Highlights of History from The Whitehorse Star

Explorer's Guides to Yukon Communities

1960

January

• January 7, 1960: Many nominations came in last Saturday for the upcoming Whitehorse civi election. This will be the start of electing two alderman annually. The editor commented: "So far there appears to be no special issue at stake - at least none has risen to the surface. With a generally unanimous view of what the town needs - dust control, sidewalks, housing, cleanup etc. - the voter will not be concerned with issues but with men... which of the nominees are most likely to carry out the programs they have set for themselves."

• January 14, 1960: D'Arcy Arden, member of a posse which chased Albert Johnson, "The Mad Trapper", in a legendary hunt in 1932, died in Yellowknife at the age of 89.

• January 21, 1960: Development plans for a tungsten mine 150 miles north of Watson Lake include a mill estimated to cost between five and six million dollars, Vancouver mining magnate Karl J. Springer said last week. He is president of Canada Tungsen Mining Corporation, Ltd., which has development of the ore body in hand.
• January 21, 1960: On January 16 the first convoy of eight Northern Freightways trucks, three Bruce Rome winch-trucks and one Loiselle Transport truck left Elsa for the Amerada-Ohio oil drilling site at the Bell River, 370 miles north. Read the entire article here.
• January 21, 1960: Four men were found dead early January 11 in a car stuck in a snowbank at Mile 645. Police said they apparently died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Read the entire article here.

February

• February 4, 1960: Whitehorse city councillors and Dawson mayor were formally sworn into office by Justice Parker on January 28. The occasion marked the second time in the city's history that councillors are officially installed.
• February 4, 1960: The Canadian press releases a report according to which no further road reconstruction on the Canol Road past Ross River will be carried out.

• February 11, 1960: At last week's Yukon Fish and Game Association meeting, reports were given by members of the sighting of large numbers of wolves killing caribou on the Peel Road. A committee is to be set up immediately to study sections of the Game Ordinance with particular reference to placing of predator control bait.
• February 11, 1960: Both drivers escaped injury last Saturday when two Proctor Construction trucks had a head-on collision on a blind corner on Proctor's logging camp road near Elsa. Both vehicles had been used to haul fuel for the Amerada project earlier and Saturday's crash was the first accident in three months of driving over the bush roads.
• February 11, 1960: The feasibility of the keeping Haines Road open later in fall and earlier in spring is being studied. A study several years ago found there was not sufficient traffic to warrant longer opening, but present demands were considerably greater and there is now a mining operation in the Kathleen Lake area hauling out to Haines.

March

• March 24, 1960: Mrs. Rhoda Emmeline MacKenzie, one of the original sourdoughs of the Yukon Trail of '98, died in Whitehorse on March 19.

• March 31, 1960: In a simple ceremony in the office of Commissioner F. H. Collins, more than 570 miles of the Canol pipeline in the Yukon Territory were turned over to Canada by representatives of the U.S. Army. Final disposition of the lines is not known. The Canadian portion of the line between Whitehorse and Skagway was transferred to Canada in 1958 and is operated by White Pass.
• March 31, 1960: Yellow Cabs, under management of Ted Myles, took over Inn Cabs at the beginning of the week, Mr. Myles bought the firm from T. C. Richards. The former Inn Cab office at the Whitehorse Inn will be used, and will operate under both names for the time being. The change means there now will be only one cab company operating in Whitehorse.
• March 31, 1960: The car club is holding a touring type car rally Sunday, April 2 starting at the White Pass Station yard. The route is south on the Alaska Highway with stops for tests and refreshments at Crystal Palace and Johnson's Crossing.

April

• April 14, 1960: The territorial council passes legislation according to which all Yukon residents will under the federal hospital insurance plan, beginning July 1st.

• April 21, 1960: Territorial councilors agree with a Chamber of Mines suggestion to alter Dawson's official name to "Dawson City" by 1962. The reason behind is to avoid confusion between "Dawson" and "Dawson Creek".
• April 21, 1960: A new book by George Atwood, "Along the Alcan," tells the story of the construction of the Alaska Highway, which he worked on as a civilian contractor.
• April 21, 1960: The magazines "Gaze," "Eye" and "Man to Man" have been judged obscene publications by Mr. Justice Parker. Hearings continued today on sixteen "girlie" magazines seized from local news stands, including "Playboy" and "Sir".

