Did you know that May B. Mason staked a gold claim in the Yukon mining territory in 1898, finding gold dust valued (back then) at $5000?
May is believed to be the first African-American woman to go to the Yukon in the gold rush of 1897. She staked a claim in Hunter Creek and refused to sell it for $6,000 even when she was ready to return to Seattle. Upon returning to Seattle, she married Conrad Rideout and at her wedding wore “a black silk gown and her ears and fingers sparkled with diamonds.”
Source:
Black Women for Beginners by Saundra Sharp
https://historylink.org/File/2742
