Hinkle W James

Klondike Trek: Jim Hinkle's Life in the Gold Rush of 1898 Hinkle W James First edition

The letters and diary of James Hinkle tell a complete story of his travels during the Klondike gold rush of 1897-98. From the time of his arrival in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, he wrote day-by-day accounts of his experiences in letters to his family. As he traveled northward, he would write until such time as he met someone coming out of the wilderness who could take his letter to Edmonton to be mailed. Many times these would be Hudson's Bay representatives, who would occasionally have a letter for him from his family, although these were far too few.

Hinkle lived in the small Midwest town of Mattoon, Illinois, and, even there, the talk and excitement of the gold rush had stirred in the hearts of many men the latent desire for quick riches. Some of the more prominent men who had just a little more money than the average person yet not quite enough to satisfy them, decided to form a company called the Security Mining and Investment Company.

Their idea was to send three men to the Klondike, outfit them completely, pay their expenses and expect a gold mine in return. To get this project on its way, they sold stock in the company and all who bought it also expected to get their fair share of gold in due time.

There were alternate land and sea routes available. Some thought the Inland Passage up the west coast was the better route, but this was expensive, with passage hard to obtain and the mighty Chilkoot Pass to negotiate after completing the boat trip. Furthermore, six hundred miles of wilderness separated the pass from Dawson. Therefore, it was agreed the men would be sent overland to Edmonton and from there they would travel the rivers and existing trails northward, prospecting along the way.

From the Mattoon Daily Star
Mattoon, Illinois
March 25, 1898

A Klondyke Outfit: Katz And Kahn Buy Lots Of Stuff For Peters, Hinkle and Hardesty

Of the thousands of people who have the Alaska gold fever, very few have any conception of the expense necessary to secure a proper outfit. And even those who have unlimited means to buy an outfit are at a loss to know what to buy or in what quantities. Last week Louis Katz, Mark Kahn and J. R. Peters were in Chicago and purchased an outfit for the three men who will brave the terrors of the Klondyke for the next year and a half as the agents of the Security Mining and Investment Co. of this city. The men are J. R. Peters, Jim Hinkle and Charles Hardesty. All three are courageous men and seasoned to hard work and exposure.

The Star takes it that a brief enumeration of the principal articles necessary for such a project will be interesting reading to its readers. Here are some articles of hardware: Augers, axes and handles, bits and braces, chisels, compass, butcher knives and files, gold pans and hammers, oakum and picks, rope, saw-set, gold scales and shovels, screw-drivers, pack saddles and tents, whip-saws and hand saws, jack and block planes, spool wire and nails.

Another very necessary article is buck-skin shirts which are worn next to the hide to keep out the cold, also buck-skin drawers and mitts. The former garments are $6 each and the mitts $1.25. That the men will not go hungry is evidenced from the grocery list now before us. This list could run Uncle Amos' caravansary at the county jail for thirty years. Yet these three men expect to eat it all and more too if they don't die with the gout in eighteen months. Some of the items in the grocery list are amusing. For instance these two: sugar 100 pounds, soap 70¢. Now imagine three men getting along a year and a half on 70¢ worth of soap. At the end of that period they would not be allowed to work in a glue factory if that is all the soap they used?. [rest of Daily Star in Chapter One.]