132

Mining Recorder's Claims Ledger, Kha Sha River
1898
Kha-Sha River


Credits:
(MacBride Museum Collection)

133

By September the Mysterious 36 were gone. Adair had purchased other miner's claims in the Shorty Creek district in order to control the whole of the river and its tributaries. He talked of returning the next year with hydraulic mining equipment but didn't and the claims lapsed.

Henry Dow Banks was the photographer who documented most the trip. He also commenced a diary that was never completed, leaving some of the mystery still unanswered today. The photos provide a glimpse of the grandeur of the Yukon and the punishing efforts of the gold seekers of 1898.

His daughter, Elizabeth Banks Nichols, donated the photographs to the MacBride Museum. Elizabeth Banks Nichols, says in a letter to Bill MacBride (founder of MacBride Museum) that the 36 "never did get any gold". While the Mysterious 36 may have been unsuccessful, there are records in the Yukon Mineral Industry reports that the Shorty Creek area was mined on and off until at least 1950.