Charley Anderson “The Lucky Swede”

Charley John Anderson was born in Tingstad, Östergötland, Sweden in 1859. His father was a farmhand. Charley left for America in 1887. Charley made his way to San Francisco and in 1894 found himself one of thousands of unemployed who were caught in the severe depression called the “Panic of ’93” which rocked the American economy.

The only place left to explorers and adventurers like Anderson, was to go north to Alaska and northwest Canada. Charley Anderson embarked on a harrowing journey over land, sea and mountains to a place in the Yukon called Glacier Creek. He was digging for gold for a dollar an hour and worked himself up to a partner in the Glacier Creek Mine.

One night however when he was drunk, he met some miners who wanted to sell their claim 29 in the Eldorado. Charley bought it for $800.00 and immediately regretted it when he became sober and tried to get his money back but had no luck with that. As it turned out The Lucky Swede had got himself a mine that had a million dollars worth of gold in the bedrock under his claim! Charley extracted gold for the next 4 years and then decided to go off to Europe with his wife Grace Drummond. Grace was a dance hall girl and the story has it that she wanted $50,000.00 in to her bank account in order to marry Charley. He was happy to give her the money! The couple eventually came back to San Francisco where they built a turreted castle for themselves and invested in real estate.

Unfortunately the San Francisco earthquake in 1906 laid waste to Charley’s fortune and his wife divorced him! The Lucky Swede traveled north and it is said that he worked for a time in the Howe Sound area, mining at the Britannia Mine and also in Sapperton.

Charley ended up going to Texada Island. Texada at that time had many working mines. Texada Island was considered the richest 25 square miles in British Columbia. The towns of Van Anda and Texada City boasted three hotels with saloons and an opera house and three thousand citizens rivaling San Francisco. Our Lucky Swede worked at some of the mines and staid on Texada Island until his death in 1939. Charley was put to rest at the Woodlands Cemetery on Texada Island. His gravestone is still there.