223:, allowing them to dig 6 inches (150 mm) deeper each day. Fred and Clarence would chop a tree down uphill and "ride" it into camp. Clarence dug his own pit on the upper left side and Fred had a hole on the upper right of their half claim. (A claim was 500 feet (150 m) long, measured with a rope and later resurveyed.) Shoring the holes was not necessary, as the frozen ground was structurally sound. The gold became more abundant the deeper they went. When they got 30 feet (9.1 m) down, they were astounded. They had reached a payzone several feet thick of black sand containing gold, with every shovel full being worth hundreds of dollars (gold at $ 16.00 an ounce) Champion pans paid more than $ 500.00 per pan.
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winter of 1894/95, as he got trapped deep into the Forty Mile Creek area and had only beans to eat for two months. The multitude of hardships working a mining operation solo were extensive. After a long day of hard labor, his cabin would have to be heated with chopped wood and water melted for drinking and cooking.
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CJ and Fred were savvy businessmen; they managed to acquire two adjacent claims on the El Dorado before word got out about the riches beneath. CJ left a bucket of gold nuggets and a bottle of whiskey outside his cabin with a note saying "help yourself". Immediately, CJ sent for his former fruit farm
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town before he traveled to the
Klondike. Clarence went to Alaska in 1894 in search of gold after his fruit farming venture failed in California. During his first year in Alaska, CJ learned from local natives on how to survive in the hostile environment. It was a very difficult year for CJ during the
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CJ returned to Selma in 1895 and married his childhood sweetheart Ethel Bush in 1896. The newlyweds and CJ's brother Fred returned to Alaska for the honeymoon. Ethel Berry was one of the earliest white women to cross the
Chilkoot Pass, although the distinction of the first female crossing is thought
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walked into the Forty Mile Creek Saloon and paid for his drink with gold nuggets. CJ felt
Carmack's story was credible and left immediately with his brother Fred to stake claims. CJ and Fred, staying very close to shore in their small boat, pushed themselves upriver with "poles" slowly but surely
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CJ traded half of his claim on
Bonanza Creek for a half claim on Little Rabbit Creek, which later became known as El Dorado Creek. They built a small cabin. Ethyl took care of heating the cabin and cleaning and cooking for the men. CJ and Fred gathered firewood and built large fires to melt the
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tons. CJ's story and picture was on the front page of the
Seattle and San Francisco newspapers. A worldwide gold rush ensued. In later years, CJ and his three brothers (Fred, Henry and Frank) worked as a team, alternating six month shifts at the northern mining camps.
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with some luck. These claims were sold, as they found no significant amount of gold. (A hundred years later, these stakes are still being mined, with the payzone being 60 feet (18 m) deep.)
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workers. About a dozen of his workers arrived from Selma in 1897. They were trusted workers and well compensated at an ounce of gold daily. Clarence called his workers "Selmanites".
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than boring shafts using hot rocks or underground fires, which rendered the excavations and tunnels far more susceptible to collapse. The Berrys operated No. 8 Below
Discovery Claim.
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against the mighty Yukon River current. It was hard work, but the Berry brothers made the 50-mile (80 km) journey upstream to the claims within a few days.
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to belong to Dutch Kate, in 1888. The honeymooners settled in at the Forty Mile Creek outpost on the
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In Ester, Berry pioneered the use of the cold water point and the steam point, used to thaw frozen
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On July 17, 1897, CJ and Ethyl Berry and other successful miners arrived in
Seattle aboard the SS
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Clarence's brother Henry later owned two professional baseball teams in the
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They both staked claims on Rabbit Creek, which quickly became known as
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BRY in 1985. Berry produced its 100 millionth barrel of oil in 1996.
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In 1909, CJ purchased several sections of land in
Maricopa near
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252:CJ went on to acquiring prolific mining claims in
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389:People from Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska
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109:Learn how and when to remove this message
298:In 1996, CJ Berry was inducted into the
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337:Klondike: The Last Gold Rush 1896-1899
322:(Vancouver: Whitecap Books, 1995), 41.
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47:adding citations to reliable sources
409:People from the Territory of Alaska
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339:. Anchor Canada. pp. 98–99.
384:People of the Klondike Gold Rush
302:located in Leadville, Colorado.
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394:People from Selma, California
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237:Seattle Post-Intelligencer
364:Berry Petroleum Company
278:New York Stock Exchange
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199:In the summer of 1896,
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320:Women of the Klondike
195:The Klondike Gold Rush
162:in a safer manner for
289:Pacific Coast League
122:Clarence Jesse Berry
43:improve this article
16:American businessman
318:Frances Backhouse,
300:Mining Hall of Fame
293:San Francisco Seals
139:. He and his wife,
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404:1930 deaths
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189:Yukon River
373:Categories
306:References
280:under the
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170:Early life
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99:April 2012
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335:(2001).
242:Portland
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