Clarence Berry

Who was Clarence Berry?

Clarence Jesse Berry, known as C.J., was a businessman and successful gold miner in the Klondike Gold Rush. He and his wife, Ethel Bush Berry, made a further fortune in Ester, Alaska in 1902, and founded several oil companies over the years, which eventually became Berry Petroleum Company.

In Ester, Berry pioneered the use of the cold water point and the steam point, used to thaw frozen soil and permafrost in a safer manner for drift mining than boring shafts using hot rocks or underground fires, which rendered the excavations and tunnels far more susceptible to collapse. The Berrys operated No. 8 Below Discovery Claim.