Month: January 2020

There is a row of graves in the Masonic section of the Hillside Cemetery in Dawson City that is arranged chronologically by the date of death.  Near the middle of the row, a grave that had no marker for many years, if ever, has a new headstone for the person buried there.  This is the resting place of Henry Godkin Dickson, who died on April 3, 1941.

 ‘Harry’ Dickson, as he was called, was a pioneer land surveyor in the Yukon and the most prolific when the era and conditions he worked in are taken into account.  He committed almost 40 years of his career to the Yukon, and for much of that time he was the Territory’s only surveyor.  He worked together with his younger brother Thomas Albert Dickson for most or all of those years.

Harry did much of his work in relatively remote areas and often in adverse terrain and weather conditions, using far less sophisticated equipment than today.  For much of his career, before automobiles were in common use, he conducted his work by horseback, horses and wagons, riverboats, and foot. 

People in the land surveying profession work in the background and are not generally celebrated, but they perform a vital service in our society.  Harry Dickson’s dedication to the Yukon and his place in its history are worthy of recognition. 

The Dicksons’ Early Years, 1864-1898

Harry Dickson was born into a large family in Petawawa, Ontario on March 29, 1864.  By 1870 the family had moved to Massachusetts, where the father was working on a railroad.  In 1873 Harry’s brother Thomas was born in the United States, but the family was back in Canada by 1879 and living near Winnipeg, Manitoba.

In 1888, while living north of Winnipeg in the town of Selkirk, Harry was commissioned as a Provincial Land Surveyor for Manitoba.  The following March of 1889, he passed his examination to become a Dominion Land Surveyor (DLS), now called a Canada Lands Surveyor, and his commission number was 221.

In 1890, Harry Dickson was one of 20 surveyors authorized to conduct land surveys in Manitoba.  That year he joined with one of the others, a man named James Brownlee, in a partnership in Brandon, Manitoba.  The partnership lasted only a few years, but Dickson was to have an ongoing relationship with Brownlee into the Yukon. 

By 1893 Harry was working for the City of Brandon as city engineer, and in 1894 put his survey drafting skills to work in producing a large map of the city.  That same year, his brother Thomas passed his examination to become a Manitoba Provincial Land Surveyor.  Thomas was also noted as a civil engineer, and he may have focussed more on that when he went to the Yukon.  He was to play an integral part in Harry’s surveying work in the Yukon for the rest of his life.

In early 1898, Harry and Thomas Dickson headed for the Klondike to join the gold rush.  Similar to many Yukoners’ stories, Harry only planned to be there for two years.

The Year in Atlin, 1899-1900

No information has been found about the Dicksons’ trip west and north, but on March 17, 1899, Harry arrived in Atlin, B.C. and began working for his old partner James Brownlee, who had come to the Yukon in 1897 and then moved on to Atlin.  It is not known if Harry ended up in Atlin at Brownlee’s invitation or if it was coincidental.  Perhaps en route to Dawson Harry was diverted to Atlin, as were many other people, when it became the newest gold rush hotspot in the late summer of 1898.  If it had been Harry’s original intention to go to Dawson, he was not to make it there for many more years.

While in Atlin, Dickson surveyed the John Irving Tramway Co.’s line for the 2¼-mile railway that was being built to provide a transportation connection between Atlin Lake and Tagish Lake.  He also did some survey work on the White Pass & Yukon Route railway line.

In October 1899, while still based in Atlin, Dickson carried out the first survey of the newly-developing townsite of Whitehorse, which had just had its name changed from Closeleigh.  This survey laid out eighteen 40-acre lots and two smaller ones in preparation for later subdivision.  These lots encompassed the area between the river on the east and the tops of the clay cliffs on the west, and from what is now Hawkins Street on the south to the north end of the Marwell industrial area. 

Dickson also surveyed the White Pass & Yukon Route railway right-of-way and a 97-acre railway maintenance yard at the south end of Whitehorse.  These were within the area from Hawkins Street south to the river where the sternwheeler Klondike and Robert Service Way now are located.

The Whitehorse Years, 1900-1920

In June 1900, after he had completed his work on the Atlin-Tagish railway, Harry Dickson relocated to Whitehorse, where he established a survey business and residence on Main Street.  The activities and whereabouts of his brother Thomas after he arrived in the north are not certain, but in 1901 he was living with Harry in Whitehorse and listed as a student at age 28.  Harry’s business letterhead and newspaper advertisements in the early 1900s included Civil Engineer along with Dominion Land Surveyor, with the engineering component likely referring to Thomas.

Like people of many occupations, land surveyors had come to the Yukon with the Klondike gold rush.  In 1901 there were twelve of them in the Yukon, but Harry Dickson was the only one resident in Whitehorse.  All the rest were based in Dawson and one other was carrying out the survey of the Yukon-British Columbia boundary.  The Dawson surveyors were engaged in surveys of mining claims, roads and townsites.  This left Harry to take care of all the southern Yukon surveys, including the various types of lots, homesteads, mining claims, roads, placer creek baselines and reference traverses.  He had survey work every year except 1919 and remained the only Whitehorse-based surveyor until he relocated to Dawson in 1920. 

