Henry "Harry" McDame (1826 – c. 1900) was a Bahamas-born prospector in the

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and

British Columbia gold rushes British Columbia gold rushes were important episodes in the history and settlement of European, Canadian and Chinese peoples in western Canada. The presence of gold in what is now British Columbia is spoken of in many old legends that, in part, led ...

Biography

He arrived in the

Colony of British Columbia The Colony of British Columbia refers to one of two colonies of British North America, located on the Pacific coast of modern-day Canada: *Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866) *Colony of British Columbia (1866–1871) See also *History of Br ...

in 1858, along with many other black people from California encouraged to move to the colony by Governor James Douglas, and took up land near modern-day

Quesnel Quesnel or Quesnell means "little oak" in the Picard dialect of French. It is used as a proper name and may refer to: Places * Le Quesnel, a commune the Somme department in France * Quesnel, British Columbia, a city in British Columbia, Canada ...

. He and his neighbour at Quensellemouthe, Robert Giscome, explored and established a major route to the

Peace River Gold Rush Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

at what became known as

Giscome Portage The Giscome Portage was a portage between the Fraser River and Summit Lake, which connected with the river route to the Peace Country via Finlay Forks. BC Parks administers the Giscome Portage Trail. The Huble Homestead Historic Site, at the sou ...

, connecting the northern bend of the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

with the

Parsnip River The Parsnip River is a long river in central British Columbia, Canada. It flows generally north-westward from the Parsnip Glacier in the Hart Ranges to the Parsnip Reach of Williston Lake, formed by the impounding of the waters of the Peace Rive ...

, thereby connecting the Fort George area to the Peace and, by a roundabout route, to the

Omineca River Omineca River is a river of the North American boreal forest, in northern British Columbia, Canada. It flows into the Williston Lake, and is part of the Peace River basin. It was originally a tributary of the Finlay River before the creation of La ...

goldfields. They explored the

Peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

Nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...

and

Smoky River The Smoky River is a river in western Alberta, Canada. It is a major tributary of the Peace River. The descriptive name refers to the presence of "smouldering beds of coal in the riverbank" noted by the Cree Indians. It drains an area of . Fro ...

s, as reported in a column in the ''

British Colonist The ''Times Colonist'' is an English-language daily newspaper in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It was formed by the Sept. 2, 1980 merger of the ''Victoria Daily Times'', established in 1884, and the ''British Colonist'' (later the ''Daily Co ...

'', December 15, 1863. They prospected on Germansen Creek in the

Omineca The Omineca Country, also called the Omineca District or the Omineca, is a historical geographic region of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, roughly defined by the basin of the Omineca River but including areas to the south which allowed a ...

area in 1870, but in 1874, like thousands of others, went to the

Cassiar Country The Cassiar Country, also referred to simply as the Cassiar, is a historical geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The Cassiar is located in the northwest portion of British Columbia, just to the northeast of the Stikin ...

following reports of rich gold deposits around

Dease Lake Dease Lake is a small community located in the Cassiar Country of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is located a few hours south of the Yukon border on Stewart–Cassiar Highway (Highway 37) at the south end of the lake o ...

. McDame and Giscome, with other partners, formed the Discovery Company and staked on what became known as McDame's Creek (McDame Creek today). British Columbia Mines Reports for 1874 for this area, by Gold Commissioner

J.H. Sullivan John Howe Sullivan (c. 1843 - 4 November 1875) was the Gold Commissioner for the Cassiar Country, Cassiar District in the Canadian province of British Columbia during the Cassiar Gold Rush of the 1870s. He held this position from 26 May 1874 until ...

, comment "I learn that a new creek has been discovered...now known as McDame's Creek ..Within 30 days they had extracted gold valued at $6000" (approx. $250,000 today). In 1877, McDame Creek was the location of the find of a

gold nugget :''"Gold nugget" may also refer to the catfish Baryancistrus xanthellus or the mango cultivar Gold Nugget.'' A gold nugget is a naturally occurring piece of native gold. Watercourses often concentrate nuggets and finer gold in placers. Nuggets a ...

weighing 72 ounces, worth $1,300 at the time (≈$52,000 today) and which is the largest nugget found in British Columbia's history. McDame mined with his partners in this area until the early 1880s, when McDame returned to the Omineca, discovering gold on Lorne Creek in 1884. He broke later in the year and wound up in a hospital in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

. He returned to the Omineca after his recovery, staking with a new partner, Sam Booth, and died in that region some time before 1901.

Legacy

In addition to McDame Creek, also named for him was McDame, originally known as McDame Post or McDame's Creek Post, which was sold to the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

in 1875 and has also been known as Fort McDame. McDames Creek Indian Reserve No.2 is located in the same area and is named for the creek, which in the

Kaska language The Kaska language originated from the family of Athabaskan languages. Traditionally Kaska is an oral aboriginal language that is used by the Kaska Dena people.Farnell, G. (2014). The Kaska Dene: A study of Colonialism, Trauma and Healing in Den ...

is known as Kasha (the source word for the term "Cassiar", referring to fibrous rock—or a crow). McDame also prospected in other areas, such as the Skeena, which was another route to both the Omineca and Cassiar gold districts; there he conferred a few placenames including Chimdemash Creek, the meaning of which is not known.

Biography

Legacy

References

Further reading