HI…TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN READING MY EPISODES….NOW AT 239
Dan and Thom and Marjorie (of course) and Rosalind and Pat and John and Owen and Dirk and Rooter…so many others … have sent me notes saying they were sad to see the Yukon Diary is coming to a close. What a nice thing to say. Sometimes I worry that my writing is a little too earthy for sensitive ears. Writers should write about what they know and that is what I have tried to do. There are still 6 or 7 more Yukon Episodes so the Yukon will continue. And then afterwards…perhaps Slovakia in the year when the Soviet Union collapsed or South Korea whose people may have hopped from island to island to North America by boat while others crossed the Bering land bridge thousands of years ago…or my First Class journey with big Red Stevenson…no end to the stories.
My diary is so explicit that at times I feel my comments go too far. Your support is very important to me. Several of you think I am writing a book. I am not. Books are not read often. And the work writing a book often kills the spark…dampens the fire…puts out the fire. Writing Episodes is better for I actually know my readers. And, yes, I know those of you who do not read the Episodes…I do know but send them anyway.
Years ago I was co author of a particular Canadian history book. My assignment was Quebec in the 1950’s. I was in Chibougamau on my first survey job when I was in Grade eleven. I saw hatred that summer… in the form of a butcher knife vibrating in front of me at it was slammed into a table….I saw a young girl my age about to launch into a career of prostitution…I saw what made the Quiet Revolution. I wrote about that summer. Guess what happened? Right! The real gutsy stuff that had meaning was edited out… scraps on the cutting room floor. When asked to write part of the second edition, I refused. They did not want me anyway.
I much prefer to write to you.
Many of you are still stuck in those goddamn isolated homes, rooms, condominiums…I hope my stories allow your minds to fly elsewhere … to be with me on different facets of life’s journey.
Thanks for hanging around. You do not really have much choice. The Pandemic has got you…like a twist in your underwear.
alan
P.S. Sometimes just a couple of words can trigger a verbal avalanche…mammoth tooth, pebbly conglomerate, Daisy the Labrador, Grandma’s triumph over Parkinson’s, fanning mill, butterfly, snapping turtle, childbirth, Sikorsky S52 helicopter, Bunmahon copper caves, North Bay romance, Halifax Blonde Bomber, Arnold Red Skeoch…no end to these word triggers. Events that harbour both humour and tragedy. That is not just true of me…it is true of each of you.
EOISODE 238 YUKON DIARY TAGGING CLAIMS…SOUNDED EASY…SQUISH,SQUISH,SQUISH MY POOR FEET
EPISODE 238 YUKON DIARY TAGGING CLAIMS..SOUNDED EASY…SQUISH,SQUISH,SQUISH…MY POOR FEET!
alan skeoch
January 2021
Monday Sept. 10, 2021
Up at 7, breakfast at Luigi’s then met Bob Gilroy after arranging flight
from Juneau to Vancouver … planned my exit adventure … getting from Mayo
Landing to Juneau…(I really did not know how to do it)
We then drove to Silver Titan camp to pick up the claim tags…also
a blazing axe, compass, skinning knife and rifle (30.30) Knife did not
make much sense. Drove to the McQueston flats for day of tagging
claims…if I could find the base lines. All alone in the silence of an oncoming
winter. There was an inch or more of ice in the swamps and most of
the tagging was in surface water. I wanted to be quiet lest a bear get
wind of me. Not possible. Each step cracked a slab of ice. Lots of sound.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
This is the way I would meet a bear I imagined. In truth bears stayed away
from humans. We do not smell good.
Worse still was the water that percolated through the holes in my
gum rubbers and over the tops on occasion. Goddamned cold. Best
thing, however, was to keep moving once I found the base line
leading to the claim posts. This was no picnic…no easy money…this
was as bad or worse than conducting the Turam survey. Worse,
because I was all alone. I guess that was why Bob gave me the
rifle. Jesus! I never fired rifle except once in western Alaska when we were
armed in case of Kodiak bear attacks. We dumped the rifles because
the Kodiaks were stuffing their guts with dead salmon. No danger.
And we were dropped into our location by an S 52 Sikorsky helicopter.
Airborne rescue could be fast.
Here I was alone. Not too sure I even found the old base line. Seemed
to be some blazes but they were old. And I was cold. This was a winter
day in the Yukon…sept. 10, 1962.
Trying to follow an old claim line was sometimes like the proverbial needle in a haystack.
But I did find the claim posts more by chance than design. The best kind of
claim post is a living tree that has been decapitated and marked by axe slices
on two sides. One side faces the direction of the claim…the other faces the
direction where the other claim post can be found. Two claim posts. At one time these posts
had fresh slices…easy to see. After a year these slices had turned Grey
and the spruce gum had oozed our\t as if trying to scab the wound.
Every year the claims had to be tagged to indicate work had been done
on the claim. No work had been done on any of these claims. No one had
been in here for some time. Later i discovered that in lieu of work the
claimer could pay $100 which is what seems to have happened on these
Silver Titan claims.
While miserable I was at the same time rather proud of myself. Bob Gilroy
thought I knew what I was doing. He did not know that I had never
staked or tagged mining claims in my life. But I did it. Took a full
day of squishy squishing my way through these swamps and forests
of stunted Yukon spruce. But I did it. And I sure needed whatever
extra money they paid me. “Be bold, Alan, pretend you know what
you are doing…and you may discover that you do know who you are doing.”
My feet were as wet as the feet on these moose. They were designed for that.
I was not. (see postscript)
Made my way…squish, squishing…back to the road at 4.30. No one there.
Walked …squish,sguishing…for 2.5 hours until I met Steve and his
truck heading for Mayo. No supper. Met Bill Scott and Alex Doulis
who were in a fine good mood fuelled by rum I assumed. Good to see
them. My feet were tingly at first but soon became normal.
Ate a can of cold pork and beans as a supper around 9.
Reported to Bob Gilroy and drew a rough map of the tagging. around 8 p.m.
Then Mrs.
Gilroy cooked me a nice T bone steak around 9 …(did not mention the pork and beans
consumed earlier). Packed gear in back of truck and drove to Hutton’s where
I had my personal stuff weighed and shipped home. From this point I will
be travelling light.just clothes on my back, my camera and diary.
Dropped in at the bar at 10 p.m. where Bill awaited with a couple of drinks.
Met Fred Carter who wanted me to see his 35mm slides. Great pictures
including interior of the Dawson City church which was slowly sinking into
the permafrost…weird to see sunday school basement with chairs and lecturns
half covered by clear ice…sort of unsettling. Other pics, of course, of live bears.
Then we went back to the
bar to drink that dreaded ‘double OP’ with Fred and Jim Moran.
All in all the day was better at the end than it was at the beginning and
the middle.
Now, if anyone asks me about staking mining claims I can assume
the posture of a veteran.
Expenses Food … Shipping personal gear $10.52
Post script: MY FEET
Friction between underbrush and my gum rubbers was hard on my feet. Eventually the gum rubbers
got holes in them. Rub!Rub! Rub! Sometimes I stepped on what I thought was solid ground and found my foot
submerged in water. Slosh! slosh! slosh! I got used to it. On the Alaska job I was lucky if a pair of rubber boots lasted
three weeks. Dr. Paterson was persuaded to foot the bill for new rubber boots on that job. The
Yukon job was similar but I Kept my mouth shut. Who wants to appear to be a suck? Even when my feet were protesting. When the
summer ended my feet were as white as ivory and as pock marked as a No Hunting sign targeted
by a shot gun. Skin could be peeled. This final claim staking job was the worst for my feet but
that was clearly my own fault. I know this sounds trivial. Not so. Do an experiment. Walk around
for a few days with water in your boots . Water that starts off cold but soon becomes heated by
our body temperature. The result is not pretty.
