Circle City, the supply centre for the Birch Creek diggings, started in 1894 as a few cabins on the banks of the Yukon River. By 1896 it had surpassed Fortymile as the major mining centre in the Yukon basin and called itself the largest log cabin city in the world.
In 1894, when the Yukon River was free of ice, Jack McQuesten set off for the new gold strike, taking with him all the supplies he could from his warehouse at Fortymile. On the Yukon River, near the new find, he built a steamer landing and a small shed. When he returned from his annual buying trip to Seattle in September, he found about 75 miners waiting for the steamer.
