Legend Heading Legend HeadingCharting Forgotten Places
← All case files
Open Ground · Open ground

Free Claim No. 6, Bonanza Creek

Free public claim · the Klondike, Bonanza Creek Rd, near Dawson City, Yukon, Canada
ACCESSIBLE
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

Free Claim No. 6, Bonanza Creek: still unexplained.

Klondike placer gold, keep every flake

The law of this ground: Maintained by the Klondike Visitors Association, free public panning, hand tools only; pans loaned at the Dawson City visitor centre.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
Klondike placer gold, keep every flake
The account

This is the creek that started the stampede of 1898, and one claim on it, No. 6 above Discovery, is held open for anyone with a pan. No permit. No fee. Hand tools only, the way it was done when the first cry went up. A hundred and thirty years of mining and Bonanza Creek still pays the patient.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • What you can keep: Klondike placer gold, keep every flake. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: Bonanza Creek Rd, near Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. Maintained by the Klondike Visitors Association, free public panning, hand tools only; pans loaned at the Dawson City visitor centre.
  • Best practice: record anything notable, leave the ground as you found it, and check the latest access notices before you travel.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • What you can keep: Klondike placer gold, keep every flake. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: Bonanza Creek Rd, near Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. Maintained by the Klondike Visitors Association, free public panning, hand tools only; pans loaned at the Dawson City visitor centre.
  • Best practice: record anything notable, leave the ground as you found it, and check the latest access notices before you travel.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 63.920°, -139.330° (approx.) View on the Map