May

• May 12, 1960: Ice damage takes out the McQuesten Bridge on the Stewart Crossing-Dawson highway.

• May 19, 1960: Yukon Electric Company announces it will have a small diesel power plant in operation at Carcross in August.
• May 19, 1960: Early in August this year all Whitehorse telephone subscribers will have dial phones. Going in is a 1600-line fully-automatic phone exchange, employing all the latest devices in switching equipment. There will be equipment for about 800 lines in the downtown area an 650 lines up the hill, for Hillcrest, Camp Takhini and Valleyview.
• May 19, 1960: The White Pass Hotel, a city landmark since 1905, changes ownership and will be renamed "Edgewater".
• May 19, 1960: Scuba divers Harry Cross and Cal Waddington are searching for the wrecks of the steamboats A. J. Goddard and Thistle in Lake Laberge, and a steam Caterpillar that went through the ice on Lake Bennett. Read the entire article here.

• May 26, 1960: The federal government approves the budget to survey a road route from Fort Nelson north to the Northwest Territories' boundary to aid "oil companies engaged in the task of developing resources of the area."

June

• June 9, 1960: Party leader Robert Strachan says a CCF government in B.C. would carry out Wenner-Gren plans (see July 16, 1959) for a railway to the Yukon. Strachan also requests the railway to be a state-owned railway. Progressive Conservative leader Deane Finlayson calls railway plans for the north a hoax, given that the proposed railway would run through undeveloped country, without chances of revenue.

• June 16, 1960: A fire swept through a three-story log house on Lambert yesterday.

• June 23, 1960: John Scott runs the first ad for his new motor ship, the "Schwatka" - there is also an article about the boat. It sails from "the Hydro Lake" - the lake would be known as Schwatka following a name-the-lake contest by the tourist committee of the Board of Trade in the summer of 1962.
• June 23, 1960: Milos Tadich, better known as Big Mike, died in Whitehorse on June 17 at the age of 73.
• June 23, 1960: On June 27, a referendum is conducted to learn whether resident-owners of property in the area west of Eighth Avenue want to be included within the City of Whitehorse. Inclusion would mean mean a sewer and water service extension from city lines could be made there.

July

• July 7, 1960: Catherine Elizabeth Firth, daughter of the well-known Yukon pioneer family, is wed to Gary Small on June 25th. The reception is held at the home of Commissioner F.H. Collins.

• July 14, 1960: The Peace River bridge on the Alaska Highway officially opened on July 9.

• July 21, 1960: Mayo's new Tim-O-Lou Motel should be ready for occupancy by August 1, says John Boyce, who is building the up-to-date tourist accommodation. With nine completely modern units the motel will provide first class facilities for visitors. Each room has two beds and its own bathroom. They have a unitized stove, refrigerator and kitchen sink for those wishing to make their own meals or a light snack. The rooms are finished in Japanese mahogany with linoleum tile floors.
• July 21, 1960: CNT phone rates will drop like a concrete arrow in Whitehorse this fall. A private residential phone will drop from $11.50 per month to $6.50. Party lines will be limited to two parties instead of up to 10 parties as is currently the situation, and they will be $5.50 per month. All rates will be on a standardized basis, up the hill and down. For telephones up the hill this will mean a slight increase to equalize the rates. However phones on top of the hill will go dial to coincide with the rate changes. Phones on the hill will start with the digit "8" and those downtown with "7". Direct dialing between Riverdale, Camp Takhini and Whitehorse will then be possible.
• July 21, 1960: A 1948 TSR Ford bus arrived in Whitehorse from Minden City, Michigan, this week, carrying Clifford Thompson, his wife, six children, a niece, a nephew, and a sister-in-law to an Alaskan holiday. The bus, once on the Detroit city line, was purchased for $500. An additional $500 was spent on repairs. The old coach was renovated so the family could cook and sleep inside. Two large mattresses are spread at the back of the bus for beds. Meals are cooked on a small propane stove.

