Around Swedish America in 
Day 21 - Whitehorse, Yukon
In the center of Whitehorse there is a statue of a prospector and on the base there are the names of the Yukon Prospector's Association's Hall of Fame. There is quite a few Swedish-sounding names and Gustavus Gustavensons (a.ka. Gustavson) has one of the most interesting stories.
In the central Yukon's mountainous plateau lies Keno Hill. According to an article by Jane Gaffin of the Prospector's Association Gustavus Gustavenson and his two sons were among the first prospectors in the area. But after a while they seemed to vanish into thin air. They were forgotten until the fall of 1899 when they floated down Stewart River the 200 miles into Dawson City and made a substantial bank deposit from three sacks bulging with placer gold.
"Each subsequent fall, they bought their winter supplies "with a coarse gold, uncharacteristic in shape and colour to the gold from Klondike creeks". This set gossip swirling. Traditionally, prospectors observed the frontier code to share news of fresh gold strikes. But not the quiet, solitary Swedes, who were opposed to gold stampedes for fear of losing their discovery through foul means, that was such a common practice in the Klondike. Instead of recording claims in the Dawson City mining office to become public knowledge, the Swedes kept their isolated quarters a secret. In the vast country, they felt secure in their seclusion, each fall coming into town and managing for two years to lose anybody who attempted to trail them. Their luck changed in September, 1901.
Four Klondike stampeders were camped on the frosty ground on the McQuesten River's bank below Haggart Creek. One of the men concealed by heavy foliage was Jake Davidson. His companions were Duncan Patterson, Allan McIntosh and Colin Hamilton. When the Lucky Swedes made their annual supply treks downstream to Dawson City, the four men began the difficult task of tracing the hidden trail to the Swedes' gold sanctuary. The four men headed up Christal Creek and located a trail that led between two hills. Keno Hill was to their left and Galena Hill was on their right. They found the Swedes' possessions neatly tucked in a boxed canyon. The immaculate arrangement included a lone log cabin, a few smaller storage buildings and a sawmill operated with water power. No staking posts were visible. Duncan Patterson cut poplars into posts and staked the Discovery claim on September 12, 1901. He named the creek "Duncan" for himself.
A few days later, the four men floated back to Dawson City and recorded their claims--the most important ones staked since the Klondike gold rush. In traditional frontier ethics, they announced a phenomenal new gold strike made on Duncan Creek. Opportunists flocked overland with horses, mules, packdogs or on foot to reach the new bonanza. Within a year, Duncan Creek was soundly staked. Facsimiles of cabins hastily went up as miners got on with serious development preparations. From Duncan Creek to the mouth of the Mayo River, roadhouses popped up along a new 25-mile government wagon road. Freight from Dawson was delivered by the steamer Prospector at Mayo Landing or roughly 15 miles farther up the Stewart River at Gordon's Landing for 10 cents a pound. In winter, this freight was distributed to the principal creeks at a rate ranging from three to six cents a pound. During summer, the rate was 15 cents to Discovery on Duncan Creek or eight cents to Highet Creek. There were stores at Mayo and Duncan Creek where clothing and provisions could be purchased.
In 1904, Duncan Creekers realized that not enough gold was being returned in exchange for their two years of investing money and back breaking labour into their venture. Superstitiously, they blamed the curse on the Gustavensons who had left Dawson City and supposedly were never heard from again. Only the hard toil and quiet patience of the Swedes, whose take was calculated to be $30,000 in gold, had overcome the obstacles."