Jones to pan on Hunker Creek.3) He started mining on Bonanza Creek at Dry Gulch, upstream of Boulder Gulch in the Klondike gold fields.4) He never made any money on his own claims and worked for twenty years on the dredges. His grandson Ralph said he made just enough money to keep looking for more gold.5) Eric’s grandson Ralph took over his mine on Bonanza creek in 1949 or 1950.6)