The prospectors were essentially nomads, dipping their gold pans into stream after stream to test possible sites. A prospector might work alone; more often he teamed up with one or more other prospectors, although these partnerships were very loose.
Chris Sonnickson, one of the early prospectors, is typical. He crossed the coastal mountains into the Yukon in spring 1886, with partners Charley Braises and Old Solomon. Originally they planned to go prospecting on the Stewart River. But when they learned that a veteran prospector named Densmore was on the upper Yukon River, they decided to head there instead. Here they joined five other miners, some prospecting while others worked the bars where gold had already been found.
