Information About

Mount Carmack

Quick Facts

Open in The Map Mount Carmack on The Map

Location

59 ° 33' 52.999" N,
135 ° 14' 56" W

Region

Skagway

Nearest City

Skagway

Elevation

6243 ft (1902.87 m)

Mount Carmack in Detail.

About

in Coast Mts., 3.2 mi. S of Mount Cleveland and 7 mi. NW of Skagway

History

Named in 1898 by John A. Flemer, U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS), probably for George W. Carmack whose discovery of gold on Bonanza Creek in 1896 resulted in the Klondike gold rush. Carmack was born in Illinois and came to Alaska during the Juneau gold rush in 1881. He married an Indian girl and for several years he and his wife and her relatives fished for salmon along the Klondike River. In 1896 he met Bob Henderson, an ex-sailor turned prospector, who told him about his gold discovery in the Yukon basin the previous summer. Carmack with his two in-laws, Tagish Jim and Tagish Charlie, visited the site of Henderson's discovery. After prospecting in the area for a few days, they found gold on Rabbit Creek, now called Bonanza Creek. The subsequent finding of large gold nuggets on this creek led to the Klondike gold rush.