1947
The Whitehorse Star Reports in 1947
January | |
January 17, 1947 | The Yukon Fish and Game Association re-elects officers by acclamation. President, G.R Bidlake: Vice-President, Thomas Portlock: Secretary, W.D MacBride: Treasurer, J.B Watson. |
January 17, 1947 | Three Territorial Councilors win seats by acclamation. They are John R. Fraser for Dawson, Ernest Corp for Mayo, and Gordon Lee for Whitehorse. |
January 17, 1947 | The Ottawa Journal reports on January 10, 1947 that the defence department plans for maintenance of the Alaska Highway by civilian control rather than military control. |
January 24, 1947 | It is announced that the Canadian governement has agreed to permit the United States government of dispose of the Canol project to private intererests. |
February | |
February 3, 1947 | The coldest Temperature ever recorded in North America, -81.4 F/-63 C, at Snag. The airfield was built during World War II as part of the Northwest Staging Route to provide weather observations and an emergency landing strip for air traffic heading to Alaska and beyond. The same day, the thermometer bottomed out to at least -80F in Mayo. |
February 24, 1947 | Snag achieves notoriety as being the coldest spot on the North American continent with temperatures hovering around minus 82 degrees Fahrenheit (-63 degrees Celsius). |
February 21-23, 1947 | The Whitehorse Winter Carnival features Queen candidates Mary Gunn (MacBride), Gloria Cyr, and Margaret Ricalton. Beard contest registration begins on January 1, and the contest ends February 23. |
February 21, 1947 | Fire destroys weather and radio stations at Mayo. |
February 21, 1947 → October 17, 1947 |
The construction of the Pine River Bridge and Highway is announced. They will link the coast cities with the Peace River district and afford direct communication through to Fairbanks, via Ashcroft, Williams Lake, Quespel, Prince George, Commotion Creek, Watson Lake and Whitehorse. The Bridge is completed and opened for traffic mid October. |
March | |
March 21, 1947 | J. E. Gibben, Q.C. assumes the office of Public Administrator for the Yukon Territory. |
March 21, 1947 | George Black proposes in his address to the House of Commons the fusion of the MacKenzie district N.W.T. with the Yukon. |
March 28, 1947 | The B.C. government announces it is ready to lease five-acre lots for hotel gas station and restaurant purposes on the Alaska Highway. |
May | |
May 9, 1947 | The United States government rejects all bids for the Canol project No. 1. |
May 30, 1947 | The paddle-wheeler Casca is the first boat to leave for Dawson. |
June | |
June 12, 1947 | “Challenge of the Yukon,” a radio serial featuring Sergeant Preston and his lead dog King, begins broadcasting on the ABC radio network. The program aired on ABC until December 30, 1949 and then on The Mutual Broadcasting System from January 2, 1950 through the final broadcast on June 9, 1955. The title changed from “Challenge of the Yukon” to “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon” in November 1951. |
June 13, 1947 | Hon. Paul Martin, minister of National Health and Welfare, discloses that arrangements have been completed for the first large-scale tuberculosis X-Ray survey of the Indians of the Yukon. |
Summer 1947 | C.P.A. expands its service under the leadership of Grant McConachie, President of Canadian Pacific Air Lines, who started Yukon Southern Airways back in 1939. "Just think of it,” said McConachie, “if Magellan's world could be compared to a watermelon, it took three hundred years and steam power to shrink it to the size of an apple. But in half a century the airplane has shriveled it to the size of a pea, and in another fifty years will reduce it further to the size of a pinhead." |
July | |
July 4, 1947 | As of July 1, 1947, the boundaries of the Whitehorse mining district are expanded by proclamation. The Whitehorse Mining district embraces now the whole of the Southern Yukon to approximately the 63rd parallel of North Latitude. |
July 11, 1947 | Imperial Oil Company acquires the Whitehorse oil refinery and will move it to Alberta. They dub the final trip "Imperial Oil's $7,000,000 gamble." The company only paid the US Foreign Liquidation Commission $1 million for the refinery itself. The remaining $6 million was spent tearing the refinery apart, and moving the seven thousand tons more than 1,300 miles, first by truck from Whitehorse to Dawson Creek, and then by train to Edmonton and its final destination near Leduc. In addition, they sent three large shipments to Skagway over the White Pass and Yukon Route railway, then down the coast on the Canadian Pacific Railway steamer Nootka to Vancouver, then by railroad to Edmonton. |
July 11, 1947 | Old-time Yukoners and Alaskans hold the 16th annual International Sourdough re-union in Seattle to celebrate the 50th anniversay of the arrival of the S.S. Portland in Seattle on July 17, 1897 which started the Klondike stampede in '98. |
July 18, 1947 | The first Pan-American conducted tour to Alaska over the Alaska Highway leaves Seattle on June 28, 1947. |
July 20, 1947 | His Excellency Viscount Alexander, the Governor General of Canada and the Vice Regal party arrives in Whitehorse on July 18, 1947 and will be staying at the R.C.A.F. station on the airbase. |
July 25, 1947 | The members of the transportation committee of the Vancouver Board of Trade visit the Territory. |
September | |
September 5, 1947 | The Northern Commercial Company is erecting a substantial building for their Caterpillar machinery department and Ford Dealership at the comer of Main Street and Third Avenue. |
November | |
November 7, 1947 | Federal government will aid in the development of Yukon Coal Mine. |
November 14, 1947 | Mr. Monroe, who has been the assistant Territorial Treasurer for several years, assumed the position of Territorial Treasurer. |
December | |
December 4, 1947 | The senior men’s hockey season opens in the new RCAF Arena, one of the hangers built during the installation of the Northwest Staging Route and airfields to Alaska. |
December, 1947 | Three Air force hockey players from Whitehorse are invited to the RCAF training camp in Edmonton being held to select a team to represent Canada at the 1948 Winter Olympics in Switzerland. Andy Gilpin, Len Beech and Ross King attend the tryout camp. |
December 5, 1947 | The Yukon Jewelry and Novelty shop owned by Mr. R. Gordon Lee is now installed in newly erected and modernistic premises on Main Street. |
December 12, 1947 | Whitehorse District Liberal Association elected officers for 1948. Honourary President, W.L. Mackenzie King, the Prime Minister of Canada; President, Mervyn Warwick; First Vice-President, Boyd Johnson; Second Vice-President, Mrs. Kerruish; Secretary-Treasurer, I. H. Dennison . |