The Yukon’s mining activity began to decline in the early 1900s, as did the population, and the number of land surveyors naturally decreased as well.  By 1905, there were eight, four by 1910, and by 1918 Harry Dickson was the only one remaining after the departure of A.H. Hawkins, whose job as Director of Surveys for the Yukon was terminated.  From 1917 until the end of his career in 1938, Dickson was the only surveyor based in the Yukon.

Beginning in 1903 and over the next 20 years, a number of surveys called ‘reference traverses’ were conducted in the Yukon to establish ‘control’, as it’s referred to, in areas that had no existing survey coverage.  These surveys were undertaken in relatively remote areas and would have involved considerable planning and logistics.  Harry and Thomas Dickson carried out the first of these unique traverses and a number more.    

In early July 1903, gold discoveries in the Kloo Lake area northwest of Haines Junction created a stampede of prospectors into that area.  This affected Harry Dickson’s work, as on July 13 he wrote a letter to the Director of Surveys in Dawson and said that due to the “reputed placer strike west of here”, he was having a hard time getting employees for survey work. 

The next year Dickson was recruited to accompany Territorial Engineer William Thibaudeau to the Kluane region to begin planning a route for a new road to access the gold creeks.  Dickson would later survey the route that was laid out ( a link to related articles on the Kluane Wagon Road can be found at the end of this article ).  This was the beginning of an association he was to have with the Kluane area, including doing all the surveying work there, until the end of his career 34 years later. 

Harry Dickson’s surveying and drafting skills assisted him in making maps as well.  In 1904 he produced two maps, one of the Whitehorse and nearby copper belt area and the other of the new ‘Alsek, Kaskawulsh and Kluane’ gold-mining region.  These maps were apparently well received and in common use for a number of years afterwards.

In June 1904, Dickson surveyed a 43-acre mining claim in the Whitehorse copper belt that had been staked by two men in 1899.  The ‘Spring Creek’ claim, as it was named, was located about 6 km. southwest of Whitehorse city center, near the upper end of McIntyre Creek.  In 1905 Harry and his brother Thomas purchased the claim, and in 1915 did over $9,500 worth of work on it (over $82,000 in 2019 dollars), perhaps for assessment purposes and with financial backing. 

Both brothers retained ownership of their portions of the Spring Creek claim until their deaths.  When Harry died in 1941, his three-fifths ownership became part of his estate and it was deemed to have no value.  The Spring Creek claim, described as Lot 162, Quad 105D/11, still stands as a legally surveyed property.

In April 1908, at age 44, Harry Dickson’s personal life took a turn when he married a 38-year old American woman named Margaret Haughton in Whitehorse.  This didn’t last long, however, due to Margaret’s poor health.  In November of that year she went to Victoria, intending to spend several months there in hopes of getting well.  It was not to be, and she ended up passing away in early May 1909 in St. Louis, Missouri, where she had lived previously.  Harry received a telegram notifying him of her death. 

In 1910, with the Yukon’s economy and population declining, there were only four surveyors remaining in the Yukon, three in Dawson and Harry Dickson in Whitehorse.  That year, Frederick Congdon, the Yukon’s Member of Parliament, wrote to the Surveyor General in Ottawa about “… the desirability … to keep good surveyors in the country…”.  He said that “… although adverse conditions have made development slow…  I know of no better or more legitimate mode of assistance than completion of useful surveys”.  His letter resulted in the initiation of more reference traverse surveys beginning in the following year and for a few years thereafter, most of which employed the Dickson brothers.

Harry Dickson appeared to be a relatively active member of the Association of Dominion Land Surveyors, based in Ottawa.  In 1913 he was elected as the Association’s vice-president for the Yukon and Northwest Territories, a post he had not even put his name in for.  The following year he wrote a paper about the standardization of qualifications of Dominion Land Surveyors and the various Provincial Land Surveyors.

There are three records of Harry travelling out of the Yukon, all during his Whitehorse years.  Two of them, in 1911 and 1915, were to visit his parents before they passed away.  In the case of his mother, he did not make it in time to see her before she died in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, but was able to be at her funeral. 

Surveys during Whitehorse years, 1900-1920

Harry and Thomas Dickson carried out many survey projects during their time in Whitehorse, and the following examples are of their larger or notable ones.  They surveyed a large number of mining claims, most of them being on the order of 40 to 50 acres, and many located on or near the tops of mountains.  There were other more minor projects in addition to these.

