Joseph W. Boyle

Joseph Whiteside Boyle DSO (born 6 November 1867 in Toronto, Ontario, died 14 April 1923 in Hampton Hill, Middlesex, England), better known as Klondike Joe Boyle, was a Canadian adventurer who became a businessman and entrepreneur in the United Kingdom.

Summary

Boyle was early to recognize the potential of large-scale gold mining in the Klondike gold fields, and as the initial placer mining operations waned after 1900, Boyle and other companies imported equipment to assemble enormous dredges, usually electric-powered, that took millions more ounces of gold from the creeks while turning the landscape upside-down, shifting creeks. Boyle organized an ice hockey team in 1905, often known as the Dawson City Nuggets, that endured a difficult journey to Ottawa, Ontario (by overland sled, train, coastal steamer, then transcontinental train) to play the Ottawa Silver Seven for the Stanley Cup, which until 1924 was awarded to the top ice hockey team in Canada and could be challenged for by a team. Ottawa thrashed the Dawson team.