Clarence Berry

Clarence Jesse Berry (1867–1930), known as C.J., was a businessman and successful gold miner in the Klondike Gold Rush. He and his wife, Ethel Bush Berry, made a further fortune in Ester, Alaska, in 1902, and founded several oil companies over the years, which eventually became Berry Petroleum Company.

In Ester, Berry pioneered the use of the cold water point and the steam point, used to thaw frozen soil and permafrost in a safer manner for drift mining than boring shafts using hot rocks or underground fires, which rendered the excavations and tunnels far more susceptible to collapse. The Berrys operated No. 8 Below Discovery Claim.

Berry Park in Selma, California, is named for Berry, who was a struggling fruit farmer in that San Joaquin Valley town before he traveled to the Klondike. Clarence went to Alaska in 1894 in search of gold after his fruit farming venture failed in California. During his first year in Alaska, CJ learned from local natives on how to survive in the hostile environment. It was a very difficult year for CJ during the winter of 1894/95, as he got trapped deep into the Forty Mile Creek area and had only beans to eat for two months. The multitude of hardships working a mining operation solo were extensive. After a long day of hard labor, his cabin would have to be heated with chopped wood and water melted for drinking and cooking.

CJ returned to Selma in 1895 and married his childhood sweetheart Ethel Bush in 1896. The newlyweds and CJ's brother Fred returned to Alaska for the honeymoon. Ethel Berry was one of the earliest white women to cross the Chilkoot Pass, although the distinction of the first female crossing is thought to belong to Dutch Kate, in 1888. The honeymooners settled in at the Forty Mile Creek outpost on the Yukon River, and CJ got a job as the local bartender.

In the summer of 1896, George Carmack walked into the Forty Mile Creek Saloon and paid for his drink with gold nuggets. CJ felt Carmack's story was credible and left immediately with his brother Fred to stake claims. CJ and Fred, staying very close to shore in their small boat, pushed themselves upriver with "poles" slowly but surely against the mighty Yukon River current. It was hard work, but the Berry brothers made the 50-mile (80 km) journey upstream to the claims within a few days.

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