1900

• Mining claims near Whitehorse Copper mine site totalling about 260 acres

1901

• Coal lands south of Fish Lake – nine claims totalling 1,440 acres
• Whitehorse townsite – subdivision of earlier surveyed large lots to create 548 town lots

1902

• Survey and production of map linking town of Whitehorse to mining claims and wagon roads in the Whitehorse Copper Belt

1903

• Whitehorse – extension of Second Avenue to north end of present Shipyards Park
• Public roads to Grafter and Copper King copper claims
• Whitehorse Reference Traverse

1904

• Addition to Whitehorse townsite – creation of 156 town lots and one 10-acre lot within the 1899 lots
• Bullion Creek baseline for placer claims
• Chambers 100-acre and 26-acre lots at Champagne

1905

• Carcross Indian Reserve #6
• Conrad townsite subdivision
• Reference Traverse from British Columbia boundary to Carcross

1906

• Two additions to Conrad townsite
• Burwash Creek baseline for placer claims

1907

• Lots, mostly in Whitehorse area

1908

• Mining claims in Montana Mountain (Carcross), Whitehorse-Fish Lake, and Alligator Lake areas
• Wheaton River Reference Traverse (West Arm Bennett Lake to Watson River)

1909

• Mining claims in Montana Mountain (Carcross), Whitehorse-Fish Lake, and Alligator Lake areas
• Wheaton River to Whitehorse Reference Traverse connection (Watson River to Golden Horn Mtn.)

1910

• Mining claims south, west and north of Whitehorse and in Montana Mountain and Alligator Lake areas
• Mining claims south of Carmacks (Dickson’s first trip north of Whitehorse)
• Carmacks Reference Traverse, part 1 (Carmacks to Kirkland Creek)

1911

• Mining claims in Whitehorse west area
• Carmacks Reference Traverse, part 2 (Kirkland Creek to Mt. Decoeli/Jarvis River)

1912

• Mining claims in Wheaton River area
• Aishihik Reference Traverse , part 1 (Nansen Creek to north end Aishihik Lake)

1913

• Kluane Wagon Road, part 1 (Kluane Lake to Jarvis River)
• Fourth of July Creek baseline for placer claims
• Mining claims in White River, Beaver Creek, Whitehorse west, Montana Mountain and Wheaton River areas
• Reference Traverse Kluane Lake to Bullion Creek baseline connection
• Ibex River Reference Traverse (Whitehorse to Takhini/Ibex River area)
• Aishihik Reference Traverse, part 2 (north end Aishihik Lake to south end)

1914

• Six Mile Indian Reserve #5
• Mining claims west of Whitehorse and in Wheaton River area
• Sixty Mile River Reference Traverse (likely Dickson’s first trip to Dawson area)
• Sixty Mile River baseline for placer claims

1915

• Kluane Wagon Road, part 2 (Overland Trail to Jarvis River)
• Traverse of Grazing Lands in Dezadeash Valley

1916

• Mining claims south and west of Whitehorse
• Whitehorse Indian Reserve #5

1917

• Mining claims in Whitehorse west and Montana Mountain area
• Homesteads in Tagish area

1918

• Lots at McRae and Whitehorse
• Whitehorse Indian Reserve #5

1919

• none

1920

• Chambers Homestead on Mendenhall River

The above list of the Dicksons’ surveys provides an indication of the scope and scale of the projects they undertook.  In addition to the physical work, significant time would have been involved in planning the survey, hiring personnel, and logistics planning for transportation, accommodation, provisions, supplies and equipment.  After the physical survey was completed, there was more time spent in drafting and submitting the survey plans and tending to administrative matters such as correspondence, payroll and bookkeeping.

In 1919 no surveys of note were done in the Yukon, or at least none that produced survey plans.  This was evidently due to a lack of survey work in the only part of the Yukon that had a resident surveyor.  That fall Harry Dickson wrote to George Mackenzie, the senior federal bureaucrat in Dawson, basically pleading for work.  He stated that “… it is an absolute necessity to have something to do, in order to live …”.  He identified two homesteads along the Kluane Wagon Road that were ready for surveying, and the following spring he was authorized to survey the Chambers homestead on the Mendenhall River.

This homestead survey would be the Dickson brothers’ last work in the southern Yukon before leaving Whitehorse in 1920.  The work situation undoubtedly prompted them to make the decision to move to Dawson, and for Harry it was the beginning of the next chapter of his career at the age of 56.

The Dawson Years, 1920-1938

A review of the major surveys conducted by Harry Dickson after he relocated to Dawson suggests that he should have moved to Mayo instead.  His first survey was an addition to the Mayo townsite and, as it turned out, much of the work he and Thomas did over the next 18 years was in the Mayo area.  A significant amount of their activity focussed on the survey of mining claims in the silver-producing area around Keno City.

Newspaper articles indicate that Thomas Dickson retained a stronger work connection to the Keno area than did Harry, who may have conducted more of the work in the Dawson area.  Unlike Harry’s previous business advertisement in the Whitehorse newspaper, the one in the Dawson newspaper contained both their names.

It appears the Dickson brothers were quite busy in the first several years after relocating to Dawson, mainly due to the level of activity in the Keno area in the 1920s.  However, after 1930 the survey work quickly tapered off, to the point that in 1932 there were no surveys done, at least none that resulted in registered plans. 

