Portrait of Joseph Whiteside Boyle

People/magnate, rescuer

Joseph Whiteside Boyle

Joseph Whiteside Boyle (1867–1923), magnate, rescuer, from Canada. Linked to gold.

The lucky break

Reached Dawson in July 1897 with the boxer Frank Slavin. On 5 November 1900 he was granted a lease of about 40 square miles along the Klondike River between Bonanza and Hunker creeks.1,2,3

The downfall

By 1919 his Klondike holdings were in receivership and a bid for a Caucasus oil concession for Royal Dutch Shell failed.1,2,3

Legacy

His dredging operation peaked with four dredges, three of them the world's largest, and a power plant. In 1917 to 1919 he helped rescue about 50 high-ranking Romanians held in Odessa and became a national hero in Romania.1,2,3

Story cards

Timeline

  1. 1897 to 1900Klondike gold rush4
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Where next

Mines

OwnedKlondike (Bonanza Creek)He held a 40-square-mile Klondike lease and ran the largest dredges.1

Events

Worked atKlondike gold rushHe reached Dawson in July 1897 with the boxer Frank Slavin.1

Places

Worked atDawson CityThe boxer's friend who dredged the Klondike and rescued Romanians.1

Sources

  1. BOYLE, JOSEPH WHITESIDE Dictionary of Canadian Biography
  2. Wikidata item Q4090442
  3. File pages and licence metadata for portraits (via the Commons imageinfo/extmetadata API) Wikimedia Commons
  4. Skagway: Gateway to the Klondike (Teaching with Historic Places) US National Park Service

Pictures on this page: 1918 - Colonelul Joseph (Joe) Boyle.png, Unknown author (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0; Underground mining equipment by Kaupo Kikkas, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Gold prospectors constructing a long box with a filter for panning gold. Process print after H.M. Paget, 1899., Henry Marriott Paget (Public Domain Mark 1.0).