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Yukon Nuggets

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1916

Gagoff Hanged

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…

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1916

George Black 1916

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…

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1923

The Man who cremated Sam McGee

"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…

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1932

The Mad Trapper

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…

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1937

Pattullo annexes the Yukon

In my search for Yukon Nuggets, stories from our fabled past, I have often come across strange - sometimes bizarre - tales.

Most recently, a story surfaced for which I have no explanation, nor could I find anything to prove…

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1945

Carnival Days in the ‘40s

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…

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1945

Streets of Whitehorse - 1

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.

When I was a boy growing up…

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1949

Claude and Mary Tidd

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…

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1950

Operation Sweetbriar, 1950

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…

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1950

The First Whitehorse City Council

The first city council to serve Whitehorse had its work cut out. There was no city hall, hardly any money in the budget….

On August 4th, 1950, Whitehorse elected its first mayor and four aldermen. Mayor Gordon Armstrong presided over…

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1953

Politics and Population

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…

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1956

Duff Pattullo

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…

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1956

by a malamute (or husky) standing on a mound of snow.

The Yukon Coat of Arms is a red, blue, gold and white shield surmounted by a malamute (or husky) standing on a mound of snow.

Wavy vertical white and blue stripes represent the Yukon River and…

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1960

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…

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1963

RCMP Air Crash

Sunday July 13, 1963, was one of those delightfully warm Yukon summer evenings. That would all change at 8.10 p.m.

The RCMP Beaver aircraft CF-MPO with four Mounties on board had left Whitehorse bound for Mayo to pick up a…

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1965

George Black

I could find no record of his prowess as a hunter in the Yukon, but George Black was no slouch when it came to shooting rabbits on Parliament Hill.

George Black was born in 1873, in Woodstock, New Brunswick, where…

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1966

James Smith

When Gordon Cameron resigned as the Yukon's very popular commissioner in May 1966, the hunt was on for a successor.

Unlike today, the office carried with it a lot of power back then. The elected Territorial Council had little clout…

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1966

The Klondike Defense Force

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…

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1967

Whitehorse Firehalls

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.

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1977

Mayor Gordon Armstrong – 1950

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…

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1979

Lost Patrol

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…

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