It’s been over 150 years that Fritz Miller discovered gold in Pine Creek the autumn of 1897. Pine Creek, less than twenty miles in length, has its headwaters in Surprise Lake and empties into the larger lake of Atlin, from which latter lake the new strike obtained its name.

Fritz Miller had prospected the numerous surrounding creeks for two seasons before he made his “strike” and obtained gold in real paying quantities. Like many other discoverers of rich diggings, he by no means struck the richest ground in this newly found deposit, but he still managed to do very well, and when he finally pulled out of the camp a few years later it could be said that he was a comparatively wealthy man.

The strike, occurring at the very height of the Klondike Gold Rush, immediately drew great attention, and close to six thousand stampeders heading for the far North changed their minds and turned off for Atlin.

During 1898 there were five producing creeks, which included Pine the discovery creek, Boulder, Willow, Spruce, and McKee Creeks. Both Willow and Spruce Creeks are tributaries of Pine Creek. Boulder empties into the head of Surprise Lake not far from where Pine Creek leaves it. McKee is an entirely different watershed and empties into Atlin Lake some thirteen miles from the town of Atlin, and the gold itself is of a different color to that of the other creeks.

By far the richest creek during the first years of the camp was Willow Creek with a wealth of gold found in both the creek bed and on the low benches beside it. Bedrock on this creek was almost exposed, and for several acres had merely a thin layer of tundra covering it, and under this tundra coarse gold and numerous large nuggets were soon uncovered. Some lucky miners were able to simply pull the tundra off with their bare hands and scoop up handfuls of the precious metal. Naturally this creek was soon worked out but in 1900 a hydraulic company was still able to reap a rich harvest after the individual miners had sold out to them.

The Atlin placer camp has been unique in many ways, and can boast a far longer lifetime than most placer camps, as claims are still being worked profitably, both by hand mining and hydraulic. In addition, the camp can boast two runs of gold, deposited centuries apart.

During the first three years after the discovery seven million dollars worth of coarse gold was recovered, mostly by the individual miner. The Atlin gold camp is the second largest placer gold producer in British Columbia with a reported 600,000 ounces of gold produced between 1898 and 1945, and an estimated additional 400,000 ounces of gold produced since the record keeping ceased in 1946.

The Atlin camp suffered two big set-backs during it’s infancy. When originally discovered it was not known whether the creeks were in the Yukon Territory or British Columbia, and as there was considerable difference in the mining laws which resulted in claims being staked over again. This led to an immense amount of litigation, and several valuable properties being tied up. Later it was discovered that the camp was 44 miles from the boundary line, and that it was in fact in British Columbia.

In addition, the Government suddenly and without warning passed a law prohibiting any alien to own a mineral claim. This created a tremendous hardship on many hundreds of persons who had in several instances spent a full year hand-sledding up the Stikine River and heading over the Teslin Trail, from where they again turned off another ninety miles to reach Atlin. Several outfits had come overland from Edmonton, involving fourteen months of hardship in the bush to reach Telegraph Creek. Lawyers reaped a great harvest from these two causes of grief, and practically every law firm of both Vancouver and Victoria sent members of their firms North to fight the numerous cases.

Due to so much litigation and the newly brought in Alien Law, several hundred men found themselves stranded in the camp without means of support or the price of the fare to take them to other parts. The winter of 1900-1901 found several of these unfortunates sawing ice on the lake for one dollar per day and their board.

The following summer during a high wind a fire sprang up at the North end of the business section. Eleven stores and five saloons were burned to the ground before the fire could be brought under control. Most of the saloons had saved their liquor by hauling it out on the main street, handing out free drinks after the fire was under control.

New discoveries on other creeks have been made from time to time, and one of these – O’Donnel Creek – has become a real producer. O’Donnel is between twenty and thirty miles from where Fritz Miller made his first discovery more than a century ago.