Clarence Berry

Berry Park in Selma, California, is named for Berry, who was a struggling fruit farmer in that San Joaquin Valley town before he traveled to the Klondike. He was a son of a forty-niner. Clarence went to Yukon, Alaska in 1894 in search of gold after his fruit farming venture failed in California. During his first year in Alaska, CJ learned from local natives on how to survive in the hostile environment. It was a very difficult year for CJ during the winter of 1894/95, as he got trapped deep into the Forty Mile Creek area and had only beans to eat for two months. The multitude of hardships working a mining operation solo were extensive. After a long day of hard labor, his cabin would have to be heated with chopped wood and water melted for drinking and cooking.

CJ returned to Selma in 1895 and married his childhood sweetheart Ethel Bush in 1896. The newlyweds and CJ's brother Fred returned to Alaska for the honeymoon. Ethel Berry was one of the earliest white women to cross the Chilkoot Pass, although the distinction of the first female crossing is thought to belong to Dutch Kate, in 1888. The honeymooners settled in at the Forty Mile Creek outpost on the Yukon River. To make ends meet as looked for gold, CJ got a job as the local bartender.