Fwd: EPISODE 234 YUKON DIARY SUNDAY AUUST 26, 1962 TO sept. 9, 1962
Begin forwarded message:
From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>Subject: EPISODE 234 YUKON DIARY SUNDAY AUUST 26, 1962 TO sept. 9, 1962Date: January 27, 2021 at 10:54:40 PM ESTTo: Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
EPISODE 234 YUKON DIARY SUNDAY AUGUST 26, 1962 TO Sept 9,1962alan skeochJan. 2021
Mystery photo. Either taken at beginning of Yukon job (i.e. no beard on my face) or at
a later job on North Shore of Lake Superior. Camps always similar. First set up sleeping
tent…then latrine…then construct kitchen furniture for kitchen tent.
Each camp needed a kitchen which I got good at constructing. Hope you agree. When we
left one camp for another I do not remember what happened to our food supply. Given away’
I think…but not the rolled oats or the peanut butter or the pork and beans. This picture looks like
an advertisement for Minute Rice.
I cannot be sure where this kitchen camp was located. My green and black bush shirt was with me in the Yukon. But this camp
kitchen looks too well stocked for the Yukon job.
By end of job I had nice full red beard
I am wearing the same green and black bush jacket as first photo…but have beard. This bush camp is not as neat however.
Sunday August 25, 19628 a.m. Had coffee at Luigi’s and drove to Silver Titan where Dick, the Japanese cook,insisted I have bacon and eggs with all trimmings.A very dreary day with no one around. I unloaded part of the Turam gearthen continued on to Rio Plata where Bill Scott made me another hot rumand we continued packing the Turam gear. Axe and I then drove on upto Jack Acheson’s to pick up the huge Mammoth tooth.We got into a fierce rainstorm back at the Rio Plata camp. Dumped allthe Turam gear at Silver Titan and then drove to town for supper anda shower.Hans Bahr is very excited about the anomalies we found on their property.Axe and Bill Scott are still very sick. Axe paid back the $30 he borrowed in Whitehorse.Monday, August 27, 1962Packed my crate full of antlers and ancient miners tools…shipped to Toronto…100 poundscost me $33.00…had supper with Gilroys then drove back north to Silver Titan campusing Ruth McGurlay’s truck, Nice supper cooked by Dick.Got boys together…Terry Doubt and Bill Andrechuck. Bill Dunn showed me hisnew dog…part wolf. And his new car, a 1951 Pontiac, How can he afford a car even if11 years old? Amusing character.We drove into a new property North of us and began assembling the equipment inanother new camp…a loose term as a camp is always short term and not pretty.Andy brought a bottle of Lindemsn’s Port to celebrate our new location.Expenses meals $3.50. tape $2.20Tuesday August 28, 1962Up at 7.30 with long day ahead of us.Terry and I packed grounding rods and reel of cableto the south end of Base Line #1. Back to camp to do same for North end of BL #1.Built a table then settled down by candlelight. Traded stories in evening as usual.Seems that bush camp workers have a never ending number of stories some of whichmight even be true. The hookers of Keno City in the 1920’s are favourite subjects.Wed. August 29, 1962Up at 6, out by 7.45 in pouring rain. Managed to get 12 lines done which is half the property.Both Terry and Andy are good men in the bush…no complaining. The wet bush makes workreally miserable. A big fire and billy can of tea was nice at lunch. (Billy can is just a fruit can with wirefor hanging over open fire).
Picture taken in late August as the trees are beginning to change colour…Fall season is short…then winter.
Came across 20 blue geese as tame as chickensIn the evening Terry and I made beds from long poles. Cooked by candlelight…not good.Got some custard ready and we all ate from the pot.Picked up large anomaly…largest yet in the Yukon.Thursday August 30, 1962UP at 7, out by 8…finished B.L #1…12 lines. A wet long day. Terry tells some damn goodstories…i.e. the bear that nearly got him on a glacier….and the girls he had success with.Went to bed at 6.30 … telling each other stories in the dark.Bill Scott is working in the other tent using our Coleman lantern. Andy decided to cook applestonight but pot boiled over. Bit of a mess. Applesauce was edible. Overall things are fine now that we have a tin woodstove in the tent as nights are getting colder.Terry regaled us with with story of a woman he met in Haileybury, Ontario. Funny. Sensitive. Terryknows my friend Bob Tyson back in Ontario. Laughed a lot in the darkness.
Diary…now reconstructed after 58 years.
Friday August 31, 1962Slept late…9.30…then got fellows up for a hasty breakfast. Ice in the water bucket . Rolled up Base Line #1and laid out Base Line #2. Packed in the motor generator and got everything working …even managedto do 4 lines finishing at 6.30 pm. Not pleasant. We are not tourists…work to do.Extremely cold weather. We needed a big fire at noon just to get warm.Andy is really bitching today as he wants to get back to Mayo Landing tomorrow evening ashis First Nations woman wants him back fast. Not sure how true that is…he drinks a lot.Terry gave a whole load of tips on women. True? Maybe. Bill Scott gave all of us Hot Rumdrinks while Terry read poetry of Robert Service.The Northern Lights lit up the night sky tonight…flashing across the darkness like lightning bolts.Our dinner plates were frozen to the table before we had time to dry them. Now that is cold.Stacked up pile of firewood in our tent. We will try to keep stove going all night. Must be careful asstove is just tin plate…could get red hot and very dangerous.
Trying to pound in grounding rods … snow and ice on the ground.
Saturday Sept. 1, 1962Up at 6 and got out in bush by 7.30. Finished C.L. # 3 by noon. Had good lunch of cold frenchtoast and bacon…and hot tea over the bush fire.Andy is determined to get to Mayo Landing … decided to hike over the mountain to Silver Titanleaving us at noon. Terry and I pulled ground rods and coiled cable. Bill Scott helpedcarry out some of the load. Terry and I heard a scream and rushed down the trail thinkingBill was in trouble. Instead we met Bill and Mr and Mrs. Gilroy drinking beer. Bill gaveme a can of beer and a pile of mail.We put our food up in a cache where bears could not get it then packed out several loadsof the heavy equipment. I ripped the ass out of my pants again so had to keep facingMrs. Gilroy.Terry and I hopped in the back of the Gilroy truck…a bitterly cold northern night. We stoppedat Elsa for beer then drove on to Mayo Landing…delighted the little girls there…so cute…thendinner at Luigi’s and a drink with Andy and Ted in the Silver Inn. Quite tragic to see Andy’so drunk…and Ted sitting there in his own urine as it trickled down his leg to the floor and out the door.Met Henry Robachuk who offered me a set of caribou antlers. Amazing how many friends i nowhave in Mayo Landing…end of third month here.(Note: I got the Antlers from Henry and not from Moses as previously mentioned…ormaybe they were both involved in the gift(Expenses $1.85 mealsSunday September 2, 1962Packed some of our gear. Visited Mrs Moses and bought moccasins….$20 for two pair…Tookload of waste to the dump. Gilroys…then visited Mrs.Robachuk and got the caribou antlers.Bob Gilroy bought a case of beer from the bootlegger and gave each of us a can. Poor BobGilroy is an alcoholic which is very hard on Mrs. Gilroy who is a very kind and extroverted FrenchCanadian lady. Bob is great guy…charismatic…but wonder about his future.Drove back to the Silver Titan camp where Dick, the cook, fed us all … seemed surly today.Too much alcohol around today. Mrs. Gilroy and the little girls Patricia and Susan fled in tears.(*Note: As mentioned earlier Mrs. Gilroy committed suicide around Christmas time in 1962.I was informed by some of the boys still in Mayo Landing. Alcohol would not be a reason…but would be a complicating factor..I wondered what would happen to those two little girls)
Mayo Landing airport
Monday Sept. 3, 1962Dick had great breakfast for us today. Then I washed 8 pair of dirty socks before startingwork.Terry and I packed motor generator, 2100 feet of coiled wire, 4 rods, sledge, etc. into theold C.L. #2 of Silver Titan in preparation for a day of Turam work.tomorrow. Too manyswamps to slosh through…water is icy.Northern lights are spectacular.
