Alexander "Big Alex" McDonald (1859–1909) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

gold prospector who made (and lost) a fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush, earning himself the title "King of the Klondike".

Biography

The son of Scottish immigrants, McDonald was born in

Antigonish, Nova Scotia , settlement_type = Town , image_skyline = File:St Ninian's Cathedral Antigonish Spring.jpg , image_caption = St. Ninian's Cathedral , image_flag = Flag of Antigonish.pn ...

. He was an unsuccessful prospector, having tried his luck in the Colorado gold fields, before heading to the gold rush in

Juneau, Alaska The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau ( ; tli, Dzánti K'ihéeni ), is the capital city of the state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a unified municipality and the se ...

, in the late 1880s. In 1895 or 1896, he was in the

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

, employed by the

Alaska Commercial Company The Alaska Commercial Company (ACC) is a company that operated retail stores in Alaska during the early period of Alaska's ownership by the United States. From 1901 to 1992, it was known as the Northern Commercial Company (NCC). In 1992, it resumed ...

at Forty-Mile to buy mining properties.Adney, Tappan (1900)
''The Klondike Stampede''
New York : Harper. pp. 420–1 Gold was discovered in the region in 1897. He was nicknamed the "Big Moose from Antigonish", "Big Alex" and "Big Mac". He was described by a contemporary as:

... a large brawny, swarthy man, canny and close of mouth, with a curious habit of slowly rubbing his chin whenever a new proposition is presented to him. He makes it a rule to first say "No" to every proposal, however alluring, thus gaining time to think it over.

One of the early arrivals in the Klondike, he purchased either half or all of Claim 30 on Eldorado Creek from a Russian named Zarnosky or Zarnowsky for a sack of flour and a side of bacon. That claim proved to be one of the richest of the Klondike, yielding $5000 a day. McDonald's slowness of speech hid a shrewdness and business acumen that enabled him to amass a tremendous fortune, somewhere between seven and 27 million dollars. Rather than just work that single piece of land, he leased it to two other miners, who did the actual work for half of the proceeds.Berton, p. 78 In the first 45 days, that amounted to $30,000. He then proceeded to buy up other claims, and by the end of the year he had acquired 28. By 1898, he had interests in 75 mines, making him the largest landowner and employer in the area. That year, when the local Catholic church burned down, he donated $30,000, more than enough to pay for its rebuilding. When Father

William Judge Father William Judge (April 28, 1850 – January 16, 1899) was a Jesuit priest who, during the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush, established St. Mary's Hospital, a facility in Dawson City which provided shelter, food and any available medicine to th ...

started building St. Mary's Hospital, McDonald once again made a large donation. In the winter of 1898–1899, he toured Europe, finding time to marry, in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, Margaret Chisholm, the twenty-year-old daughter of the superintendent of the Thames Water Police, and to be received by

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...

, who made him a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory in appreciation of his generosity. However, though the gold rush eventually died down, McDonald continued to buy land claims, now mostly worthless, squandering his money. Living alone in a cabin on Clearwater Creek, he died of a heart attack in 1909. His remaining assets of $30,000 did not cover his debts. His widow benefited from a life insurance policy urged upon him by another Klondike tycoon,

Belinda Mulrooney Belinda Mulrooney (1872–1967) was an entrepreneur and purportedly the "richest woman in the Klondike". She made one fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush, lost it, and amassed a second, which lasted most of the rest of her life. Biography Mu ...

.Berton, p. 399 McDonald's legend was retold in an anonymous poem called "King of the Klondike" (''ca.'' 1910).Yukon Bill (pseudo.)
"King of the Klondike"
i
''Derby Day in the Yukon; and other poems of the "Northland"''
New York : George H. Doran co., ''ca.'' 1910, pg. 67-71 His resting place is in the cemetery in

Dawson City Dawson City, officially the City of Dawson, is a town in the Canadian territory of Yukon. It is inseparably linked to the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–99). Its population was 1,577 as of the 2021 census, making it the second-largest town in Yuko ...

References

;Footnotes ;Sources * Further reading McGill University Library, Rare Books and Special Collections, McDonald Bonanza (Klondike) Ltd. 1898 BSC MSG 789: Includes reports, correspondence, prospectus, and maps of the Alexander McDonald claim in the Klondike. {{DEFAULTSORT:McDonald, Alex (prospector) 1859 births 1909 deaths Canadian gold prospectors People from Antigonish, Nova Scotia People of the Klondike Gold Rush Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian expatriates in the United States