  

• July 28, 1960: Alderman Jim Howatt has accused White Pass of deliberately holding up the subdivision of Lot 19, the land across from the civic centre, extending southward. It is owned by White Pass but the railway firm has offered to sell the land at a nominal cost to the federal government in an attempt to provide inexpensive lots for squatters living at Whiskey and Moccasin Flats. A total of 113 lots have been surveyed for this purpose.
• July 28, 1960: A complete renovation and paint job is in store for the high steel bridge at Milepost 18 on the White Pass rail route to Skagway, which rises 215 feet above the canyon floor. The structure was inspected some months ago by a team of experts to determine the safe working load of the bridge, and the Rail Division was happy to learn from the experts that the original designers had done a better job than they knew - the bridge is capable of carrying far greater loads than those imposed upon it by present traffic.
• July 28, 1960: Waterworks superintendent Jack Cherry told city council Tuesday an average of 93,000 gallons of water a week was being lost due to a leak in the city's water reservoir. The reservoir, located on the hill at the east side of Riverdale, is divided into two sections, south and north. Each tank has a capacity of 1,500,000 gallons.

August

• August 4, 1960: It is announced that 42 microwave towers will span across 1,200 miles of the north, from Grande Prairie to Mount Dave on the Alaska Yukon border. The microwave line is expected to start beaming messages to and from Alaska by July 1, 1961. The system will be used for defence communication and for commercial purposes.

• August 11, 1960: Northern Affairs Minister Alvin Hamilton announces that the government is negotiating to lease and put back into operation two branches of the Canol pipe line running from Whitehorse to Alaska.

• August 18, 1960: Dawson City has for the first time direct telephone and telegraph service with the rest of the world. Mayor Mike Comadina used his first long distance call to phone the prime minister with "Hello, hello is that you Mr. Prime Minister?" However, residents aren't able to make long distance calls from their homes until their antiquated switchboard is replaced two years later.

• August 25, 1960: Emi] J. Forrest, 71, died of a heart attack at 11:35 am. August 20, while helping launch the paddlewheeler Keno. Read the entire article and others here.

• August 28, 1960: After rotting six years at Whitehorse drydock, the paddlewheeler Keno goes on its final voyage to Dawson. At Dawson City the Keno will be beached on a river lot and preserved as a relic of the great paddlewheeler era in the Yukon.

September

• September 4, 1960: 3 new Yukon bridges along the Dawson-Mayo highway are opened. The Yukon River bridge at Carmacks, and two bridges spanning the Pelly and Stewart Rivers.

• September 8, 1960: The Hougen store is in the midst of our four-step reconstruction program. The reconstruction program includes the construction of an upper story and refinish of the whole front store.

October

• October 6, 1960: Brigadier L.G.C. Lilley assumes the command of the Northwest Highway System.
• October 6, 1960: The Department of National Defence sold power plant equipment worth $500,000 to Yukon Electrical Company for $1.

November

• November 24, 1960: Jim Hanna is named president of the Yukon Liberals on November 17th.

December

• December 1, 1960: Territorial council, during its final sessions last week, came to general agreement on terms of separate school establishment within the territory. Councillors endorsed the school committee's recommendation that all schools in the territory, except private schools, should be publicly supported and that all present schools should fall either into the category of public or separate schools.
• December 1, 1960: Bert Law's hat is the first and only one in the ring so far for this month's aldermanic election. Two city council seats come up for voting December 15. This in line with the new city policy of staggering elections to provide continuity around the council table.
• December 1, 1960: As far as they know, no clothing was destroyed in Monday's fire at Capitol Dry Cleaning plant, owner Henry Thibault said this week. He added the plant would be out of operation for about a week. None of the dry cleaning equipment was damaged as far as could be seen.

1961

January

• January 12, 1961: Commissioner F.H. Collins announces new Territorial Land Regulations came into effect December 16, 1960. One of the main changes in the regulations is that there will be no more staking of land.

• January 19, 1961: Erik Nielsen voices his opposition to a move towards an 11th Canadian province of the Yukon and part of the Northwest Territories (Mackenzie - Yukon Territory).