When drive shaft falls out; Bill Scott giving advice … note U. of T. Engineerng jacket.
Bill Scott
Bill Scott…first day on the job in June.
Tuesday Sept. 4, 2021Up ar 6…cook provided6 slices of bacon, 2eggs,2 pancakes, 3 cups of orange juiceand coffee.Terry Doubt, Jim Coyle and I packed carried rest of Turam equipment in to C.L.#2 atSilver Titan. Started motor generator and read lines 10, 15, 17, 20 on East side of loop.Left off line 18 because 10 degrees off proper grid. Survey error.Packed equipment uphill to the road. No easy matter as each of us had 60 to 70 poundpacksacks. Poor John Coyle had just come off a two to three week bender…drunk in otherwords. We really thought he would have a heart attack, We Left packs at side of road and hikedinto town.Bill Dunn reported we can expect snow any time…for sure next week. Bill Scott gotus another hot rum drink … for all crew.Nights are getting very cold.Wednesday Sept. 5, 1962Snow. All pipes and pails with water now frozen. Steve drove us to job site. Then Jim Coyle,Jack Gillis, Terry Doubt and I packed Turam equipment in to the new prperty which is very wet…swampy.Did lines 132, 134, 134, 128, 126, 122….all west lines.Feels like December back home. Ice on all the small ponds, snow flurries most of the day.Did all my washing in the wash basin in evening. Two letters from Marjorie Now starting toget serious about plans to return home..the long way rather than the direct flight from Whitehorse.I want to get the full Yukon experience which means Skagway…need to know more about the
Treadwell mine disaster on Douglas Island near Juneau. Know so little about these big events
that are keyed to a man called Livingston Wernecke. Hope to discover.
Thursday Sept. 6, 1962Motor trouble today…likely dirty gas. Cleaned the carburetor. Broke the governor by accident.scraped carb with a spoon. Walked out to road and borrowed Hans Buhr’s Land Rover thenon to Elsa for repairs. Had the master mechanic do some spot welding on the governor..excelent job.Hard drive back to camp then walked down Proctor’s Road to site…not much of a road, more like a track..
put things back togetherand completed the layout…116, 118, 120, 124, all on west side of base line.I feel relieved..proud of myself getting repairs done and survey done But my legsare very sore.I hope I can get some work on the side for the next few days…tagging claims for Hans Buhr…I willneed the money for my escape route from the Yukon. It will be a tight trip. Have some money butnot enough. Will take a chance anyway…be a shame to miss Dead Horse Pass, Skagway,Juneau…all landlocked places…mysterious places.Friday, Sept. 7, 1962Muggy day…reclaimed cable from BL #3 and talked with Hans Burr in morning. Read book in pm.Our last day and Silver Titan was slow and uncomfortable.Pleasant feeling now job is over and the weight of the world off my shoulders.This has been fascinating job but very stressful at times. Yukon hills are not hills. They are
6,000 foot mountains.
Drove to Mayo Landing with Steve Rudnicki … slept on floor of the Tim-o-Lou Motel basement.Visited Bob Gilroy and got job tagging claims for a day…a little extra money.Had a Tom Collins at the bar and later a glass of sauterne white wine and shot ofrye with Bob Gilroy…hard on my stomach I fear…gut ache.Have got really attached to Mayo Landing and all the characters I have met…eventhe drunks. Often drinkers have nice personalities.Saturday Sept. 8, 1962My idea of sleeping on he floor was not a good idea….bad night. Had breakfastat Luigi’s. Dirk and Ray were there. Dirk put on quite a show by vomitting…foodpoisoning…mild.Bill Scott and I went to the airport to make sure the bags got away. Cold, bleakday in the Yukon. Later we went back to the Gilroys and jointly presented a bottleof sauterne ($4.50) which may not have been a good idea. Perhaps better thana bottle of rye whisky though.I arranged to take the little girls, Patricia and Susan to the movies after oursupper at Luigi’s The show was terrible…John Wayne at his worst…killing Indians.Patricia fell asleep. Susan seemed happy about the movie.Bob Gilroy showed us his new discovery on Silver Titan…good stock marketopportunity for us but we had no money. Stock tips are to always accurate.Expenses $5.50Sunday Sept. 9, 1962My last Sunday morning in Mayo Landing. Had biscuits for breakfast, read a little…inafternoon I helped Bob Gilroy cutting brush.Made arrangements to do the tagging of claims.…What a nightmare that turned out to be…ice about an
inch or two thick in the swamps where claim posts were located.
…feet freezing wet…silence…armed with a rifle and compass…so
even my final work day in the Yukon was no picnic. We arrived in
the Yukon two weeks after the ice was swept down the Stewart
River…and we left the Yukon as the ice began to return…3 months
later. Now there is One nice event though! The goddamn mosquitoes froze to death.
YUKON DIARY to Sept. 9, 1962..END OF THE JOB.
NEXT EPISODE: PERSONAL PLANNED ESCAPE FROM THE YUKON
EPISODE 237 THE NIGHT I MET DR. AHO: “ALAN HERE’S A DOUBLE O.P.” “WHAT IS IT?”
EPISODE 237 THE NIGHT I MET DR. AHO: ”ALAN, HERE’S A DOUBLE OP!”
alan skeoch
january 2021
6011edfda7223
Small error in Episode 235
Correction of error in episode 23e
where I say poop, it should say pool (WHAT A STUPID ERROR)
EPISODE 235 YUKON DIARY THE “SPORTING GIRLS” OF KENO CITY (I.E. PROSTITUTES)
Note: This Episode might be a little too crude for some readers. But it is
part of my experience and certainly part of the mystique of the Yukon. Read
it if you will. You have been warned. Livingston Wernecke is a very large
part of Yukon history. His story, very upright man that he was, has been reserved
for a special Episode…
EPISODE 235 YUKON DIARY THE “SPORTING GIRLS” OF KENO CITY (I.E. PROSTITUTES)
alan skeoch
January 2021
NO PICTURES AVAILABLE,,,UNLESS YOU’
CAN FIND A COUPLE. DOES ANYONE HAVE
A PICTURE OF THE KENO CITY SPORTING GIRLS?
WHEN LIVINGSTON WERNECKE MET MADAM VIMY RIDGE
(Below is my interpretation of the night that Livingstone Wernecke, the puritanical mine manager on
Keno Hill met Vimy Ridge, the lead Madam of the sporting girls in Keno City. The dialogue
is fictitious but the event likely happened because it is mentioned so often )
“Did you hear what happened to old man Wernicke last night?:
“Did he fall asleep reading the Bible?”
“Nope.”
“Did he persuade that Swede to sell the Elsa claims cheap?”
“Nope”
Then what happened?”
“Old Man Wernecke paid Vimy Ridge a visit in her whorehouse in Keno City”
“The Madam who hires those sporting girls?”
“Right.”
“I thought he was morally pure.”
“So did one of the boys who was wrapped around a sporting girl at the time.”
“One of our guys?”
“Yep.”
“What happened?”
“Our man looked up, surprised and said ‘So you use this place too, Mr. Wernecke.”
“And?”
“And Wernecke was embarrassed…said nothing….buggered off.”
“Why was he down there? He did not like having the sporting girls
around. Immoral. Giving his boys some bad habits.”
“He went down there to make sure Vimy Ridge allowed his
doctor to check out he girls…keep diseases out of Keno.”
“What diseases?”
“Don’t be naive…the ‘Clap’…you know right well…Old Man Wernecke wanted to
make sure his boys didn’t end up with syphillis or gonorrhoea .”
“I thought he was trying to shut down the whoring in Keno City…drive the
sporting girls down to Mayo …maybe drive them back to Dawson where
they came from.”
