That there's Gold. The very mention of the word put a sparkle in the eyes of young men eager for ex- citement and hungry for riches in the 1890s. They travelled hundreds of miles by horse and train with few belongings and less money, hoping to strike it rich in the untamed wilderness of the Yukon. Along with these wild-eyed prospectors came business- men, bankers, bartenders and others. Henry Thomas was a former Belleville banker who moved to Orangeville in 1890 and six years later headed north to Dawson City, Yukon Territory to become manager of the city's first bank. His grandson, William S. Wills, says Thomas worked for the Canadian Bank of Com- merce. Dawson City's branch was in a large log cabin. Pre- sumably, its safe was made of something sturdier than logs. Thomas was a big, burly man and at six feet, was above average height for the times. Wills has been told that while Thomas was sitting in a saloon gold, boys! <Rgmember when.. Sunday May 17,1992 one day, a man walked in claiming to be a professional wrestler. He challenged Tho- mas to a match and was soundly defeated by the pen- cil-pushing bank manager. In the photograph below, Thomas is shown with former prime minister Sir Mackenzie Bowell and Judge John Frank- lin Wills (mayor of Belleville from 1913-1916) as part of a committee comprised of resi- dents from the Quinte area. The committee's purpose is un- known but it was likely con- nected with the heady days of the gold rush. It is worth noting that shortly after Thomas left the bank in 1904, his replacement fired one of the bank's employ- ees -- poet Robert Frost.