Writing his memoirs years after the event, George Carmack claimed to have discovered the gold on Rabbit Creek. He was walking well ahead of Skookum Jim and Dawson Charlie, he wrote, when he spotted a strip of bedrock that looked like a good site for gold.
"Throwing off my pack, I walked down to the rim, and as soon as I reached it I stopped and looked down. My heart skipped a beat. After rubbing my eyes with the back of my hand to wipe away a misty film that enveloped the pupils, I reached down and picked up a nugget about the size of a dime. I put it between my teeth and bit at it like a newsboy who had found a quarter in the street."
He called to Jim and Charlie to bring the pan and shovel: "I took the shovel and dug up some of the loose bedrock. In turning over some of the flat pieces, I could see the raw gold laying thick between the flaky slabs, like cheese sandwiches. Putting some of the broken bedrock into the pan I washed it down and got about a quarter of an ounce in that pan, mostly coarse gold."
The next day, the three staked their claims and started out for Fortymile to register them, telling everyone they met about their strike. However, Carmack maintained he had never promised to send a message to Robert Henderson -- and he didn't.
