(The sparse information about Captain Henry Back and his relatives and associates relies here on Yukon Places and Names (2nd edition, 2003) by mining engineer and historian R.C. "Bob" Coutts, late of Atlin, British Columbia.)

Captain Henry Seymour Back was championed as an outstanding Yukon pioneer who was said to have earned his rank in the American Civil War before migrating west as an army scout and Indian fighter and was eventually attracted to the Klondike gold rush.

On November 13, 1897, he is said to have named a small stream Hobo Creek that flows into the Little Klondike River (NTS 115P).

He seemed to have enjoyed a fair measure of prospecting and financial success in the Klondike. For some reason, he darted off to the Nansen area in August, 1899, and did make a discovery on a tributary to Nansen Creek. However, stories of richer strikes evidently lured him to the Alaska gold rush. How he made out there is unknown.

He returned to the Carmacks district in 1907 with about eight men in tow, including his son, Frank. They zeroed in on and discovered a richly-mineralized area in the shadows of Mount Nansen (NTS 115I), a landmark supposedly named for Norwegian Arctic explorer Fritjof Nansen.

Captain Back and his son Frank prospected Back Creek, which they named in 1910. The stream is a tributary to Victoria Creek, 10 miles southeast of Mount Nansen.

On June 13, 1910, Frank Back with Tom Bee staked the first claims on both Nansen Creek and its tributary of Discovery Creek. It was in 1899 that Captain Back had made the first told discovery in the area on Discovery Creek at the point where the creek joins Nansen Creek. But no work was done until he returned with a prospecting party from Alaska.

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See related article Fred "Fritz" Guder: Freegold Fame.