Jim McLaughlin, Terror of the Tenderloins

Prospector, packer and painted lady; merchant, gambler and thief; they all called rip-roaring Fort Yale home at the height of the Fraser River and Cariboo gold rushes.

Here, on the Fraser’s western flat, bonded in restless union by their quest for gold, 9000 men, women and children from every quarter of the globe toiled, fought and died for the elusive metal.

Of this motley populace, one man towered above his fellows.

The proudest grew humble before his command, brave men faltered, women fainted, dogs and children flew terror-stricken from his rage. Undisputed monarch of all he surveyed through eyes bloodshed red, he was Big Jim McLaughlin, the terror of the tenderloins.

You’ll meet Big Jim in next week’s Chronicle.

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PHOTO: For years, Fort Yale, originally a Hudson’s Bay trading post, was British Columbia’s own Dodge City.