Carmack, George W. (George Washington), 1860-1922

Gold miner whose discovery claim at Bonanza Creek on August 17, 1896, started the Klondike Gold Rush.

George Washington Carmack (1860-1922) was a miner whose discovery claim at Bonanza Creek on August 17, 1896, started the Klondike Gold Rush. After deserting the U.S. Marine Corps in 1882, George Carmack lived among the Tagish Indians in the Yukon Valley with his common law wife, Kate Carmack, and their daughter, Graphie. Kate's brother, Skookum Jim, and Jim's nephew, Tagish Charlie, also made their fortunes mining for gold as Carmack's partners. George and Kate Carmack later moved to California, but George eventually parted ways with Kate as well as his former partners. In 1900 George married Marguerite Laimee in Olympia, Washington. The marriage led to several court cases involving Kate Carmack, and later George Carmack's daughter Graphie and sister Rose, but the cases ultimately were either dropped or settled out of court. Kate Carmack died in Alaska in 1920, and George Carmack died in 1922. In 1990, James A. Johnson published a biography entitled Carmack of the Klondike.

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