• January 26, 1961: Pierre Berton is elected a member of the board of directors of the Dawson City Festival Foundation.

February

• February 2, 1961: Plans are announced by Commissioner F.H. Collins for a meeting centre in Whitehorse for Indian people (now the Jim Skookum Centre). It will be financed by interest accrued from Skookum Jim's estate. Trustees of the fund are the commissioner and the Yukon Anglican bishop.
• February 2, 1961: As announced by Northern Affairs Minister Alvin Hamilton, the Palace Grand Theatre in Dawson City is to be completely restored to its original splendor, as a focal point for the Dawson City Festival which is to start in the summer of 1962.

• February 16, 1961: Ten U.S. Army planes en route from Whitehorse to Anchorage were forced down at Haines Junction Saturday morning due to poor visibility caused by falling snow. When they noticed a road block on the below, they realized they were on the wrong route, so returned and landed on Pond Lake. The weather cleared on Monday morning and they were able to continue on to Anchorage.
• February 16, 1961: In a recent TV interview in Vancouver, Roy Minter of White Pass made a general appeal for everyone to search their attics and basements for relics of the Yukon Territory to help Dawson rebuild its Museum which was lost by fire last year.

March

• March 2, 1961: Yukon Electrical Company has announced its third voluntary rate reduction since May 1958. General manager Edge King stated continued growth in the use of electricity in Whitehorse and the vicinity makes this rate reduction possible at this time, As an indication of the expansion taking place, he said the company sold 12 million kilowatt hours of electricity in 1960, representing an increase of 15 percent over the previous year. The new rates will mean a 10 to 18 percent reduction, resulting in an annual saving for the average residential consumer of between $25 and $30.

• March 9, 1961: An economic survey is underway to consider feasibility of keeping the Haines Road open year-round, MP Erik Nielsen told the Whitehorse Board of Trade Tuesday night. He said the study followed an offer made last winter by Alaska Freightlines to keep the road open in winter itself, though they later retracted the offer.
• March 9, 1961: Another landmark, the old Bear Creek roadhouse near Dawson is being torn down. Built around 1906 by Mr. Braunmyer, it was a busy place when Canadian Klondike Mining Co. was building a pipeline and using a dredge on Bear Creek. At the same time Yukon Gold Co. put a siphon in for their operation. Mr. and Mrs. Gene Fournier operated the roadhouse from 1917 until they left here a few years ago. It is considered just about the last of the old roadhouses.

• March 16, 1961: Within recent weeks trailers have begun moving into town again. Alderman Norm Chamberlist feels there is no point in having a bylaw which prohibits trailers being used as dwelling places within city limits, if the city doesn't enforce the bylaw.

• March 23, 1961: The official opening of Hougen's Ltd. in its new 2-story, 10,000 sq. ft., concrete store is March 17th. Over 11,o00 people attend during the two days.

April

• April 6, 1961: The Territorial Council gives green light to Whitehorse's paving program for 1961. The paving plan calls for hardsurfacing First Avenue from Hawkins to Strickland, Hawkins from Third to Fourth, Main Street from Fourth to Sixth, the full length of Sixth Avenue from Main to Ogilvie, Black Street from Fourth to Fifth, and Wheeler, Cook and Ogilvie from Fourth to Sixth.
• April 6, 1961: April 1st was the 15th anniversary of the Canadian Army taking over the Canadian portion of the Alaska Highway from the United States Army. The Whitehorse Star dedicated 14 pages to this special event.
• April 6, 1961: Fire of an unknown origin, starting in the office at the home of Dr. James V. Clark in Mayo, completely destroyed the building and contents. Among the losses were an extensive library of books and classical records, and a valuable microscope received as a gift from patients.

• April 20, 1961: Yellow Cab owner Ted B. Myles applies at the city council for a franchise to supply bus service locally and replace the Army's service. City council denies the licence, citing business fairness reasons.

• April 27, 1961: Public opinion is being sought with regard to establishment of a Vocational School in the territory.
• April 27, 1961: Yukon MP Erik Nielsen states that a federal road building program totalling more than 5 million dollars is planned for 1961 for the Yukon. The program includes improvements to the Whitehorse-Keno road, the Stewart Crossing-Dawson road, the Canol road, the Flat Creek to Eagle Plains route and the Sixty-mile Road.

