It was on July 22nd, 1902 that Felix Perdoni, an Italian immigrant, better known to history as Felix Pedro, would secure his place in Alaska history when he discovered gold one a small tributary of Cleary Creek.

That discovery in the Tanacross Hills northeast of present-day Fairbanks would spark a full-fledged gold rush. The gold discovery would prove to be highly productive and placer mining would overwhelm the area spanning five miles of the creek. It remains to be very productive to this day.

Pedro would die eight years to the very day of his famous discovery on July 22nd, 1910. He was 52 years old. It was believed that his wife, Mary Doran, poisoned him, taking his life. Pedro’s prospecting partner, Vincenzo Gambiani, would attest to this and on his deathbed, when asked about Pedro’s death, wrote down two words, “Wife poison.”

Many years later, in 1972, Pedro’s remains were dug up and hair samples determined that he had in fact been murdered. He was re-interred in his hometown in Italy.

In 1947, a monument was erected at mile 16.1 of the Steese Highway near the creek that bears his name.

  1902, 1910, cleary creek, death, ffelix pedro, gold rush, july 22, poison, tanacross hills