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The Frederick Bear Papers MSS 9 in Boise State University, Albertsons Library Special Collections Department
Frederick Bear was a miner in Alaska and the Yukon in the 1890s. Originally from Waumandee, Wisconsin, he went to Kitsap County, Washington, in the 1880s. Bear lived in Washington until May 1894, when he sailed for Alaska. For the next five years he mined in the upper Yukon River region of Alaska and the Yukon (Canada), on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border. His claims were on American and Boundary Creeks in Alaska (not far from the settlement of Forty Mile, Yukon) and on Bear Creek in the Klondike region of the Yukon. Frederick Bear died on September 28, 1899, at Fort St. Michael, Alaska. Another biographical sketch, with information that came from the donors of the collection, is attached. This collection consists principally of typewritten transcripts of Bear’s diaries from January 1, 1894, until a few days before his death. The donors retained the original diaries. In short, terse daily entries, Bear records his day’s work, social activities, hunting experiences, travels, and visits to Forty Mile and Dawson, Yukon, and Eagle and Circle, Alaska. The collection also contains photocopies of six letters Bear wrote home from Washington and two from Alaska. He jokes about his search for paradise, but concludes that neither Washington nor Alaska fit the bill. In a letter dated April 25, 1894, from Port Orchard, Washington, Bear outlines the reasons (chiefly economic) for going to Alaska. Also contained within the collection are letters pertaining to Bear’s death and estate and a typewritten transcript of a letter (1854) written by a female Swiss immigrant describing in detail her family’s trans-Atlantic voyage. The book Gold at Fortymile Creek: Early Days in the Yukon, by Michael Gates (University of British Columbia Press, 1994) discusses the experiences of the miners in the Forty Mile region in the 1890s and contains several helpful maps. Bear’s name is listed in an appendix of early pioneers. Gates characterizes Forty Mile as "an American town on Canadian soil" (p. 43). Indeed, a map with the collection (1887) places Forty Mile on the American side of the border. It was not until a year later that the exact location of the 141st meridian (the border) was established. The book is housed in the Library at call number F1095.Y9 G38 1994. Bear’s family later spelled their name Baer. His last name occasionally appears in that form too. Inclusive dates: 1854, 1887-1900 Size: 1/2 cubic feet (in one box) Inventory of the Frederick Bear Papers (MSS 9)
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