“You mean Wernecke has given up his crusade…surrendered to the Madams…”
“Reckon so. We’ve got 800 men up here…most of us single…Wernecke figured he
was fighting a losing battle. Best to keep the girls healthy if he could.”
“What happened to the guy wrapped around the sporting girl?”
“Nothing. Wernecke just left the place. Vimy Ridge let the mine doctor check
out her girls. Everybody seems to have won.”
PROSTITUTION IN KENO CITY
HOW TO TELL IF A MINE IS SUCCESSFUL
In the summer of 1960, Dr. Paterson sent me on a short job to Elliot Lake…the uranium
capital of Canada. Weird job that did not make much sense to me. Can Met UrAnium mine
had been closed down. The stope pillars deep in the bedrock had been pulled. The mine was
collapsing as we conducted our survey through the doomed passageways. I suppose
it was dangerous but I was used to danger, rather liked danger.
We were assigned one of the last mine employees as an underground escort. A rough talking, hard drinking, kind of guy.
He asked me a question while we were sitting on a boulder that had fallen from the
mine ceiling when some roof bolts gave way.
“Alan, do you know how to tell when a mine is successful?”
“No.”
“When the hookers arrive…that’s when we know.”
“Did they arrive here in Elliot Lake?”
“Sure did. Some of them did double duty working in the mess
hall in the daytime and on heir backs at night.”
“Any still around?”
“Are you kidding. They bugger off fast when the mine began to close down.”
FLASH FORWARD TO THE YUKON JOB 1962
In 1962 there were no hookers in Keno City. The great Keno Hill silver/lead mines closed down
in the 1930’s…hit hard by the 1929 Stock Market collapse and the U.S. refusal to buy foreign
silver. The sporting girls were gone.
But they had been in Keno City. Perhaps a dozen of them, maybe a few more They had their cabins
grouped around Keno. The sporting girls did not dominate Keno City…not nearly as dominant as
they had been in Dawson City two decades earlier. some sources said that the Dawson City
prostitutes moved to Keno City once the gold rush ended in Dawson. Possibly so. But age
would have crept up on them. And active sporting girls in 1900 might be in her twenties. That
would make her 40 or 50 operating in Keno City. A little old. The Madams like Bombay
Peggy must have recruited younger girls. Some sources say that big time criminals controlled
the trade. But that flesh business was long gone by 1962. Lots of stories circulated as is
the custom when young single men get together around a campfire. The stories told were
amusing. Rough. Stories taken with a pinch of salt.
Like the story of one sporting girl in Keno who walked around town stark naked except
for her painted toe nails. The story was made more startling when someone observed
her catch and kill a rabbit with her bare feet. The rabbit was to be her dinner that night.
Now who could believe that story? Think about it. Summer time in the Yukon is made
miserable by clouds of mosquitoes so dense that it is unlikely a nude woman would
be walking around town…unless she was insane. Do not rule out that possibility.
Madness among these sporting girls I would not rule out.
Prostitution must be a miserable occupation. Seems to me that The glorification of prostitution is
exaggeration gone wild. My experience? Zero. Never had an inclination even. I can identify closest
to Livingstone Wernicke. Sounds stuffy and boring around a campfire
so most of the time I just listened to the stories. Some were sort of amusing and horrifying at
the same time. Like the story told by Bill Dunn who had a successful sex escapade in Mayo
Landing one night. “I fell asleep afterwards and woke up to find the family sleeping
in the same room. They had been there in the dark.” Some readers will find that story
disgusting. Others amusing. Still others will find it ridiculous…fabricated. Bill Dun had
another story that seemed true. “We we’re sitting in the Power wagon and she tried
to put a knife in me.” Ring of truth there I felt. But….
Which get me back to the sporting girls of Keno City. No glory there. Some Yukon writers
like Pierre Berton (Klondike), Jack London (Call of the Wild), Robert Service (Songs of
a Sourdough) give readers a distorted view of the lives of sporting girls.
I think Dr. Aaro Aho’s book (Hills of Silver) paints the most accurate picture of
the sporting girls of Keno City.
“Up to seven eight sporting girls operated in Keno in the 1920’s and 1930’s. They were
known by names like Vancouver Lil, Jew Jess, Alice, Vimy Ridge, Silver Fox and Nora. and
most had seriously unhappy lives. Some were exceptionally good hearted, others cruel,
some made fortunes, but most worked for fear of their lives under organized vice rings
centred in Vancouver, at least one of them, Silver Fox, was murdered there. (in Keno City)”
This strikes me as a bit odd. Seven or eight sporting girls to service hundreds
of miners seems a little one sided…and exhausting. But Dr. Aho seems to have
researched the situation. Let’s say he missed a dozen. Even so the population
of girls of the line is very small.
“Nora painted her toenails and often went around in the nude….Nora was really tough
and in the 1930’s moved in with one the successful discoverers. She got him to hire
a cook for $7 a day, pushed dope, and helped him go through $17,000in nine months
whereupon his female partner … showed up and put a stop to it.” (P. 132 Aho, Hills of Silver)
“Marie, a good looking woman, came to Keno in 1928, did very well as ‘a girl on the line,”
bought another house, added onto it to make a restaurant, and got her boyfriend Barney to cook
for her. She then started a taxi business, but Barney Barney began to drink up the profits….She
closed the cafe” married several other men but became more and more mentally
disturbed and impoverished. Finally Marie ended up on $20 a month welfare then in
1941 just disappeared one winter. She was tracked to a broken bridge. “She had no next of kin
and no one ever made enquiries or tried to find her.”
So, Aho reduces the sporting girl population to 7or 8 and most had unhappy lives.
There were lots of things to do in Keno City other than pay $3 a trick to a sporting
girl. “ice-skating, tennis, poop,ball game between the mines, villages, steamboat crews,
swimming at Five Mile Lake, and occasionally boxing.” Add the sporting girls and
there seems to have been lots of recreation activities. Which one dominated
Alcohol consumption. “But from all accounts it would
appear Keno’s main recreation was drinking.” (P. 130)
Police? The RCMP sent an undercover man to infiltrate the criminals in Keno City.
He was successful and a police raid followed. Guess who the criminals were?
No mention of the sporting girls. None. But a lot of time and effort was spent trying
to catch the bootleggers. Lots of them during Prohibition. Making hone brew out
of anything they could find that could be distilled. Proof that drinking was the main
activity in Keno Hill.
And that still seems to be the case if you have read these episodes.
alan skeoch
Jan. 2021
Post Script: No mention of sporting girls was made in my diary. But I do remember
one of the guys pointing out an elderly lady in the Chateau Inn, Mayo Landing, and
saying she was once a hooker in Keno. She would be in her late 60’s, perhaps 70’s
in 1962. My memory is fuzzy. Did I see her or just hear about her? Apparently she
returns to Mayo Landing in the summer time. A generous person from whom old timers can
always borrow a few dollars. Warm hearted. Just a memory that I hope was true.
Dawson City prostitutes and their cabins. Not glorious at all.
The Yukon’s dance hall queen
‘The men did not come to the Yukon for the gold; they came to see me,” Klondike Kate Rockwell, perhaps one of the most well-known dance hall girls during the Klondike Gold Rush, is quoted as saying.
‘The men did not come to the Yukon for the gold; they came to see me,” Klondike Kate Rockwell, perhaps one of the most well-known dance hall girls during the Klondike Gold Rush, is quoted as saying.
Klondike Kate was born Kathleen Eloisa Rockwell in Kansas in 1876.
It was a date she would often forget throughout her life, claiming to have been born in 1880, 1882, and even 1892.
As a young woman Kate was beautiful and full of life.
“My father showered luxury on me,” Kate told a biographer, May Mann, later in life. “How could anyone imagine that his beloved and indulged stepdaughter, who was being groomed to take her place as a society leader in the city, was destined to become a variety showgirl and a Yukon dance-hall queen?”
