The first non-native people to find gold in the Yukon weren't looking for it. They were traders and missionaries, whose interests lay furs and souls. Nevertheless, stories of gold in the Yukon valley circulated from at least the 1850s.
The first published account may have been in a London newspaper in 1863. Rev. Robert McDonald found coarse gold near Birch Creek that year and sent some of it to England, where it was reported in the London Times.
Frederick Whymper reported in his 1869 book on Alaska that "minute specks of gold have been found by some of the Hudson's Bay Company's men in the Yukon, but not in quantities to warrant a rush to the area." Jack McQuesten later reported hearing about an HBC officer travelling by steamer who had found gold near Fort Yukon but threw it away, not wanting others on the steamer to see it.
The creek mentioned by Rev. McDonald obsessed later goldseekers. In 1893 McQuesten grubstaked two Russian-native men, Cherosky and Pitka, to search for the creek near Fort Yukon. They found gold in paying quantities on Birch Creek, proving the legend true and leading to the biggest gold strike before Bonanza.
