Here Joe Ladue
ran the trading post, and here Joe Ladue had originally grub-staked
Henderson. Henderson told his tale, and a dozen men (all it
contained) deserted the Post for the scene of his find. Also,
Henderson persuaded a party of prospectors bound for Stewart River,
to forgo their trip and go down and locate with him. He loaded his
boat with supplies, drifted down the Yukon to the mouth of the
Klondike, and towed and poled up the Klondike to Gold Bottom. But at
the mouth of the Klondike he met George Carmack, and thereby hangs
the tale.
Carmack was a squawman. He was familiarly known as "Siwash" George--
a derogatory term which had arisen out of his affinity for the
Indians. At the time Henderson encountered him he was catching
salmon with his Indian wife and relatives on the site of what was to
become Dawson, the Golden City of the Snows. Henderson, bubbling
over with good-will, open-handed, told Carmack of his discovery. But
Carmack was satisfied where he was. He was possessed by no
overweening desire for the strenuous life.
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