She was expelled from a number of boarding schools because of her behaviour.
Kate loved to dance and flirt, especially with older men.
In New York City, Kate took the name ‘Kitty Phillips’ and got a job as a chorus girl in a variety theatre.
There, Kate got her first taste of what the job entailed: “I was told to sit in one of the boxes. An old schoolmate joined my table. ‘Will you have a bottle of wine?’ he invited. ‘Oh, no, thank you,’ I replied. ‘I do not drink wine. I only drink lemonade. A bottle of wine cost five dollars and the box waiter almost fainted. My commission would have been $1.25 a bottle.”
Later one of the girls told Kate that between acts she was expected to sit and drink with the customers on a percentage commission.
“She also showed me how to pour the drinks into the spittoons when the customers were not watching,” said Kate.
She worked in Washington and Oregon before coming north to the Yukon in 1898.
“I shall never forget my first sight of Dawson,” said Kate. “Front Street, facing the Yukon was a solid line of saloons, dance halls and gambling houses.”
During her first year in Dawson City, Kate made $30,000. One night, while wearing her $1,500 gown from Paris, Kate was crowned Queen of the Yukon. The men fashioned a crown from a tin can, and stuck lit candles on the jagged points. The boys went wild as Kate danced with wax dripping into her hair.
While in Dawson Kate fell in love with a Greek waiter named Alexander Pantages.
She supported him for five years as he worked his way up in the theatre.
He sent Kate to Texas for a year to perform and make money. While Kate was gone Alexander met and married a younger girl from the “right side of the tracks.” Heartbroken, Kate sued Alexander for breach of promise to marry her.
“The woman declares that by her earnings as a vaudeville performer in the Klondike during the early strike she enabled Pantages in five years to jump from poverty to riches, from a waiter in a dance hall in Dawson to the position of theatre magnate,” reported the Dawson Daily News in June 1905.
The case was settled out of court, leaving Kate with a settlement of between $5,000 and $60,000, depending on the source.
In 1933, she married John Matson and the pair returned to Dawson City for their honeymoon.
Matson remained in the Klondike and continued mining; he and Kate rarely saw each though they wrote two letters each year.
In 1946, one of Matson’s letters did not arrive on schedule Kate began to worry and soon after his body was found frozen about 12 kilometres from his remote cabin.
Later, Kate settled in Oregon and married twice before passing away peacefully in 1957, at age 80.
The MacBride Museum has a dress, purse and wrap that were owned by the legendary dance hall girl in its collection.
This column is provided by the MacBride Museum of Yukon History. Each week it will explore a different morsel of Yukon’s modern history. For more information, or to comment on anything in this column e-mail lchalykoff@macbridemuseum.com.
EPISODE 235 YUKON DIARY KENO CITY: WHERE IS IT? “AT THE END OF THE WORLD”
EPISODE 235 YUKON DIARY KENO CITY: WHERE IS IT? “AT THE END OF THE WORLD”
“That was one hell of a fire.”
“What fire?”
“The night not so long ago that the Keno City Hotel burned to the ground.”
“How did it happen?”
“No one knows for sure…but there is a police investigation.”
“How has he fire affected Keno City?”
“Well, there was never much to see in the City…now there is even less.”
“Was it ever s city?”
“Never.”
“Is it worth the trip?”
“Yes..for sure…if you like mystery…if you like places that time has forgotten.”
“What about the ‘sporting girls’?
“Once upon a time the sporting girls were here but that was long ago.”
Too bad. The Keno City hotel burned to the ground recently which means there
is even less of Keno City to find. Mysterious circumstance fire. Now there is only
one place to buy beer in Keno City.
Main Street in Keno City. The Museum has gathered together bits and pieces of Keno City and Keno Hill history.
Worth a visit? I love adventure so I would without hesitation say yes. But if you are seeking the hurly burly days
of the rush for silver, then you will be disappointed.
alan skeoch
Jan. 2021
KENO CITY
How do i give you a short impression of Keno City? Not very udiffcult. “If you are looking
for a place at the very end of the civilized world, then take a drive to Keno City.” Drive slowly
otherwise you might miss the metropolis. There is not much left to see now that the
Keno Hotel has burned to the ground under mysterious circumstances.
A couple of years ago Keno City had two bars facing each other; Competing with each other
for the trade from the population of the city. Population? Are there 12 or 20 residents? No more
than that. If you are wanting women as well as booze you will be very disappointed because
the ‘sporting girls’ have long since departed.
I have come to the conclusion that rumours of good time girls were… like the rumour of Mark Twain’s
death … grossly exagerrated. That conclusion was made after listening to story after story of rampant prostituion in
Dawson City then Keno City. Stories magnified by men who had never been in the Yukon in
those bawdy house years. Stories around a smoky campfire. Storie told to distract from the millions
of blood sucking bastards hovering on the smoke periphery.
After more than three months working and drinking in and around Keno City, we never
set our glasses down in a Keno City bar. Was that a mistake, an accident or just good luck?
The city was dead. The city could not be found except in the imagination. The closest I came
to meeting a Yukon prostitute was the woman in Mayo Landing bar who offered to take
me to her room to cut my hair. She was about 60 years old, very large, very drunk…very sad.
Keno City was never ever a City. Nor will it ever become a city. When I passed through Keno City
in 1962, I was stunned. What city? In1962 there were still some reminders of better times. Houses
and buildings in need of paint and attention to detail Some boarded up. No real main street. I do not
even remember any sign that there had ever been a main street except for a large false fronted
commercial building that could have once been store. In 1962 there were only 20 people living
in Keno City. Today, in 2021, I noted the population had fallen to 12. Today they cannot even drink
the water in the town because it is loaded with arsenic which has percolated down from the
Keno Hill silver mine at the top of Keno Hill and the Wernecke Camp mine halfway up.
Stories told of the boom times in Keno City usually spent a lot of print on the ‘sporting girls’…the
hookers (prostitutes) that migrated from Dawson City to Keno City in the 1920’s and 1930’s.
Dozens of them apparently organized and housed by famous madams like Bombay Peggy, Ruby Scott and Tiger Lil…women
who had done well in the skin trade of Dawson.
Most stories I heard over campfires at night were lurid enough to make me believe that Keno City
was once devoted only to prostitution. Servicing the 800 or so men who got every second Sunday
off and had no place to spend their money except Keno City which was a bit of a boom town down at
the bottom of Keno Hill in the 1920’s and 1930’s. To stop fights for access to women and liquor the mine
owners made sure that the day off Sundays were staggered.
In truth Keno Hill was never a place where there was no law and order. Eventually an RCMP detachment
was stationed in Keno but the officers seemed to spend most of their time trying to find illegal makers of
moonshine…bootleggers in other words. And they failed at that job since there were lots of places
to hide stills.
There was no need for a jail in Keno City. Instead there was the flagpole. Residents that needed police
discipline were simply handcuffed to the flagpole as a feast for mosqitoes in the summer time and near
frozen to death in the winter time where temperatures could get as low as 50 below zero.
If you thirst for adventure then Keno City is the place to visit. I mean it. A city that never
existed really. Worth the drive? I would say yes…for sure. If you want to find a city at
the end of our civilized world.
