Joseph Ladue (1854-1901), an early prospector, trader and entrepreneur, made his fortune not from gold but from land. With perfect timing he staked the townsite of Dawson City just as the Gold Rush was beginning. He also contributed indirectly to the famous Bonanza Creek discovery by grubstaking Robert Henderson, the man who pointed the way.
A French-Canadian from New York State, Ladue came over the Chilkoot Pass in 1882. He travelled down the Yukon River with 12 others to Jack McQuesten's post at Fort Reliance, where he spent the winter. While prospecting in the Sixtymile region, Ladue and several others may have been the first to experiment with a new mining technique -- using fire to thaw the frozen ground. However, after three days their 10-foot prospect hole filled with water and they had to abandon it.
Ladue continued prospecting, convinced that a major goldfield would be found in the area of the Indian and Klondike rivers. In 1884 he and several other prospectors went moose-hunting near Rabbit Creek -- later renamed Bonanza Creek. Little did they realize that underneath their camp at the junction of Bonanza and Eldorado creeks lay a fortune in gold.
At different times Ladue was a trading partner of Jack McQuesten and Arthur Harper, and like them he missed the big gold finds while encouraging and grubstaking other prospectors. In 1893 Ladue and Harper established a trading post on an island at the mouth of the Sixtymile River and brought the first sawmill to the Yukon. At first called Sixtymile Post, it was later renamed Ogilvie Post in honour of William Ogilvie.
As many as a hundred miners wintered at Ogilvie, and Ladue encouraged them to try their luck on the surrounding creeks. Among those he encouraged was Robert Henderson, who crossed into the drainage basin of the Klondike River in the summer of 1896.
In early August, Henderson returned to Ogilvie Post for supplies and showed Ladue a small amount of gold dust from his workings. Ladue, now certain of the value of the Klondike district, decided to move lumber and supplies downriver to the mouth of the Klondike and establish a post there. His timing couldn't have been better. He arrived on August 28, just 12 days after the Bonanza discovery, to find the area swarming with prospectors. Ladue lost no time in staking a 160-acre townsite and on September 1 started building his store, the first building in what would be Dawson City. He sent men back to Ogilvie Post to bring up the sawmill, which ran night and day for the next two years.
In January William Ogilvie surveyed the new townsite and named it Dawson City after his Yukon Expedition partner, George Dawson. Ladue bought claims from earlier prospectors at $10 an acre and sold lots in the new townsite at $1000 each. He also built the first saloon in Dawson, the Pioneer. In two years he became a millionaire.
Ladue didn't have long to enjoy his wealth. He returned to his hometown of Schuyler Falls, New York, in 1897, and married his childhood sweetheart. But in 1901, aged 47, he died of tuberculosis.
