These gold scales were originally owned by Clarence Kinsey, a local photographer along with his brother and partner, Clark, who were noted for their photographs of the early logging industry in the Pacific Northwest. Before settling in Washington, Kinsey used these scales during the gold rushes at Bonanza Creek in 1898, and Haggart Creek in 1911, both located in the Yukon Territory. The Kinsey brothers filed a claim for a mine in Gold Hill and founded the Kinsey & Kinsey photography studio in Grand Forks, which documented life in and around the gold mining industry in the Yukon Territory.