NEXT EPISODE: KENO CITY’S ‘SPORTING GIRLS’ (PROSTITUTES)
This is the famous street of prostitutes in Dawson City. When the gold was gone they moved
to Keno City where silver had been found in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Being a sporting girl
was never glorious or very profitable for most of the girls.
next EPISODE … SPORTING GIRLS AS TOLD BY DR. AHO
EPISODE 230 YUKON DIARY SUNDAY AUGUST 5, 1962 TO AUGUST 25, 1962: “WHAT CAN GO WRONG, WILL GO WRONG”
EPISODE 230 YUKON DIARY SUNDAY AUGUST 5 , 1962 TO SATURDAY AUGUST 25, 1962
![White Gold starts drilling at Titan project, shares up]()
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“WHAT CAN GO WRONG, WILL GO WRONG”
alan skeoch
Jan 2021
Silver Titan and Peso Silver base camp. Best tent camp we ever experienced
in the Yukon. Most of the tents were used by The mining crew. While we were in this camp the old Silver Titan mine of the 1930’s was
being pumped out. The flooded mine was almost intact as the timbers shoring up
the mine had been protected from wood rot by the water. The question on the minds
of he mining executives was ‘How much galena ore remained?” We were expected
to help answer that question.
Our campsite construction was not as polished.
We had a far less attractive campsite on the banks of Haggart Creek which
we used part of the time.
HAGGART CREEK CAMP
Sunday August 5, 1962
Cooked pancakes which we ate standing up because everything was soaked
in the tent…rain got through…torrential rain. Then spent time building shelves
seat, table for the cook tent.
Camp looks good now we have a stove …need heat …cool nights.
Cooked supper for Bill Scott and Axel…potato patties with cheese and bacon,
rice, tea and coffee…sherry before supper…cognac after supper…not a bad
life Sunday afternoon and evening in the Yukon bush.
The creek has turned into a raging torrent wiping out our little dam but
sluice system is still working. (Why did we need a sluice? No idea.)
Monday August 6, 1962
Pancakes and syrup again. Fred arrived from Peso and offered us a lift
into town. Axel, Bill and I wound up 1500 feet of cable. Drove to Peso and
then to Elsa and then to Mayo. (Correction distance from Keno City to
Mayo Landing is 50 km, not 60 miles. The trip just seemed like 60 miles)
Truck had 2 flat tires on the way…one
front tire happened at 60 mph. Thanks to Fred no one was hurt.
Luigi picked us up and took us to town…Gilroy’s house…then got groceries
and borrowed Bob Gilroy’s truck to drive out and fix tires on Peso truck.
Supper at Luigi’s cafe then to Chateau Inn bar….port wine with Bill Wells,
Fred, Axel, Bob Gilroy, Terry and Lorenson. Rolling discussion of religion
of all things. The fellows Told stories of incidents in Yellowknife.
A First Nations woman joined us later. Wanted me to
go up to her room for a haircut. Rather silly but amusing.
Fred and I split cost of room for the night…last room available.
I had a bad leg cramp.
Expenses meals 2.25
repellent 4.90
groceries 15.82
Tuesday August 7, 1962
Bob Gilroy picked us up for trip to Silver Titan mine site to look at
diamond drill core…Comment….”granite Schist with Pyrite disseminated at 190 to 205 foot level.”
Had great dinner then drove to Proctor’s with the Rio Plata and Silver Titan boys.
Bill Scott hitch hiked to Mayo Landing for a time. I stayed with the Rio Plata
boys while we waited for job. Spent pleasant time reading handwriting…book
Sons and Daughters.
expenses 1.75 meals
Wednesday August 8, 1962
Alex cooked breakfast then Fred Carter dropped in for coffee. Pile of mail
arrived at 4 pm. Nice music on radio …CBC from Whitehorse. Wrote Marjorie
and Eric. At 10.30 got word Eric job problem. (turned out to be both funny and
difficult)
Thursday, August 9, 1962
Rain. Packed up in afternoon and drove to town …powerful rainstorm….arrived 7.15
No sign of Bill Scott. Tragedy. Went to Gilroy’s and was told Bill’s father was seriously ill…dying…
in Toronto…Bill had caught the DC 3 flight to Whitehorse and then on to Toronto.
Hard to believe this could happen. Severe illness and death are never expected because
most of us are young.
Telegram arrived from Dr. Paterson
“To A. Skeoch.
TURAM REPAIRED AND AIR EXPRESSED MAYO TODAY stop ONE TUBE CHANGED
AND BATTERY CABLE REWIRED stop THESE CABLES INCLUDED stop CAN YOU
CONTINUE SURVEYS BY YOURSELF
Paterson Hunting Survey Corp.
I sent reply immediately
DR. PATERSON. PLEASE CONVEY MY GRAVE CONCERN TO BILL stop I SHALL CONTINUE
SURVEY AS WE HAVE PLANNED stop THE CALCULATIONS WILL BE SLOWER BUT I WILL
SATISFY CLIENTS CONCERNING ANOMALIES IN ADVNCE OF FINAL REPORT stop
BETTER SEND SOME MONEY stop SKEOCH
Friday August 10, 1962
Poor sleep..nervous night. Wrote letter to Bill Scott. Bob Gilroy came . Seems we will be OK.
Arranged wth CPA for refund of my ticket home…$194.00///
I plan to use the money to travel by different route. Any money above my airfare is my
responsibility.
Repaired Turam was not on flight today. Bob Gilroy offered me a day’s work at Silver Titan for
pocket money…what a relief.,,we now have 3 camps 110 miles apart.
Ted Swanson, Dirk and I split a bottle of Schenley’s and traded B.S. as usual.
Mrs. Gilroy told us how her daughter explained a ride home with me…ie. a stranger…
“He was a friend of Jesus Christ”…ie. my beard and Jesus beard made us look similar.
Expenses 5.50 meals
6.00 board
Saturday August 11, 1962
UP at 6.45….breakfast…went down to the old diamond drill site and tied in two lines….got soaked in the effort.
…returned to camp….afternoon plotted…did lines 52, 62, tying them in to old lines 1,2. then 34, 40 to R. Base Line.
Exchange results superimposed and found some errors. Met Bob Gilroy and informed him…(corrections?)
In the evening I drove to Elsa to make two iong distance phone calls…1) A. Donlis in Mayo 2)CPA in Whitehorse.
Had to get secretary to mine manager to open office. Took 3 hours and no luck. Bought Bill Dunn coffee and
also got copy of Atlantic magazine.
Expenses meals, phone calls.
Sunday August 12, 1962
6.45 up…then down to old R. Base Line (1956) and tried lines 46,,48, 54, 56, from T Base Line to R. Base Line…all
in general agreement. Made my inked location map for Bob Gilroy; Sent Bill Dunn down to Base Line #3 to haul
cable and load reels.
Axel Doulis arrived at 11 am. I had Dick prepare lunch for him and then drive him to Rio Plata. I just hate that 2 hour
drive. The Land Rover was covered in mud.
Saw two moose on the road but did not get pictures. Drove back to camp as fast as possible and finished location map .
Had steak for supper at 5 pm. Packed bag and drove to Mayo Landing…checked in to the Tim-o-Lou…shower then
bed. I am not feeling too well.
Monday August 13, 1962
Bad sleep…had shower and changed clothes. Telegram arrived
SKEOCH, HUNTING SURVEY CORPORATION,
GENERAL DELIVERY , MAYO, YT
CHEQUE FOR 200 AIR MAILED TODAY stop REGRET ADVISE
BILL’S FATHER DIED THURSDAY
PATERSON HUNTING SURVEY CORP
Tough for poor Bill Scott. Then things got very busy. Ordered two pairs of moccasins from Mrs. Moses (Mackenzie First Nations)
she is local chef’s wife.
Drove to airport and picked up instrument directly from the DC 3 . Then got my crew organized which was no easy matter.
Got Moses Lord from his cabin full of females…mother, sisters, etc. then Bill Dunn from the bar. Arranged to pay
motel bill later as money is really tight even with the 200 from Toronto…no problem. Then met Ray and Len
in Chateau Inn bar…drunk as lords. I had a nice Tom Collins drink and great supper at Luigi’s.
Got haircut at Mrs. McCameny’s (1.25 plus 25) …changed my appearance so much that I wore my
good pants all day…partly because there was no rear in my other pair…ass showing.
