Legendary miner and oilman Clarence J. Berry left a mining legacy that is hard to match in the realm of the Klondike and Alaska gold rushes. Forty years after his passing, his family bestowed some of his wealth to the Alaska Museum of the North at the University of Alaska Fairbanks to create a display that would be devoted to Alaska gold and gold mining. Here is how it all came about.
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
Jan. 6, 1973
He Struck it Rich Four Times
Clarence J. Berry was one of the first to strike it rich in the Klondike at the end of the last century, and he held on to his fortune, enlarged it through wise investment, and lived comfortably for the rest of his days. At his untimely death in 1930 he left an estate that was to benefit a multitude of family heirs for many generations.
Now, in his memory, the Berry Holding Company, the company which his death created, and which is still made up of family members, has pledged $25,000 to establish a gold display room in the University of Alaska’s museum here. An initial payment of $10,000, which will permit planning and construction of the “Gold Room,” has been received.
In addition, the company will offer in Berry’s memory three $1,000 scholarships to students in the university’s College of Earth Sciences and Mineral Industry beginning with the 1973-74 academic year. In the current year, in lieu of the scholarships, the company has given $8,000 to the college. It is an unrestricted gift, to be used as the college desires.
Earl Beistline, dean of the college and provost of the university’s Northern Region, is working closely with the company to help carry out its wishes.
Berry a strong, broad-shouldered man had been a fruit farmer in Selma, California. The depression of the 1890’s foreclosed all opportunity for him there and in 1894 he decided to try his luck prospecting in Alaska. Word of the Klondike discovery in 1897 reached him at Fortymile where, penniless, he was tending bar for saloonkeeper Bill McPhee to support himself and his young wife Ethel, whom he had brought north with him after a return trip to California.
With a grubstake from McPhee, Berry headed for the Klondike, staked a claim on Bonanza Creek, and within a year was a wealthy man.
In his book “The Klondike Fever,” Pierre Berton wrote of Berry: “He was sober, honest, hard-working, ambitious, and home-loving, and he stayed that way. Of all the original locaters on Bonanza and Eldorado (creeks) there is scarcely one other to whom these statements apply.”
Back at Fortymile after having staked his Klondike claim, Berry encountered Antone Stander who had also staked a claim in the Klondike and now, destitute, was trying to find a friend to help him obtain provisions to he could begin mining operations, Berton recounted. Berry became that friend and Stander, out of gratitude, “traded Berry half of his Eldorado property for half of a claim that Berry had staked on Upper Bonanza,” Berton wrote. “With this ample gesture berry laid the foundations for one of the largest personal fortunes to come out of the Klondike.”
To work their claims after winter had set in, the miners of that time would build fires to thaw the frozen ground. In her thesis for a mining engineering degree from the University of Alaska, entitled “the Evolution of Placer Mining Methods in Alaska,” Genevieve A. Parker credits Berry with a part in the development of steam points, implements for injecting steam into the ground. Steam proved far more efficient than fire for thawing. One of Berry’s first steam points was a rifle barrel secured to the end of a steam hose.
From the Klondike, Berry went to the Fairbanks area where he carried on successful mining operations on Ester Creek. For many years the post office at Ester was known as the Berry Post Office. Later he mined on Eagle, Mammoth and Mastodon creeks in the Circle mining district.
Wrote Berton: “Berry took a million and a half dollars from his claims on Eldorado. Then he and his brothers moved on to Fairbanks where they struck it rich a second time on Ester Creek. They returned to California, secured oil property near Bakersfield, and made another enormous fortune.”
Berry was known as a generous man. Berton told of his placing in front of his Klondike cabin a coal-oil can full of gold and a bottle of whiskey beside it and a sign above them with the terse message: “Help yourself.”
And, recounted Berton, “Berry never forgo5t his original benefactor, Bill McPhee, the saloonkeeper. In 1906 McPhee’s saloon at Fairbanks was destroyed by fire and the aging barkeeper lost everything … Berry wired him from San Francisco to draw on him for all the money necessary to get back into business again. In his declining years McPhee lived on a pension from Berry, who died of appendicitis in San Francisco in 1930…”
Now the University of Alaska museum staff under the direction of L. J. Rowinski is beginning to assemble the items that will go into the “Gold Room” and make plans for the acquisition of gold specimens. A bronze plaque with the likeness of Berry in relief by sculptor Spero Anagyros of San Francisco will be commissioned separately by Berry Holding Company and mounted at the room entrance.
A vault-type display case will house gold in all its forms: ore, nuggets, dust, and likely some worked gold. There will be displays of artifacts from the gold rush period including some of Berry’s steam points and a collection of points donated by Mrs. James Barrack. Rowinski estimates the room will be completed in the late spring.
The results of Berry’s good fortune are now being made available to the public and the university, and it is an excellent gesture by the family in honor of an early-day Alaskan.
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
July 25, 1973
University’s ‘Gold Room’ in Honor of Prospector
The C. J. Berry “Gold room” in the University of Alaska museum here — named for one of the few prospectors who struck it rich in the Klondike 75 years ago and held on to his fortune — will be officially opened on July 27.
The opening of the Gold Room is scheduled for that date. Among those to be present will be Mrs. Keith Lowell of Calgary, Alberta, a niece of Berry. She will be accompanied by her husband. Special invitations have gone out to the Fairbanks chapters of the Pioneers of Alaska.
Main feature of the Gold Room is a case full of gold in all its forms — dust, nuggets, ore, and gold implements and jewelry.
A large wall map with illustrations shows most of the gold camps in Alaska and the Yukon Territory, including the old settlement of Ester near Fairbanks where Berry again discovered gold after his Klondike success. Ester was once known as Berry.
Also contained in the university’s Gold Room are relics from the great gold-mining era of the past — including steam points used to thaw frozen ground. Most of these items have been donated or loaned by a number of long-time Alaska residents.
The Berry Holding Co. of Fresno, Calif., a company which came into being on Berry’s death and is made up of family members, donated $25,000 to establish the Gold Room. In addition, the company will offer in Berry’s memory three $1,000 scholarships to students in the university’s College of Earth Sciences and Mineral industry beginning with the 1973-74 academic year.