May

• May 11, 1961: City Council gives green light on construction of a low rental housing project on May 9. The 10-apartment block is located at Sixth and Hanson.

June

• June 1, 1961: Officials of the postal department state Whitehorse is not big enough for house-to-house mail delivery.
• June 1, 1961: The first day of one-hour parking on Main Street goes into effect May 26. About half a dozen parking tickets are handed out.

July

• July 6, 1961: After long debate, the territorial Council approves loans for "Lot 19", making it available to Yukoners.

• July 20, 1961: A timetable of measures which would bring a separate Mackenzie Territory into existence about April 1, 1964 is tabled at the second 1961 session of the Northwest Territories council.
• July 20, 1961: During his visit to the Yukon on July 22, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker will officially open Canada's largest single microwave project. The Grande Prairie-Alaska link is 1,200 miles loong, contains 42 microwave stations, and cost $25 million.
• July 20, 1961: The Alaska Department of Public Works has made final site selections for a string of ferry slips in Southeast Alaska, Richard A. Downing, commissioner, announced this week. Sites were picked at Juneau, Skagway, Haines, Sitka, Petersburg, and Wrangell.

• July 27, 1961: The green light has been given for a go-ahead on construction of the long-stalled Pacific Northern Railway that would run from north of Prince George to the Yukon border.
• July 27, 1961: Rates on long distance phone calls out of Whitehorse will drop August 1, CNT announced this week. For instance station-to-station rates to Vancouver from Whitehorse will be $4.80 compared to the present $7.10. Station day rate Whitehorse- Montreal will be $5.90 as against the present $8.00 charge. Whitehorse to Prince George will be $4.00 compared to $6.90 now.
• July 27, 1961: Yukon mountaineer Monty Alford has just returned from a successful climb to the 20,320-foot summit of Mount McKinley's south peak with a group from California. He was the only Canadian member of the team.

August

• August 3, 1961: This has been a busy summer for the territorial engineering staff, with an impressive list of new buildings, roadwork and bridges under construction at a number of locations in the territory. Read the entire article here.
• August 3, 1961: When it rains in Dawson, it pours or else it takes weeks to empty the clouds. When it decides to be warm, as it did last week, the temperature soars to the high 80's. The official high was 86; the unofficial high on the dredges was 100 degrees.
• August 3, 1961: Northern Affairs Minister Walter Dinsdale has cancelled his projected northwestern tour, it was learned this week. Because of the international and domestic problems of critical nature, the presence of all cabinet ministers is being required in Ottawa.

• August 10, 1961: Jefferay V. Boys is appointed Indian Commissioner for British Columbia and the Yukon Territory.

• August 17, 1961: Alex Arthur died in Whitehorse General Hospital Wednesday morning. Forty-five years of age, Alex had been prominent in business and community life in the Yukon since his arrival here in 1945. Read the entire article here.
• August 17, 1961: U.S. citizen Donald Hass been sentenced to two years in jail for the highway shooting of Gerry Braden last week. The shooting occurred after Braden had passed Hass on the highway and Hass attempted to stop him. Hass' son was deported immediately, and Hass will be deported once he has served his sentence.
• August 17, 1961: The clay bank west of town was inspected July 2 by two DOT engineers and territorial engineer Grant Starr. They have now stated that no expansion of the squatters at the base of the hill should encroach on the airport reserve. Funds have been allocated for the commencement of a stabilizing and forestation program in respect of the escarpment.

• August 24, 1961: On August 22, a ceremonial parade is held at the RCAF Station in Whitehorse for the handing over of command of the Station from R.C. Staple to B.R. Thompson.

• August 31, 1961: A new silver-lead deposit is discovered in the Watson Lake area.
• August 31, 1961: Whitehorse West candidate Jan Montgomery is the first woman to run for the Yukon territorial council. Montgomery is named city councillor by acclamation on December 5. She is the first woman to hold this office.

September

• September 7, 1961: a new title design (see to the right) is used for the first time.