Drove back to Rio Plata over the worst goddamned road in North America. Spent evening getting ready
for hard day tomorrow.
Meals
Tuesday August 13, 1962
Got boys on job early then the #$%^ Turam refused to function. Spent 2 hours trying to repair but failed…drove to town.
Met crew of Peso Silver en route.
Phoned Toronto…Barrie Nichols and ordered a Ronka instrument for the Rio Plata job. Signed in to Tim-o-Lou.
Terribly frustrating. Found bit of escapism in evening at movie in Oddfellows hall titled Dark at the Top of the Stairs.
Had drink at Hotel. Moses Lord arrived in bad mood which is unusual for him.
Expenses Meals, motel.
Wednesday August 15, 1962
SYNOPSIS OF TURAM SYSTEM: LOTS CAN GO WRONG
Copy of report to Silver Titan Mines re: Turam system sent June 14, 1962
Telegram from Toronto. Ronka en route. Must send Turam back immediately…drove all the way to Whitehorse
(250 miles) in Land Rover…arrived very tired…signed into hotel that was once army barracks in WW2.
Borrowed $100 from Bob Gilroy for travelling expenses as the 200 from Toronto is not enough. Lent Axel $30 in
Whitehorse. Nightmare time. Have no idea what is wrong with Turam…tubes? Did check all connections with
meter…seem fine. Alternative Ronka could be better. But unsure. Turam is old. I will be found at fault I fear.
Expenses food 6.00, gas and oil 4.50 hotel 8.00 phone call 2.40, transportation ?? makers .70
MAKING repairs … testing circuits. Do not remember this site; A real bed…Should have been unforgettable…likely in Mayo hotel room.
Thursday August 16, 1962
Out to CPA office with Turam…shipped it air freight to Toronto. Shopped A bit. Had a beer at the Taku.
Bought Marjorie a pair of ear rings $11.70. Bought pair of trousers $5.95
In the evening we drove down to Lake Bennett with Mike Scott and Ben Stangel … stopped at a
cabin filled with all kinds of trinkets and things (copper)used by Indians before white men arrived.
Moose, Bear, Sheep, Caribou heads on walls also picture of Teddy Roosevelt and Sir Wilfred Laurier.
Lake Bennett is a beautiful emerald green colour. But worry about the job trumps beauty of the lake.
What else can go wrong?
Expenses meals 7.50, transport 3.00, telephone 2.40
Lake Bennett with White Pass Railway passenger train … Skagway to and from Whitehorse. This is the route I will take when I leave
the Yukon. Skagway was the jump off point for access to the Yukon in the 1890’s.
Lake Bennett camp in 1900
Boat building on shores of Lake Bennett. in 1900; Plan was to float down the Yukon River to the goldfields
of Dawson City. Sounds more glorious than the trip really was. People died.
Breathtaking Lake Bennett in winter. Beautiful and brutal in gold rush days.
Friday August 17, 1962
Axel still asleep when I went sopping. robert service book $5.95, necklace for mom $5.95, Slide film $1.00.
Back to hotel and sent letters to Toronto and Vancouver offices. Drove to airport st 1 pm and picked up the Ronka
from CPA truck. They were keeping it at Whitehorse for the night. Started long journey back to Mayo…raining all
the way. Spectacular red glare gave eerie effect around 8 pm. In Mayo we had a drink and went to bed.
Drink, drink , drink seems to give reason for living up here.
I am quite anxious about the future…will everything work?
Expenses meals 5.50, transport ??, telephone, gas and oil 3.93
Saturday August 20, 1962
Telegram delivered 3 days late. Telephoned Norm as instructed. He sounded rather disturbed. Claims Turam trouble
was only tube trouble. Seems strange to me because all tubes tested AOK. Norm think Ronka will not operate successfully.
..because of overburden effects. Decided to use it until new instrument arrives with Bill Scott.
Axel and I rounded up Moses Lord who was drunk…everyone seems to be drunk this morning.
Bad air disaster north here … one killed, two badly injured…flown to Mao hospital.
Drove out to Rio Plata after talking with Dr. Aho. Didlines 48, 46 East and West with Ronka using 300 foot spread.
Results are not at all appealing…quite erratic.
Hugh Naylor, Ron and Dr. Aho dropped in… explained what Dr. Paterson said huge
overburden here could effect Rpnka.
I am damned depressed. Doing the best I can. Wish I could do more.
Expenses food 3.50
Sunday August 19, 1962
Up early and out with the Ronka. Did lines 2 and 4 North with 200 foot and 300 foot spreads. Checked lines 26 north on Peso property
Spent dreadfull day in the rain….poor lunch with no drinking water while rain poured down.
Moses Lord has the flu but had to use him all the same. Bad situation. We came across 5 ptarmigan. Ate low bush
cranberries and blueberries.
In evening things looked up. Plotting results. Notice anomalies…things I cannot explain in other words..
Very tired. Told we must expect rain from now until freeze up. Cheered up by results however.
Monday August 20, 1962
Up early…plotted some results on graph paper…quick breakfast and the out on the trail…did lines 8, 10, 12, 14 with
300 for spread. Then lines16, 18 with 200 foot spread.
Moses Lord is very sick and went to bed early. I opened a can of chicken stew for supper then began plotting
the results for several hours.
Listened to a play from CBC radio from Winnipeg. Then got stove going for bed. Still feel very depressed…doing
all I can. Third year with Turam so do know something about it…can make minor repairs
but not major repairs I cannot. Defective tube?
Axel drove out to get Bill Scott this afternoon…expect him back late tonight or in the morning.
Getting anxious to go home…feel something is not right back in Toronto.
Tuesday August 21, 1962
Got Moses our of bed…he is dreadfully ill. Spent day extending the western grounding rods then did
lines16N, 20N, 24N,28N, 32N, 36N, 30N, 44N. It was a hard day for Moses who should be in bed. I cooked
supper and he went to bed immediately.
I spent next few hours depressed. Wrote letter and read a little from Generation of Vipers.
At 9 pm the Land Rover arrived with Bill Scot, John andAxel. I was very happy to see Bill and
the Turam which had been repaired. Bill thought my work shirt smelled … likely true.
He has been through a rough time.
Apparently Bill Dunn got into trouble by leaving s loaded 30-06 fully loaded rifle on the bar and
Al, the bartender, pulled the trigger. WHAM! Everyone hit the floor. Bill caught hell.
Received some happy mail from Marjorie, mom and Wally Little…and Dr. John Stam.
Also received my copies of the Peso Silver and Silver Titan properties. Pleasant evening
with Bill and Axel. A new man arrived…First Nations person to replace poor Moses.
Wednesday August 22, 1962
Joy! We covered 4.28 line miles with the new Turam….half finished Base Line #1…Moses Lord wanted
to work so joined new man John Peter. Rained all day long.
Found old prospectors cabin plus lots of fresh bear shit. No danger as bears are
quite happily wolfing down blueberries, swamp apples and red currents and cranberries.
In the evening I was inspired enough to do my washing. Sent my $93.00 second instalment to the
Ontario College of Education…total tuition is $163.00. Cut out some more newspaper clippings from
the old World War I wallpaper magazines.
Moses Lord has recovered. Joking about. Really good fellow to work with. Seems other First Nation
people look up to him.
Got $100 from Bill Scott to pay loan from Bob Gilroy. The company really left me in the lurch
after Bill left so suddenly. Lucky we could get credit.
Thursday August 23, 2021
Out in the cold rain by 8 am. Poured rain all day long. I kept the men moving and we managed to complete
Base Line #1…no small task …3.5 line miles then coiling up cable. steep up and down.
Lunch was quite an experience. we built a roaring fire using 3 trees in an effort to dry our raincoats.
But the rain kept falling so drying was hopeless. Ate two peanut butter sandwiches
Came back to camp. t Bill and Axel were planning a trip to town. No food in camp.
