A Colorado Pioneer
By Maggie Magoffin
Born July 31, 1840 in Perryville, Kentucky, William Henry Yankee at an early age moved with his family to Sedalia, Missouri and grew up on a farm there. At only eighteen years of age he drove his oxen team from a prairie schooner across the plains of Missouri to Colorado. After an exciting and perilous journey involving a two-day fight with Indians, he arrived in Denver on June 24, 1859. He remained in Denver only a short time before continuing his journey to Clear Creek Canyon, settling in Russel Gulch. From July to October 1859 he worked steadily at sluicing with nine other miners. On the clean-up they each received thirty-seven cents for their three month’s work. Early that winter, he worked at the Gregory Bobtail Mine for a short time, then re-entered the prospecting field, devoting most of his time to the upper part of the north fork of Clear Creek. While on this trip, in the company of others, they found an immense boulder of lead ore.
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