Few women who took part in the Klondike Gold Rush stayed in the territory very long. Even fewer climbed the rugged Chilkoot Pass. The celebrated Martha Black climbed and stayed. So did Émilie Tremblay, and she was the…
Read more
Photographs of early Bennett City, Whitehorse and Dawson show street scenes of gaudy store fronts with hand-painted advertising at its very best. The signs, extolling the virtues of diverse business establishments, weren’t like the neon sixties or the plastic electric…
Read more
I didn't really know the elderly gentleman who spent his days in the back room of the little Yukon Electrical clapboard office on Main Street, except that my school chum, Willard, enjoyed stopping there to say hello. To me, he…
Read more
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…
Read more
Ian Tyson is one of my favourite singing story tellers. Always has been. He wrote a wonderful song called "50 Years Ago".
If I could roll back the years,
Back when I was young and limber,
Loose as…
Read more
It takes pride of place and great determination to preserve the past. One Yukoner had all these qualities and, as a result, the Yukon’s colourful history is well preserved.
W.D. (Bill) MacBride was born in Montana in 1888. Orphaned as…
Read more
Dick North has always quietly gone about his business of research and writing. And now, quietly, he has joined elite company, including Wayne Gretzky’s dad and a former Supreme Court judge, as the newest members of the Order of Canada.
…Read more
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…
Read more
When I first met Hank Karr back in 1965, he was the hottest property to hit the Yukon since sourdough pancakes and fresh oranges. He was a ball of musical energy. This Saskatchewan-born son of the soil could deliver any…
Read more
There was always something magical about the Morley River lodge on the Alaska Highway. We always felt good when we reached the place after a long drive from Dawson Creek over the then-dusty, unpaved road.
It probably had a lot…
Read more
Though I never saw him catch a softball or deliver a curling stone, the Yukon sports scene would not be what it is today had it not been for Cal Miller. While athletes get most of the attention, and rightly…
Read more
On a cool morning of November 7th, 1971, a Cessna 172 aircraft took off from the Whitehorse airport. Four young people on board were going on a sight-seeing tour of Carcross and Tagish. That tour took on dramatic proportions when…
Read more
An exceptionally beautiful part of the Yukon River system is found at the mouth of the Pelly River. Here, in 1848, Robert Campbell built the first Fort Selkirk. It didn’t take long for this Hudson Bay trading post…
Read more
Canada's centennial year, 1967, was an exciting time in the Yukon. There were all kinds of celebrations and projects. Unnamed mountains were being climbed. The Yukon River flotilla saw boats of every description heading from Whitehorse to Dawson. Most of…
Read more
Here at home, I have a beat-up old curling broom. A real broom. Not the kind of shot-enhancing devices that curlers use these days to control the speed and curl of the rocks. Nope, this one is a real corn…
Read more
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…
Read more
Christopher William Pearson arrived in the Yukon in 1957. He worked for the Territorial government until 1973, and then went into private business. In 1978, Chris became a politician and was elected to the Yukon Legislature. For the first time,…
Read more
