The First Bank in Dawson.

Bank of British North America, Dawson, Yukon Territories.

Although the Canadian Bank of Commerce with their notes overprinted DAWSON and YUKON have received all the publicity in Canadian numismatics, they were not the first bank in the gold-rush area. By only a short period, that designation belongs to the Bank of British North America who opened their doors in the building shown above on May 11 th , 1898.

The party of six bank employees, under the leadership of manager David Doig, left Vancouver on April 1 st aboard an ocean “tramp steamer”, the Pakshan , bound for Skagway and arriving three days later. Skagway is now in Alaska but at the time was a sort of disputed territory between Canada and the U.S. It was the fastest route to the gold fields, even though it meant climbing the formidable Chilkoot Pass; even worse, Canada – in the form of the North West Mounted Police – refused entry into Canadian territory except that the entrants had at least 1000 pounds of supplies each. Therefore, 20 and sometimes 30 trips had to be made up the pass. The BBNA party had even worse luck: a slide had closed the Chilkoot and they would have to take the even worse White Pass route.

At the time, Skagway was home to the notorious “Soapy” Smith and his gang of bandits who operated quite openly due to the numbers at his command and the weak law enforcement in the American territory. In fact, Soapy met his doom that July 8 th in a

shootout with a gang of vigilantes in which Frank Reid, leader of this second group, was also killed. In the meantime, the Bank party laid low since they were carrying in excess of “$1,000,000 in bank treasure”. Because it was disputed territory, the Mounties were given some jurisdiction over Canadian and British citizens and had a post in town; it was here that the Bank guarded its shipment of notes and coin under the watchful eye of Inspector Wood and a couple of troopers. Nevertheless, before word could leak to Soapy, it was decided to move it quickly and, laying aside a number of regulations, a party of three bank employees and five well-armed troopers slipped out of Skagway after dark, crossing over the White Pass during the night. In the meantime, Doig went out of his way to engage in a poker game with Smith himself to throw him off any possible scent. At six the next morning, one of the Mounties returned, reporting that the treasure was safe at Summit in British territory.

The journey resumed by foot and canoe so that the party reached Dawson on May 17 th , 1898, immediately secured proper quarters and opened its doors for business on the 19 th . The first bank in the gold fields stood to make substantial profits and both the British North America and the Commerce, who followed only a few weeks later, did just that Happily, they found that gold was selling for only $17 per fine ounce against a “world price” of $20.67.

We know that the Bank of Commerce sent its unsigned notes into the Yukon overprinted DAWSON (and later YUKON) as a security measure against loss or theft .

Bank of British North America. $5, Issue of May 28 th , 1886.

Mss. sign. lt., engr. Stikeman sign. rt.

Bank of British North America. $10, Issue of July 3 rd , 1889.

Mss. signs. both lt. and rt.

The Bank of British North America did not use overprinting but we can assume that their notes, too, would have remained unsigned until paid out by the Dawson branch of the bank. Presumably, one of those signatures would have been that of David Doig which would pretty much earmarked such notes as having been issued by the Dawson branch. There were probably $20, $50 and $100 notes as well since, even though these three were still using the issue of 1877, all three are known with the engraved Stikeman signature. All of the notes of these various issues were finally superceded but not until 1911 – with Stikeman still in charge. Chances are good any surviving Doig-signature notes will be entirely hand-signed.