ROSS SIMPSON

While salmon fishing near the Klondike River in Canada’s
Yukon Territory on August 16, 1896, George Carmack
reportedly spotted nuggets of gold in a creek bed. His
lucky discovery sparked the last great gold rush in the
American West.

Hoping to cash in on reported gold strikes in Alaska,
Carmack had traveled there from California in 1881. After
running into a dead end, he headed north into the isolated
Yukon Territory, just across the Canadian border.

In 1896, another prospector, Robert Henderson, told
Carmack of finding gold in a tributary of the Klondike
River. Carmack headed to the region with two Native
American companions, known as Skookum Jim and
Tagish Charlie.

George Washington Carmack
(September 24, 1860 – June 5, 1922)

Klondike Gold Rush Campsite.

River.

(FoxNews) – An extremely rare 1854 $5 gold coin could sell for millions of
dollars when it is auctioned this month.

The 1854-S half eagle coin was struck in April 1854 one day after the opening
of the San Francisco Mint, according to auction house Stack’s Bowers
Galleries.

“To help deal with the overwhelming amount of gold discovered in California
during the Gold Rush, the United States set up an official government Branch
Mint in San Francisco in April 1854, the first such facility west of the
Mississippi,” it said in a statement.

The coin, which is the first 1854-S half eagle minted, is one of just three
examples known to exist.

“It has been graded AU-58+, far finer than the EF-45 example that brought
$2.16 million in August 2018,” said Stack’s Bowers Galleries in a
statement.

The $5 coin will be auctioned on March 20 in Baltimore.

Harvey G. Stack (left) and his son Lawrence R. Stack.

ROSS SIMPSON

On this day in 1848, James Wilson Marshall
(October 8, 1810 – August 10, 1885) found
a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in northern
California. The discovery led to the gold
rush of ’49’.

John Sutter’s sawmill in 1850. The historians at Marshall Gold State Historic Park concluded the person seen in the above photo was
the photographer’s assistant who was used to show scale.

James Marshall’s cabin in Coloma, California.

James Marshall Monument

                            
                          Monica Samille Lewinsky turned 45 in July.

On this day in 1896, the Klondike gold rush
was set off by George Carmack (above) 
discovering on Rabbit Creek in Alaska.

Robert Fulton’s "North River Steam Boat" (known as the "Clermont") began heading up New York’s Hudson River on its successful round-
trip to Albany on this day in 1807.

It was on this day in 1987

Rudolf Walter Richard Hess(April 26, 1894 – August 17, 1987)  
                                            
                                             

Actor Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. is 75 today.

Legendary actor Robert De Niro won an Academy Award for
Best Actor for his role as Jake LaMotta in the 1980 boxing film 
Raging Bull and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
for his role as Vito Corleone in the 1974 classic The Godfather
Part II. His many other celebrated films include Taxi Driver
(1976), Cape Fear (1991), and The Deer Hunter (1979).