The Mackintosh Trading Post

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.