In the summer of 1931 the Yukon Government appointed 67-year old Harry as Survey Engineer at a salary of $1,200 per year as an incentive for the Territory’s only surveyor to stay.  Harry had normally been getting about $3,000 worth of government work each year, so he regarded the $1,200 as a retainer, and any survey work would be in addition.  Harry stayed in the Yukon, so the government appointment appears to have achieved the desired result.  

Being the only Yukon surveyor, Harry along with his brother occasionally made trips south from Dawson, presumably most or all by riverboat, to do survey work.  They surveyed lots in Whitehorse, Tagish and Carmacks, homesteads at Robinson and Burwash Landing, aviation fields at Carmacks, Fort Selkirk, Carcross and Whitehorse, and the Carmacks Indian Reserve #11.

Surveys during Dawson years, 1920-1938

The following are the major or notable survey projects undertaken by Harry and Thomas Dickson during their Dawson years. 

1920

• Addition to Mayo townsite
• Mining claims in Keno area and northeast of Dawson City

1921

• Mining claims in Keno area
• Mining claims in Williams Creek area (north of Carmacks)

1922

• Mining claims in Keno and Mayo areas
• Keno townsite
• Traverse of Government Road Keno to Ladue Claim
• Mining claims in Whitehorse, Alligator Lake and Wheaton River areas

1923

• Mining claims in Keno area
• Keno Hill – Mt. Rambler – Mt. Cameron Reference Traverse

1924

• Mining claims in Keno area
• Mayo – Steep Creek Reference Traverse
• Lots in Carmacks

1925

• Mining claims in Keno area
• Carmacks Indian Reserve #11
• Lots near Williams Creek (north of Carmacks)

1926

• Mining claims in Keno and upper Beaver River areas
• Huffman (Mayo area) and Leroux (Dawson area) Homesteads

1927

• Mining claims in Keno and Beaver River areas and Yukon River north of Dawson
• Mayo – Keno Road
• Detraz Homestead at Coffee Creek

1928

• Mining claims in Keno area
• Mayo – Dawson Road, part 1
• Mining claims in Montana Mountain and Wheaton River areas
• McConnell Homestead at Robinson (south of Whitehorse)
• Lots at Tagish

1929

• Mining claims in Keno area
• Lefebvre’s Ranch on Stewart River
• Mayo-Dawson Road, part 2

1930

• Mining claims in Keno area
• Mayo-Dawson Road, part 3

1931

• Mining claims in Keno and Beaver River areas

1932

• none

1933

• Lot northeast of Dawson

1934

• Indian River baseline for placer claims, part 1

1935

• Jacquot Homestead at Burwash Landing
• Whitehorse Aviation Reserve

1936

• Indian River baseline for placer claims, part 2

1937

• Mining claims in Bonanza Creek area
• Mayo Airport
• Fort Selkirk Airport
• Carmacks Airport
• Carcross aviation field

1938

• Mining claims in Keno area

Harry Dickson’s Record

Harry Dickson carried out his last land surveys in 1938 at the age of 74.  Over the 39 years of his career in the Yukon, the list of surveys that have his name attached to them is extensive, far greater than anyone else of that era. 

In addition to the impressive quantity of Dickson’s work, the quality of it appears to be well-regarded, as surveyors since that time have used and followed upon his work.  Brian Thompson, a surveyor with decades of experience in the Yukon, says that “[Dickson’s] work accurately marks the boundaries of many land interests that still exist today, and allows modern-day surveyors to build from them and establish the boundaries of new land interests”.

Thompson and Gabe Aucoin, another long-time Yukon surveyor, offered their perspectives that Harry Dickson generally did good work.  His measurements, particularly in mountainous areas where measuring distances horizontally is more challenging, were of good quality considering the equipment he had to use.  He also paid attention to leaving good physical evidence of his surveys, an important component of surveying work.  Brian Thompson added that “[Dickson’s] survey of the Whitehorse townsite group lots is near perfect”, referring to the first survey of Whitehorse in 1899.

Surveyors leave behind varying accounts of the details involved in their work, and some have left journals of their daily activities.  Field books sometimes include information about the members of the survey crew, weather conditions, vegetation, and features they encounter such as cabins, graves and trails.  Harry Dickson appears to have been a minimalist in such documentation, which is unfortunate given the breadth of his survey work and, from a Yukon history perspective, the time period it took place in. 

This lack of recording may be reflective of his character as suggested by his few interviews for newspaper articles, where he was very matter-of-fact about his work.  Here is an example:

Leaving Whitehorse, we proceeded by team to Champagne Landing, thence by packhorses, by way of the Dalton Trail via Hutchi village, to the copper locations near Aishihik Lake.  Leaving a cache at this point, we travelled in a northeasterly direction and picked up the end of the [survey] line run by us last season [from Carmacks].  Our mission was to extend this line in a southwesterly direction, crossing the Aishihik River where it leaves the lake of that name to the copper locations on the Jarvis River, south of the Kluane trail.  This was successfully completed”.

