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"The most readable volume that has yet appeared about the Yukon... told the story of his successful search for treasure in an entertaining way." -San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 13, 1898
"William Stanley, 84, who was with George McCormick when the latter discovered gold in the Klondike died in Pomona after an extended illness... said to have taken $1,500,000 out of the El Dorado district." -San Bernadino News, February 7, 1918
"Stanley... returned from the Klondike... with $112,000 in gold dust... His book deals with adventure in Alaska... Stanley told all about how he found those nuggets." -LA Times, Jan. 30, 1898
"The first reliable book Alaska book... one of the discoverers and processors of the new Dorado." -Capital Journal (Salem), Feb. 5, 1962
William M. Stanley was a near bankrupt gold prospector who returned from the Klondike country in 1897 with $112,000 made in three months and claims worth Sixteen Million Dollars . In 2017 dollars that would equate to 3.3 million in gold dust and nuggets and $478 million in claims.
In 1898, William M. Stanley would publish a step by step narrative of how he prospected and mined himself to unimaginable prosperity in his book "A Mile of Gold Strange Adventures on the Yukon."
Stanley rightfully brags in his opening chapter:
"Yes, I am the man who recently returned from the ice-bound regions of the north with $112,000 worth of dust and nuggets taken from the frozen earth in less than three months. It is gold. The metal the whole civilized world is courting. The one thing that all men are striving to win; the deity before which universal man has ever bowed; the material sought alike by the tutored and the untutored, the rich and the poor, the righteous and the wicked, the old and the young, the strong and the weak, the Christian and the heathen, aye by all men of whatever nationality, religion or condition."
In the last years of the 19th century and the early 20th century, Bonanza Creek where Stanley made his fortune was the centre of the Klondike Gold Rush, which attracted tens of thousands of prospectors to the creek and the area surrounding it. Prior to 1896 the creek was known as Rabbit Creek. Its name was changed by miners in honor of the millions of dollars in gold found in and around the creek.
About the author:
Immediately prior to heading to the Klondike, William Stanley was a lame Seattle bookseller who had made and lost three fortunes in previous Rocky Mountain gold rushes. According to the San Bernadino County Sun, Stanley was born in Limerick, Ireland and had come to America in 1852 and had owned a ranch in Nebraska. After returning from the Klondike a millionaire, Stanley eventually moved to Pomona, California, where he died in 1918.
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