Belinda Mulrooney

Belinda Mulrooney (1872–1967) was an entrepreneur and purportedly the "richest woman in the Klondike". She made one fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush, lost it, and amassed a second, which lasted most of the rest of her life.

Biography Mulrooney was born in County Sligo, Ireland. When she was young, her family either emigrated to Pennsylvania, where her father worked as a miner or sent her to live with relatives there. She set out on her own and operated a sandwich stand during the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. With her profits, she traveled to San Francisco in 1894 to set up an ice cream parlor.

On 1 October 1900, Mulrooney married self-styled "Count" Charles Eugene Carbonneau, who claimed to be a French aristocrat, but was actually a champagne salesman and former barber from Quebec. By 1903 or 1904, the couple separated, and she lost her fortune. She obtained a divorce in December 1906.

Starting over, she moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1904 or 1905 and prospered once again. She established the Dome City Bank in Fairbanks with her younger sister Margaret.

Mulrooney eventually retired to Yakima, Washington, where she had a large mansion built c. 1910. She supported her family until her money ran out. She then moved to Seattle, where she died in 1967.

Depictions in popular culture Abbie Cornish played a fictionalized version of Mulrooney in the Discovery Channel miniseries Klondike. In the TG4 series An Klondike, she was portrayed by Bríd Ní Neachtain and appears in the fictional town of Dominion Creek instead of Dawson City.

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