“Successfully completed” was Harry Dickson’s understated summation of a two-month expedition to travel and find, from the opposite direction, the spot in the bush where they left off surveying the previous fall, and then resume the survey for another 105 kilometers.  Most of this was through remote country that would have been little known to him and his crew and likely offered a number of challenges for them to overcome. 

Harry Dickson’s Yukon survey work is still contributing in various ways, almost 80 years after his death.  Pieces of information contained in his survey plans and field books tell of Yukon history.  These along with the survey evidence that still stands in places on the Yukon landscape assists modern-day surveyors in their work and history researchers in pursuing their interests.             

Thomas Dickson’s Contribution

This article is primarily about Harry Dickson and his contributions to the Yukon land survey fabric and Yukon history, but it must necessarily include his brother Thomas’s involvement as well.  While Harry’s surveying career is relatively well documented by the survey plans and related field books that he produced, Thomas’s work is somewhat difficult to pin down.

It is clear from survey records, newspaper articles and Thomas’s estate file that he assisted his brother in a significant way.  Thomas was a commissioned Provincial Land Surveyor in Manitoba, so obviously had the ability to conduct land surveys.  A few Yukon newspaper articles also referred to him as a Dominion Land Surveyor, which was required for surveying in the Yukon, but either this was an error or he never used his designation in the Yukon.  He appears to have done a lot of the ground work, so perhaps left the administrative matters, including signing off on survey plans, to his brother. 

The survey plans and field books included an oath that the surveyor must swear before somebody that is authorized to administer it.  When I started studying Harry Dickson’s survey plans I noticed that some were sworn before a T.A. Dickson, who I assumed to be Thomas Alexander Dickson.  He was a well-known former Northwest Mounted Police member and it seemed understandable that he could have been appointed to administer such oaths.  It was some time before I realized that Harry Dickson had a brother in the Yukon named Thomas Albert Dickson and that it was he who was taking his brother’s oaths, such as in the example below.

Thomas Dickson evidently did some work independent of his brother that employed his engineering background.  For example, in the fall of 1905 he was in charge of a crew of ten men doing river channel work at Hell’s Gate on the Yukon River.  This involved driving piles and constructing dams to direct water into the main riverboat channel.

Thomas appears to have had health difficulties off and on, including a “serious operation” in the late fall of 1927 in Vancouver.  He again left the Yukon for medical treatment in the spring of 1939, returning to Whitehorse on April 15. He took a room at the Whitehorse Inn, where at some point during the night he passed away.  The Whitehorse Daily Star reported that he died in his sleep, but his estate file makes it clear that his death was an unpleasant one.

Thomas had made a will in 1928, bequeathing to a Miss Katherine McNab his interest in a mining claim near Whitehorse, some shares in a mining company, and his watch and jewelry.  The remainder of his estate, which did not amount to much, went to his brother Harry, who was also the executor of the will.

The Katherine McNab named in Thomas Dickson’s will was a teacher and had been in Dawson for a time.  She responded to his death by letter from Penticton, B.C., expressing her shock at the news.  She also said that Thomas “… was a very loyal friend with potential for good, but life seemed to trap him”.  She mentioned a long period of depression and that she had felt impotent to help.  She also said she was unaware of his will and that she could not possibly accept anything of value while Thomas’s brother Harry was alive.  

Thomas Dickson’s funeral was held on April 19 at the Masonic Temple in Whitehorse, followed by burial in the Masons section of the Pioneer Cemetery. He was 66 years old.

Harry Dickson’s Final Years

There is no record of Harry Dickson having done any survey-related work after 1938.  His own physical limitations and the death of his brother in 1939 perhaps made the decision for him.  Thomas’s death also may have prompted Harry to get his own affairs in order, as a few months afterwards he made a list of his property and valuables and where they were located.

Harry remained in Dawson, living in the house there that he had inherited from Thomas.  In late March 1941 he entered the St. Mary’s Hospital in Dawson for medical treatment and then returned home, but not for long.  He passed away on April 3, 1941 at the age of 77.

In his will Dickson left everything to his brother Arthur Dickson, who lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  This included his interest in the Spring Creek mining claim he had surveyed in 1904 and co-owned with Thomas since 1905.  After the estate was settled, Arthur received $561.32.  Harry Dickson never got rich doing what he did in the Yukon, but his contributions are a more appropriate measure of his life here.  

Harry Dickson’s funeral was held on April 8 in the Anglican Church in Dawson.  He had become a member of the Masons in 1893 in Brandon, Manitoba, and after the funeral his body was escorted by the Masons to the Hillside Cemetery, where it was buried in the Masonic section.

It appears that Harry Dickson’s grave never had a headstone, and until recently was marked only by a piece of blue rebar with a bronze-colored cross on top.  Fortunately, the burials over the years in the Masonic cemetery have been made in chronological order along the row, enabling his grave location to be confirmed by the headstones on either side of it. 