Friday August 24, 1962
Skimpy breakfast of 2 scrambled eggs then out to work on Base Line #2…in the pouring rain of course.
Done. Coiled up Base Lines 1 and 2…then put down Base Line #5. Had to bolt 3 bridges…log across streams.
Back at camp at 5 and prepared ghastly supper of the last of our bacon and sardines.
Wheland Read and Jack Acheson dropped in with the Mammoth Tooth for me. Brad Pearson arrived
anticipating a letter from his wife but he was disappointed.
Plannned trip to Dublin Gulch to explore an old adit.
We have no bread, no milk, no meat. Hope some groceries arrive.
Saturday August 25, 1962
Moses made French Toast for us all. Bill Scott is sick with the flue as are whole crew except me. Started Base Line
#5 at 8 am…south side lines 0 to 20 . Finished by noon so pulled the grounding rods and went
back to camp. Bill Scott made me a nice hot rum/. Then we went back out with Bill to coil cable.
Drove up Dublin Gulch and bought 3 nuggets from George…$2.50, $2.25 and 90 cents…got big one for Bill
Scott at $4.50. Moses, John and I then explored the old adit using our Coleman Lantern…fantastic ice
crystals have formed in the stillness.
Back to camp for a roast beef dinner…groceries have arrived. Beef tough…chewy.
Since Bill Scott and Axel were sick I had to drive Moses and John to town later in evening. Chased a
black bear down the road. Arrived in Mayo at 9.30. Visited the Gilroys. Treated royally….2 glasses of white wine
and wedge of lemon pie.
Bob Gilroy offered Terry Doubt as helper since all are sick in our camp.. Moses and John are off to another job. I will miss them.
www.mining.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/White-Gold-Yukon-300×184.jpg 300w, www.mining.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/White-Gold-Yukon-768×471.jpg 768w” sizes=”(max-width: 927px) 100vw, 927px” apple-inline=”yes” id=”7E6716A2-1F02-4DDE-B7BF-240C3A75AC2A” src=”http://alanskeoch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/White-Gold-Yukon.jpg”>The Yukon Hiils were once mountains. Time, Erosion, glaciation ground the mountains down hence
the gold nuggets on the bed rock …Heavy.
alan skeoch
Jan.2021
EPISODE 233 YUKON DIARY YUKON CABIN
EPISODE 233 YUKON DIARY YUKON CABIN
alan skeoch’
Jan 2021
Today is a day for thought. While surveying in the Yukon we often came across
old log cabins that had been abandoned decades earlier. Most often they had collapsed but
A few were habitable. One of those we lived in for a time. Dr. Aho’s book speculates
on the contents. Remember the buildings were small, maybe the size of your living room
or Your garage. What was considered necessary?
Our cabin had the luxury of a linoleum floor. 1962. What else would
have been there in 1930? 1920?
What colour is my nightshirt?
Answer
The cabins that gold miners built were not large… about the size of a garage…some bigger, most smaller.
Dr. Aho speculated on what the interior of these cabins contained. He knew. Dr. Aho spent a lot
of time looking at these cabins. And talking to the men who lived in them.
“The cabins were rough and unpainted with moss-chinked walls…one or at most two rooms…small four paned windows….
doors rough slabs. Furnished with only the bare necessities….shelves stacked with groceries, tobacco, ore samples,
gold scales, lanterns, cans, boxes, reading material, candles and ammunition. In the corners or hung on the walls
were boots, clothes, dog harness, picks, axes, cobblers’ kits, tools, boxes of junk, pack sacks, moccasins, socks,
rifles snd moose horns. On spruce pole cots were eider down or fur sleeping bags snd clothes. A small stove
firewood, kindling, paper, water barrel, wash basin and soap in one corner….small kitchen with utensils…hand made
table and chairs. Brooms from spruce boughs..” (Hills of Silver, The Yukon’s Mighty Keno Hill Mine by Dr. Aaro E. Aho)
How did the cabin smell? Fishy (cheap, easy to get but rotted fast)…also smell of tobacco…perhaps the odd skin or two being scraped.. foul smell. And the smell
of human beings. Latrine was never far away from the cabin. Sometimes very close as ‘on the back porch’
This was a very rough way to live.
Add to all this a 45 gallon oil drum converted into a kind of furnace with iron legs resting on a bed of rocks.
Any person staying around Keno City or the mines faced cruel winter temperatures. Mayo Landing
is the coldest place to live in North America. That 45 gallon drum had to be converted into a furnace
…fed every two hours from a pile of cordwood stacked close by.
local supplies were soon consumed. Firewood more and more expensive as trees were consumed. Sleep interrupted by need to feed the fire every two hours.
Some placer miners like Jack Acheson shut everything down when freeze up arrived and headed south.
Over wintering in Keno was something to avoid But people did stay the winter…still do. Some kept dog teams for winter transportation. Dogs
had to eat. One such person said he would need between 30 to 60 moose just to feed his dogs.
Terrible cost on the wild population.
Our cabin was pure luxury…we had a linoleum floor and a screen door
On the right side of Bill Dunn is a 45 gallon drum…the winter furnace. Imagine
how much of the floor space that hand made furnace would need Imagine the
danger if the cordwood and kindling got just a little too close to the hot drum.
Picture of a corner in this cabin where the miners are panning gold from concentrate.
Why do this finishing inside the cabin? Because the cold outside is a killer cold.
Take a look at the log walls. Lots of room for mice, perhaps rats, to squeeze their
way inside.
This cabin we found on one of our trails. Barely big enough to fit a toy car. Now imagine all
those items quoted by Aho fitted into this place. No room to move.
This was once the horse stable on Keno Hill’s Wernecke Mine. There were 98 horses used. The stable could not
possible hold them all. Half would be stabled in Mayo Landing. That leaves 48 horses here or nearby. Tough animals.
Some still existed in 1962. Maybe even today in 2021.
Log cabins in Keno City…some big, most small.
This is the interior of s cabin we used in Algoma. Quite spacious. Big stove. Marjorie joined us on that job. NO roads. Marjoire
arrived by train…the ACR…Algoma Central Railwsy. She brought our cat, Presque Neige, and her electric sewing machine.
Gave us all a laugh. We had wolves howling at night so the cat became house bound. And we had no electricity. We still have that
feather lined sleeping bag…comfy.,,fits two people…warm. Few of the protectors were married (which is understandable). Mine
owners provided good company houses for families. But small by today’s standards. When the mine At Elss closed in
1989 the houses were sold off and trucked to god knows where.
Here is another abandoned…tiny…log cabin.
On the Yukon job I packed everything in my rucksack and my brief case. Packed for three months… everything needed had to
be in those two bags. Glad I packed Pierre Berton’s Klondike and Robert Services’ poems. Wish they had been paperbacks.
Challenge: Imagine you have to paick for three months but only have one rucksack. What would you take?
…remember to take lots of heavy socks. Forget your computer and iPhone…useless. One shirt? Two pairs
of pants, 2 underwear…etc. etc. Camera? A luxury item but worth taking.. Film? Hard to get.
alan skeoch
Jan. 2021
EPISODE 233 YUKON DIARY WHAT WERE THE CONTENTS OF A PROSPECTORS LOG CABIN IN 1930? 1920?
EPISODE 233 YUKON DIARY WHAT WERE CONTENTS OF THOSE MINERS CABINS?
alan skeoch
Jan. 2021
Today is a day for thought. While surveying in the Yukon we often come across
old log cabins that had been abandoned decades earlier. Most often they had collapsed but
s few were habitable. One of those we lived in for a time. Dr. Aho’s book speculates
on the contents. Remember the buildings were small, maybe the size of your living room
or our garage. What was considered necessary? The answer startled me.
Our cabin had the luxury of a linoleum floor. 1962. What else would]
have been there in 1930? 1920?
What colour is my nightshirt?
Answer coming … tonight
alan