The Wrangell sentinel., 1928-07-19
REAL DIsCOyERER or KLoEDIKE. FAILED TO GET CREDIT FOR FIND.


 FAILED TO GET CREDIT FOR FIND
 Who was the real diseoverer Of theI Klondike !?
 Considerable controversy has takenI place with regard to this subject ofI late bur according to J. J. Wilson, formerly inspector of the Northwest Mounted Police. who was head of theI police detachment in Dawson City the real credit is due a man named Robert Henderson who. because ofl unusual circumstances connected with Che affair. was never given ered-I 1t for the discovery.
 Mr. Henderson is now living in British Columbia and his neighbors have compiled from his story an ac-. count Of the event which has been forwarded to Mr. Wilson who has cor-I roDoraJed the statements contained in Che article, the gist of which is as follows;
 In the year 1S94, Robert Tender son and three other men were Up theI Yukon river. and al Pelly river wereI successful in washing out s54 worth of gold. They made a few purchases at Ladue's store, and there made the assertion that gold was to be found in most streams flowing into the Yukon Henderson went out again. and pros pected various creeks, but without any very startling results. Finally. l however. he went to Indian river. and at Quartz creek took out S620 Fol- lowing these operations. he went over the divide to Gold Bottom, where he washed out gold that averaged two cents to each pan of dirt.
 Henderson Meets Carmack
 Henderson apparently thought he had a fairly good prospect, and so he went to Fifty Mile to purchase food. On the way he met a man called Car l mack. who, with some Indians, was fishing for salmon in the river. Hem derson told Carmaek about his luck at Gold Bottom, and Carmaek was suf- ficiently interested to promise that he would bring some Indians, and they would give it trial. Henderson. itI seems, had always dislfked Indians and their methods, but as Carmack had married a squaw he said as little as possible against it. and finally sub mitted to the plan.
 After the crowd had spent some time working on Gold Bottom. Hen derson suggested to Carmack that the Indians go with him (Carmaek) toI the other side of the divide, to what was then known as Rabbit creek, and try the prospects there. Henderson, itI appears, considered the chances of getting gold there to be very good, | and Carmack consequently followed | his suggestion, and left for Rabbit Creek. Before the party left Hender- son asked Carmack to let him know if they found anything, and promised pay if he was successful. Carmaek could have sent an Indian over with the news had anything particularly worthwhile developed.
 And now the difficulty arises
 Carmack and his Indian friends
 struck it rich" and staked out
 large section of ground as their
 claim. With Carmack at this
 time were the now celebrated
 "Skookum Jim" and "Tagish
 Charlie" This group brought
 their claim before F. Constan-
 tine, who was then superintend
 ent of police as we'll as acting
 gold commissioner there. On
 September 25, 1896, Constantine
 issued to them the three first
 records.
 Carmack never told Henderson, who was entirely ignorant of the whole affair until some time after wards, and then the creek was called Bonanza" Carmack and his crowd shortly after this went to the stores, where they purchased large quanti ties of supplies,and showed the gold they had gotten-and then the stampede began.
 Constantine Refuses Record
 Later, of course, Constantine re- fused to grant a record for discovery on Gold Bottom to Henderson, and stated that there could be only one discovery in a district. Up to this time there had been no district, so Henderson lost his claim The De- minion government, however. recog-