[1][2][3] Born in the Principality of Serbia in 1870 as Mihajlo Vojnić (Serbian Cyrillic: Михајло Војнић), Winage reportedly left home at age 12, in 1882, for Canada.

One evening, when only the back and east walls remained, the floor torn up exposing the ground beneath, he spoke to a couple of young workers asking if there was one bar, or two.

His money was on two, an old bet with no way to win until that summer's evening when, as he told the men, they could help prove him right by panning the dust and other debris fallen through the floorboards.

While Black Mike chortled at winning the long-standing bet, the successful miners shovelled, rocked and washed dirt and watched as nuggets and gold dust accumulated in a borrowed pan.

[1][7] Claiming to have outlived three wives and all his friends, he spent the last 20 years of his life in MacDonald Lodge, a home for senior citizens, in Dawson City, Yukon Territory.