Sheriff George Brimston asked the man with the noose around his neck if he had any last words. The reply, in Russian, was 'nyet'. "May God have mercy on your soul", said Brimston. The trap door was sprung. The first…
In far off France in that dismal year of 1916, men in the mud braced themselves for yet another shelling. Both the Allied forces of Britain and Canada and the German army had reached a stalemate. The war to end…
"Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee," said Robert Service in his famed story of a man cremated in the boiler of a steamboat called the Olive May. Of course, we know the real McGee wasn’t cremated, nor was he from…
He was called the Mad Trapper of Rat River. There is no compelling evidence that he was mad. There is plenty of evidence that he wanted to be left alone. But when he wounded a Mountie, his days as a…
The year was 1945. Six long years of war in Europe and the Pacific were coming to an end. Most of the military and civilian construction workers who had built the Alaska Highway and the Canol pipeline had left the…
Let's take a quick walk down some of the streets of Downtown Whitehorse. There are a lot of memories here and a lot of interesting people whose names appear on the street signs.
Claude Tidd was a man on a mission, as are most Mounties! His mission, however, seemed more to do with preserving the things he encountered - with a camera. Claude Britiff Tidd was born in England in 1886. He received…
The skies over Whitehorse were filled with planes and parachutes.The streets were swarming with combat-ready soldiers.The Alaska Highway was a battle-ground.
The frigid winter showed no sign of abating, but the heat was on around the world. Thousands of Canadian…
The Yukon's political evolution has always been closely tied to the territory's population growth or decline, which, until recent times, has been tied to the state of the mining industry.
When the Yukon became a territory in 1898, the best…
There were many cheechakos in the Klondike who made the most of their brief time to develop a taste for fame and glory. They included a future Premier of British Columbia, who learned the art of hard-ball politics during his…
Nielsen fights for Indian rights to make them equal citizens
Yukon MP Erik Nielsen received a letter June 2 from John Melling, executive director of Indian-Eskimo Association of Canada, commending Nielsen's speech delivered to give Indians the right to vote in federal elections. He described the speech as the best…
It wasn't the first time the Yukon had established a defense force, but it was the first time such a force would be used against another Canadian city.
In 1966, the Yukon formed a defense force. Its goal was to…
Walking around the streets of Whitehorse can be an interesting and informative experience. You just need to take a little time. Sure, life moves at a rapid pace these days. Slow down and head down to Front Street and Main.
When Whitehorse was incorporated as a city in 1950, the first Mayor was a jovial character with an infectious smile and impeccable work ethic. Gordon Armstrong needed those qualities and more. The tiny town was a disorganized hodgepodge of many…
The most northerly highway in North America, the Dempster, roughly follows a route taken by early North West Mounted Police patrols between Dawson City and Fort McPherson. It is named for Corporal Jack Dempster, because he led the expedition to…