This double portrait depicts Yukon Order of Pioneers Seattle Lodge No. 2 members Frank Lawson and George W. Carmack wearing YOOP sashes, with the YOOP banner depicted in the center.

George W. Carmack was a gold miner in the Yukon Territory. Carmack, his brother-in-law Kèsh (of the Tagish People, also known as Skookum Jim or James Mason ), and Kèsh nephew Káa Goox (Tagish Charlie or Dawson Charlie) discovered rich gold deposits on Rabbit Creek. The discovery, later named Bonanza Creek, launched the Klondike Gold Rush in 1896.

The Yukon Order of Pioneers (YOOP) fraternal organization was formed on December 1, 1894 at Forty Mile, Yukon Territory, Canada. With the motto "Do unto others as you would be done by" as its abiding rule, the organization helped maintain law and order and settle disagreements among early prospectors and residents. In order to qualify for membership, pioneers were required to have been in the Yukon Territory on or before 1888, and membership was limited to Yukon pioneers only; Alaska stampeders were excluded. In 1912, many of the miners had moved to Seattle and applied to form a lodge there; the Yukon Order of Pioneers Seattle Lodge No. 2 was founded that year by George T. Snow and Thomas W. O'Brien.

Handwritten on photo: Frank Lawson, Geo. W. Carmack

Caption information source: "Káa Goox," by Julie Cruikshank, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id_nbr=6830
Caption information source: "Chapter 1: A Brief Gold Rush History," An Administrative History of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/klgo/adhi/chap1.htm