Beginning in 1894, William H. McPhee had a saloon at Fortymile, in partnership with Frank Densmore and Harry Spencer. It was there, in the late afternoon of August 17, 1896, that George Carmacks made his first major announcement of the discovery of gold on Rabbit Creek. By the next morning, Fortymile was pretty well empty, as almost everybody headed for what was renamed Bonanza Creek.

McPhee was not universally admired, because he was reputed to encourage men to drink themselves into insolvency. (Michael Gates, Gold at Fortymile Creek - Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 1994)

    While a bartender at McPhee's saloon, Clarence Berry grubstaked Antone Stander - this investment would soon make Berry one of the richest of the "Klondike Kings".

    McPhee was one of the original members of the Yukon Order of Pioneers, founded on December 1, 1894 at Forty Mile.

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Yukon & Alaska Pioneer Biographies

Klondike Gold Rush

Yukon Order of Pioneers