The Masonic Lodge #45 in Dawson was made aware of the person buried in the unmarked grave and his contributions to the Yukon, and they agreed that the situation should be rectified.  The Masons took the initiative and expense to have a headstone made for him, and in September 2023, more than 80 years after Harry Dickson’s death, members placed it at his grave .  Thanks to their efforts, Henry Godkin Dickson’s final resting place is now properly marked and acknowledges his life as ‘Yukon Land Surveyor’.

Link to related articles: Kluane Wagon Road

Updated January 27, 2020

Updated October 3, 2023

Mackintosh Trading Post was the successor name for the Bear Creek Roadhouse, which was established in 1903-04 after discovery of gold in the southwest Yukon .  The roadhouse had been built by Eli Proulx to provide accommodations for goldseekers and others who were coming into the Kluane region (see related story at The Bear Creek Roadhouse in Southwest Yukon).  It was situated 10 kilometers northwest of what is now Haines Junction along the Kluane Wagon Road, built in 1904, and later the Alaska Highway, built in 1942.

In late 1905 Joseph Beauchamp took over the roadhouse and along with his three wives (not concurrent) built more buildings and operated both a roadhouse and fur trading post.  When he and his third wife Clara sold out and left around 1930, the establishment fell into a lull for the following few years, being operated only in the winters by a caretaker. 

In 1935 George and Dorothy Mackintosh bought the Bear Creek Roadhouse buildings and breathed new life into the place.  Dorothy was new to the Yukon, but George had already spent 30 years in the Territory, about 25 of them in the Kluane area. 

George Mackintosh – the Mountie and gold miner

George Whitfield Mackintosh was born in 1877 near Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the third eldest in a family of 14 children.  It appears that for most of his life, at least when he was an adult, he went by “Whit” as his first name by those who knew him. 

George’s first occupation was as a butcher, then in March 1900 he joined the Northwest Mounted Police in Charlottetown.  He was soon sent west and requested to be posted to the Yukon, arriving in the Territory sometime in the summer of 1900.  He was stationed at the Five Fingers post, located on the west side of the Yukon River three kilometers downstream from the Five Fingers Rapids.  He stayed there until his two years of Yukon service were completed, then took his discharge from the police force on July 30, 1902.  His conduct during his tenure in the NWMP was noted as ‘very good’.

Upon discharge Mackintosh stated that his intended place of residence was the Five Fingers area, and it appears he remained there for a time.  In 1903 he took out a commercial fishing licence and was fishing in lakes southeast of the Five Fingers post. 

By at least 1905 Mackintosh was involved in gold mining in the Kluane region after the discoveries made there in July 1903.  On November 30, 1905 he left Whitehorse with a winter’s outfit for Fourth of July Creek, where he planned to stockpile pay material during the winter.  It appears that he remained in the Kluane area for the next 20 to 25 years, as he appears on voters’ lists and censuses there during that time, and is always noted as a miner.

At some point Mackintosh married Jennie Hoochie from the village of Hutchi, north of Champagne and about 70 kilometers northeast of Bear Creek.  She died relatively young and is buried at Champagne, a stone monument by her spirit house reading “In memory of Jennie Hoochie, Wife of W.G. Mackintosh, Died Dec. 14, 1927, aged 30 yrs.; Erected by Hoochie Jackson”.  Hutchi Jackson (the spelling commonly used now) was Jennie’s brother.

In 1930 Mackintosh left the Yukon and went to California, where his mother and four of his brothers were living, and resumed his occupation as a butcher.  While there his health began to deteriorate and he wanted to return to the Yukon to regain it. 

Dorothy (McFarlane) Mackintosh – the educator

Before George left California in 1935 at age 58, he married a woman named Dorothy May McFarlane.  She was born in Wisconsin in 1885, the middle of three daughters.  She went to New York City to attend Columbia University, one of the prestigious Ivy League schools, and attained three degrees, including a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.) in nutrition.  She then taught at a number of places, including Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, where she was a professor in the homemaking department.

After her marriage to George Mackintosh, Dorothy left her life of high academia behind to go to the wilds of the Yukon at the age of 50.  She may have had many motivations to start a new life in the Yukon, and perhaps devotion to her new husband who wanted to recover his health was a primary one. 

George and Dorothy Mackintosh at Bear Creek ( 1935-1939)

George knew the Bear Creek Roadhouse and its location well, believing that it had many advantages, and wanted to make it his home.  He bought the place in June 1935, but soon found that the land was not titled and so he had only purchased the buildings.  In August 1935 Dorothy travelled from California to the Yukon to join George, who had gone on ahead.

On Dorothy’s first trip along the Kluane Wagon Road, she noticed that all of the old roadhouses were abandoned except the ones at Champagne and Bear Creek.  Bear Creek had been operated in the previous few winters as a fur trading post, but the buildings had not been properly taken care of and new tree growth was starting to take over the cleared land.

At some point they evidently changed the name to Mackintosh Trading Post, as that is what appeared on their letterhead and envelopes, as well as in a few newspaper articles.  Later on, whether by Dorothy Mackintosh (after her husband died) or the subsequent owners, it became known as Mackintosh Lodge.

