written and photographed by Mary L. Peachin
Jun 2002, Vol. 6 No. 8
Panning Rabbit Creek, a remote tributary of the Yukon’s Klondike River, in 1896, gold prospectors George Washington Carmack, Skookum Jim, and Dawson Charlie washed out a single pan worth $4.00. Ten cents was the norm; they renamed the creek Bonanza and staked its banks. That winter they stockpiled huge piles of dirt, which they would sluice when the creek thawed, separating out the gold.