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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Mining ground in the Fairbanks and Fish Creek basins. When gold was discovered on Ester Creek in late 1905, many miners left their claims on Fish Creek to find wealth in the last placer gold strike to be discovered in the Fairbanks district. When claim assessment requirements were not recorded by those that left for the new fields, they were considered abandoned claims under federal mining law and Mike re-staked some of them in his name--a common practice even today. In early 1909, an argument ensued between Stepovich and others over an abandoned lode gold claim on Fish Creek and other abandoned placer claims on Fairbanks Creek. Stepovich was confronted by three disgruntled miners, AMHF Inductee Merton Marston, William James, and ‘Poppa’ John Butrovich at Wise Mike’s cabin on Fairbanks Creek. One of the miners opened up with a rifle and Stepovich answered with his six-shooter. No one was hit. The encounter was brief and the three intruders quickly disappeared.They were later taken into custody. After a jury trial in November, 1909, two of the three were found guilty, but given surprisingly light sentences. Marston became an Iditarod millionaire and left Alaska eight years later for the Pacific Northwest to start a chicken ranch and later manage and remodel Seattle’s Sorrento Hotel, today the oldest operating hotel in Washington State. During the height of the drift mine activities in the Fairbanks district, Mike’s brother, Dan, arrived in 1905 or 1906 to be a miner in one of the Ester placer
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