George and Dorothy set to work re-clearing, breaking and fencing land, and even constructed an irrigation ditch to bring water from the creek to their gardens.  In the spring of 1936 George put in a homestead application for 160 acres, and they continued to work hard over the next couple of years toward meeting the homestead requirements.  This would allow them to get the land surveyed and gain title to it.  As it turned out, however, a number of factors kept the title from being granted for many years.   

Before they could make the improvements they wanted, George began to suffer from the effects of some type of cancer.  It is not known when this started, but in June 1938 a doctor from California made the long journey to Bear Creek to attend to George’s illness.  This seems unusual, but George had been his patient in California and apparently the trip was made at the request of friends of George.  While at the trading post, the doctor and a companion cut and sawed wood for Dorothy, which might indicate George was too ill to do tasks such as those.  

That November of 1938, the Mackintoshes went to California for four months, presumably for medical reasons, and had a friend stay at their trading post as caretaker.  They returned the following spring, but that August they again went back to California to get medical attention for George. It was not successful and he died on November 24, 1939 in Huntington Beach at the age of 62 and was buried at Westminster Memorial Park. 

Years after her husband’s death, Dorothy offered the following sentiments about him: “one thing that meant much to me was that any statement [George] made as to conditions or facts was infallible”.  She also said that he was held in esteem by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and that after his death (which was 37 years after he left the Northwest Mounted Police), members of the force passing through would stop and pay their respects to her as the widow of a former member.

Before his death, George told Dorothy that he believed the United States would be building an overland route to Alaska and that it would likely pass through the Bear Creek area and by their trading post.  With that possibility, he thought she might be interested in returning.  Dorothy had liked her life in the Yukon, including the hard work, so she decided to take on the challenge of going back to see what she could do on her own. 

Dorothy Mackintosh on her own (1940-1954)

The expenses necessary to address her husband’s illness, and the long travel required to do it, left Dorothy much less well off than she had been.  She and George had real estate in California she was forced to sell, and at reduced prices because of the Depression, and also had to liquidate other assets.

Dorothy wasn’t happy in California and still owned the trading post at Bear Creek, so by late March 1940 she was back in the Yukon.  She later said that “although the [Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Whitehorse] told me they could not allow me to go out there alone, I went”.  She travelled the 180 kilometers from Whitehorse to Bear Creek by dog team.

Dorothy resumed life at her trading post, running the roadhouse, gardening, and trading for furs with the First Nation residents.  She cultivated a few acres of potatoes, turnips, cabbage and other garden produce, which she marketed in Whitehorse on her once or twice yearly trips there.  She sawed her own wood, kept fires going, and hunted moose, probably with help for some of these tasks. 

Dorothy had returned to the Yukon to continue her previous life, but big changes were coming with the construction of the Alaska Highway through the area in 1942.  A couple of sources give the impression that Dorothy at first did not like the highway passing by her front door, but then realized that her trading post would not survive otherwise. 

A few months later it was determined that the highway would be rerouted near Pine Lake to avoid the turn south toward what is now Haines Junction and to take a more direct route toward the northwest.  This would have bypassed the Bear Creek area by more than five kilometers and left Dorothy well off the beaten track, to which she objected.  

Construction of the new route was carried out for several kilometers, but it was soon abandoned and reverted back through Bear Creek.  Whether Dorothy had made any official overtures to the roadbuilders to leave the road in its original location is not known, but it is most likely that the new route was abandoned because of terrain considerations.  When mileposts were installed along the Alaska Highway from Mile 0 at Dawson Creek, B.C., the Mackintosh Trading Post at Bear Creek was at Mile 1022.

Once the soldiers and civilians building the highway discovered the comforts and good food at Dorothy’s place, it became a favorite stop for them on the new road that had relatively few stops.  She also housed 15 highway workers during the construction.  Once the Alaska Highway, followed by the Haines Road in 1943, enabled local people to have easier access by vehicle, the Mackintosh Trading Post became the local store for a few years until a store was built in newly-established Haines Junction in about 1948.

1943 was a transitional year for Dorothy Mackintosh.  The new highway marked the beginning of a change in emphasis from furs and garden produce to tourists.  It also brought adventure reporters and writers who ‘discovered’ Dorothy and were enthralled by the independent single woman living alone in such a place.  A number of stories and articles about her were printed in newspapers and magazines, even though she did not like being interviewed or photographed.

When Dorothy was asked the inevitable question about being lonesome in such an isolated place, she replied as if it was something she hadn’t thought about.  She said that she had never needed a great deal of companionship and enjoyed having time to herself.

Dorothy began plans for a new house in 1943 and had two old barns taken down, presumably to use the logs as well as the location.  The house was mostly built by her and First Nations helpers in 1944 and completed in 1945.  It was 30 feet by 32 feet and had running water and a bathtub, which were luxuries for her.

