Alex McDonald (prospector) Alex McDonald (prospector) Alexander "Big Alex" McDonald (1859–1909) was a Canadian gold prospector who made (and lost) a fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush, earning himself the title "King of the Klondike". The son of Scottish immigrants, McDonald was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. He was an unsuccessful prospector, having tried his luck in the Colorado gold fields, before heading to the gold rush in Juneau, Alaska, in the late 1880s. In 1895 or 1896, he was in the Yukon, employed by the Alaska Commercial Company at Forty-Mile to buy mining properties. Gold was discovered in the region in 1897.
John Connelly (prospector) him are held in the Field Museum, Chicago, the Bishop Museum in Hawaii and the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. His papers are held in the State Library of New South Wales. John Connelly (prospector) John Francis Connelly (1860–1928) was an Australian prospector and mine owner. Born in Victoria, he prospected and owned mines in New South Wales. He discovered a platinum field at Fifield before joining the gold rush to Cossack, Western Australia in 1889. He discovered the Nannine gold field the following year, and was rewarded by the Government of Western Australia with £500. Later, he prospected