How a racist missed out on Klondike fortune (because he was racist)

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Last month, while the rest of you were busy celebrating BC Day, Natal Day or Civic Holiday, the Yukon was marking the far more interesting holiday of Discovery Day. Celebrated on the third Monday each August, Discovery Day marks the moment in 1896 when gold was discovered just outside Dawson City, sparking the Klondike Gold Rush. But while most Yukoners know the names of the three men who first struck gold, they probably havent heard of Robert Henderson, a prospector who probably would have shared in the Klondike bounty if hed only been a little less racist.

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Watch the video or read the transcript below to learn more.

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Don’t be racist, everyone. Not just because its a generally good idea, but it could cost you a lot of money, even in the generally quite racist era of the late 19th century.

Flashback to the Klondike Gold Rush. People around their world drop what theyre doing, spend their life savings on pickaxes and bacon and rush towards one of the worlds most inhospitable places just for the slim chance of sifting a few nuggets out of Yukon gravel.

But what if you could have gotten there before anybody else? A whole landscape of golden streams that are yours for the taking months before the world even knows.

That could have happened to this guy, Robert Henderson, but he missed out on it because he was a racist.

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Hendersons a prospector and one day while taking a raft down the Klondike River in the summer of 1896 he runs into three fellow prospectors:

George Washington Carmack Skookum Jim Mason (Tlingit name: Keish) Tagish Charlie Henderson (Tlingit name: Ka Goox)

Henderson talks to Carmack and gives him a tip about some potential gold right around here [map showing a circle around where gold would be discovered]. He asks Carmack to let him know if he finds anything and then and this is crucial Henderson gestures to Skookum Jim and Tagish Charlie and says something along the lines of just you, though, none for those damned siwashes.

Those damned siwashes were Carmacks relatives; his wife Kate was a member of what is now the Tagish First Nation. So yeah, he didnt take well to what Henderson had assumed was a between you and me comment.

So what did Carmacks party do? They checked out the tip, struck gold, staked out the area and proceeded to tell literally everyone they could, who then staked out what was left. Except Henderson; they accidentally on purpose forgot to tell him, and he essentially missed out on the whole gold rush.

I guess he should have been a little nicer.

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