Biographical Note Scope and Content Restrictions on Use Restrictions on Access Separated Material Acquisition Info Processing Info Bibliography Incoming Letters 1883, 1991, 1921 Legal Documents - Marriage Certificate 1900 Legal Documents of Others 1913-1938, n.d. Financial Records of Others 1913 Subject Terms |
1869-1994 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Creator: | Carmack, George W. (George Washington), 1860-1922 , creator |
| Title: | George W. Carmack Papers |
| Date Span: | 1869-1994 |
| Bulk: | 1881-1990 |
| Quantity: | 1.21 cubic ft. (5 boxes) |
| Accession No.: | 5176-001 |
| Languages: | Collection materials are in English. |
| Funding for encoding this finding aid was partially provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. |
George Washington Carmack (1860-1922) was a miner whose discovery claim at Bonanza Creek on August 17, 1896, started the Klondike Gold Rush.
After deserting the United States Marine Corps in 1882, George Carmack lived among the Tagish Indians in the Yukon Valley along with his common law wife, Kate Carmack, and their daughter, Graphie. Kate's brother, Skookum Jim, and Jim's nephew, Tagish Charlie, also made their fortunes mining for gold as partners of Carmack.
George and Kate later moved to a ranch near Hollister, California, and lived with George's sister, Rose Watson (later Rose Curtis). George eventually left California, parting ways with Kate as well as his former partners. He left Kate and Graphie with Rose, and in 1900 George married Marguerite Laimee in Olympia, Washington. Kate, illiterate and nearly destitute, began a difficult legal battle to prove she was George's wife and entitled to alimony. She eventually dropped the case in hopes of winning back her husband. When this attempt failed, she settled in Carcross, Alaska, where she died in 1920. After Carmack's death in 1922, Graphie, now married to Marguerite's brother, and Rose challenged Marguerite's appointment as administratrix of Carmack's estate. The case was settled out of court.
In 1990, James A. Johnson published Carmack of the Klondike. The book was republished in 2001 as George Carmack: The Man of Mystery Who Set Off the Klondike Gold Rush.
The collection consists of 1.21 cubic feet of records, spanning the years 1869 to 1994, with the bulk of the records dating from 1881-1990. Approximately half of the records are the personal papers of George Carmack. Included are letters, court documents, legal documents, and photocopies of photographs of George Carmack. The bulk of the letters were written by Carmack to his sister, Rose Watson. James Wickersham's correspondence documents his research on Carmack. The court papers relate to the legal battles over Carmack's estate. There are separate subgroups for the papers of his first wife, Kate Carmack, and for the research papers of his biographer, James A. Johnson.
The Kate Carmack subgroup consists mainly of correspondence with her attorney, John H. Durst, from the period 1900-1901.
The James A. Johnson subgroup includes correspondence with publishers and Carmack's heirs pertaining to the writing and publication of Johnson's biography of Carmack, Carmack of the Klondike (1990), as well as a manuscript for the book.
Literary rights originally granted to James A. Johnson by Mrs. Arthur Howard, grand-niece of Carmack's wife, Marguerite, and other heirs were transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.
The collection is open to all users.
Photographs and slides of George W. Carmack, Kate Carmack, and others taken at Bonanza Creek, Yukon Territory, and California, ca. 1883-1920; James Albert Johnson, ca. 1990; and Carmack's descendents were transferred to the George W. Carmack Photograph Collection in the division in 2002.
The papers were donated to the Libraries by James Albert Johnson in 2000.
Processing was completed in 2002.
Carmack, George W., My Experiences in the Yukon (Seattle, The Trade Printery, c. 1933).
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