Also in 1943, a couple of incidents involving the Dowell Company, a civilian contactor working on the Alaska Highway, showed Dorothy willing to take a stand for herself and the environment.  One incident had workers cutting trees for sawmilling on her land, even though it was not yet titled, but she forced them to go elsewhere.  Her primary concern was that the trees provided protection to her gardens from the well-known harsh winds that come out of the Alsek River valley. 

The other incident involved the company depositing sawdust into Marshall Creek, about 20 kilometers east of Bear Creek, and having a privy (outdoor toilet) over the creek.  Her complaint to the authorities spurred prompt action to rectify the situation.

After the Highway

Following the first years of construction and reconstruction of the Alaska Highway, Dorothy’s life at Bear Creek focussed more and more on the steadily increasing traffic past her door.  She continued to grow produce for the meals she prepared for tourists and local customers and to provide accommodations.

In early February 1947, Frank Sketch, the operator of a trading post at Kloo Lake, about 25 kilometers northwest of Mackintosh Trading post, passed away.  This was during the cold spell that saw the Yukon community of Snag set Canada’s coldest temperature at -63° Celsius, a record that still stands.  Dorothy was very concerned that Sketch’s death would mean the closing of the Kloo Lake post, which would impact the First Nations people in the nearby village.  She succeeded in pushing for an arrangement that would keep the post open longer.  Later that year, she bought the Kloo Lake post’s four buildings and their contents, which included a truck, for $3,000 (see related article at Frank Sketch’s Kloo Lake Trading Post).

Visitors in 1948 who stayed with Dorothy for a couple of nights recorded that she had a lovely garden and served trout for breakfast.  She told them that her greatest fear was in going to Whitehorse for supplies, particularly crossing the Takhini River.  The river was crossed by using a self-operated ferry and she said it was difficult for her to tie the ferry tightly enough to the bank and then to drive her truck through the slippery mud onto the ferry

In addition to stories about Dorothy’s cooking and gardening, there are ones about her interactions with bears.  One of them was related by Hugh Bradley of Pelly River Ranch, who had worked at the Dominion Experimental Farm near Bear Creek in 1952 and ‘53 and would visit the trading post occasionally.  On one occasion when there were black bears in the yard, some tourists were trying to get up close to photograph them.  Dorothy told them the bears were dangerous and to go back inside, then she proceeded to shoo the bears away with a broom.

The Mackintosh homestead property was finally surveyed in 1946 after land required for the highway, bridge, oil pipeline and telephone line had been determined.  However, it was not until September 5, 1952 that title to the land was finally granted to Dorothy Mackintosh, more than 16 years after her husband George had originally applied for the homestead.  Affidavits filed as part of this process show that in 1952, the trading post consisted of a house, two cabins, a barn and two storage buildings. 

In 1954, two years after receiving title to the property, Dorothy Mackintosh sold the trading post on Bear Creek that she had operated alone for most of the 19 years she was there.  By that time, she was well-known and respected and was, in the words of Yukon geologist Hugh Bostock, “a character of the country”.  She was then 69 years old and returned to California to live for the rest of her life. 

Back in California Dorothy undoubtedly reflected a lot on her unique life at the trading post, and gave some talks about it.  In 1965 she provided information to the Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographical Names about the proper spelling of Mackintosh (it is spelled as Macintosh or McIntosh in various sources).  The name had been nominated for a creek that flows into the Nisling River to the northeast of Aishihik Lake in honor of her husband George.  In 1966 she wrote a letter to the Whitehorse Star about the history of the Bear Creek Roadhouse and her time at the Mackintosh Trading Post.  She died in California in 1970 and was buried in the same cemetery where her husband George was laid to rest more than 30 years before.

The Post-Dorothy Era

In 1954, Dorothy Mackintosh sold the Mackintosh Trading Post to Roland (“Butch”) and Violet (“Andy”) Nygren, who operated it under the name of Mackintosh Lodge and built a new motel unit.  They sold in the late 1970s to Bryant and Gail Jeeves, who changed the name of the business to Bear Creek Lodge and built a new restaurant, bar and small gift shop, with a residence above.  The remaining old roadhouse/trading post buildings disappeared during this time, the last in 1980 when the house built by Dorothy Mackintosh in 1944 burned down.

In 1982 the portion of the original Mackintosh homestead land north of the Alaska Highway was subdivided into five lots, four of which are rural residential use and a larger one containing the site of the former Bear Creek Roadhouse/Mackintosh Trading Post/Mackintosh Lodge/Bear Creek Lodge.  In 1983 the remainder of the homestead land south of the Alaska Highway was subdivided into 24 rural residential lots.

By the early 2000s the Bear Creek Lodge, as with many other highway lodges, was becoming no longer viable and was closed as a tourist business.  The land and buildings were sold in 2009 to Ivan and Linda Thompson, who use the location for their forest harvesting business, but also rent hotel rooms on a long-term basis.  The traditions of entrepreneurship and accommodations at the Bear Creek location continue 115 years after they began.