• September 10, 1961: Carmacks gets its first automatic dial telephone system installed on August 27. The switchboard is located in the basement of the Carmacks Hotel.

• September 14, 1961: Dominion Explorers Ltd. Buys the Johobo Copper Mine. The mine is located off the Haines road in the Kathleen Lake area.

• September 21, 1961: Commissioner F.H. Collins officially opens the new Camp Takhini Elementary School on September 15.

October

• October 12, 1961: Unlimited staking and institution of prospectors' license are the major changes in the Yukon Quartz Minig Act, replacing the system of limited staking.
• October 12, 1961: John Phelps proposes at city council natural gas in city mains. Phelps is a consulting engineer for a company that plans to truck liquified gas from the Fort Nelson area, storing it in a main tank in Whitehorse and distributing it throughout the community in underground lines. (see also June 3, 1963)
• October 12, 1961: Rolf Hougen raises the question at territorial council of why the territory was spreading subdivisions "in all directions" instead of making them available in the Whitehorse area.

• October 16, 1961: On October 6, Atlin's oldest resident, Mrs. Paddy Ward, died at the age of 95.
• October 16, 1961: An October front page of the Whitehorse Star will be preserved in the cornerstone of a big new bank building in Montreal. The president of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Neil J. McKinnon made this request.
• October 16, 1961: Construction of the big vocational school in Whitehorse are planned to start in spring 1962.

• October 26, 1961: Beth Drayton, Secretary of the Whitehorse Board of Trade, is in 1962 the only woman graduate from the Canadian Institute for Chamber of Commerce Management.
• October 26, 1961: on September 30, W.D. MacBride retired from his job after 47 years of service with the White Pass and Yukon Route and makes his home in North Vancouver.

November

• November 2, 1961: New schools at Beaver Creek and Destruction Bay are officially opened by Commissioner F.H. Collins. Each school has 2 classrooms and 2 teacher's apartments.

• November 13, 1961: T.C. Richards died on November 9 at the age of 68. He emigrated to Canada from England & came north in 1915.
• November 13, 1961: The federal government agrees to pay half the $60,000 cost of a 110-mile tote-road to Conwest Exploration's new silver-lead-zinc discovery northeast of Teslin.

• November 20, 1961: On November 17, the territorial council agrees to the repeal of a section of the present jury ordinance which prevents women from being called for criminal juries.
• November 20, 1961: The Winter Carnival is now the Sourdough Rendezvous with the installation of a sign over their office on Main Street.

• November 27, 1961: In a dramatic moment on November 25, Whitehorse East MLA Normal S. Chamberlist is denied seat at the Yukon Territorial Council. Chamberlist was also denied entry to the spectators' seats. A couple of days later, believed to be suffering from nervous exhaustion, Chamberlist is taken by ambulance to the Whitehorse hospital.

December

• December 4, 1961: Ed Jacobs is named Mayor of Whitehorse by acclamation. No other candidates for the city position had come forward. Councillors are Howard Firth, Clarence Allen, and Jan Montgomery.
• December 4, 1961: The territorial Council decides to name the new high school being built this year in Whitehorse after Commissioner F.H. Collins

• December 14, 1961: The Whitehorse city council suggests water metres for business premises in Whitehorse. To that date all waters users have been paying a flat rate of $10.

• December 18, 1961: A city emergency committee is formed in the Yukon. It is composed of military and government officials. It's purpose is to set up procedures for dealing with disasters that might hit the territory from wartime or peacetime emergencies.

  

• December 28, 1961: An entire city block burns down on Christmas morning. Flattened by the flames were the Edgewater Hotel (White Pass Hotel), the Hollywood and Edgewater cafes, several stores and apartments.
• December 28, 1961: A potentially serious fire was brought under control at Dawson City last night at the Occidental Hotel. Blaze started when an oil stove on the second floor was being repaired. The firemen and volunteers answered the call in 56-below-zero weather. The top floor is closed until smoke and water damage is cleared.
• December 28, 1961: A harrowing experience in near sixty-below temmerature came to an end for George Smashnuk last Thursday when he was taken to Mayo Hospital. He had lain for many hours 12 miles from help when a snowslide broke his leg in three places. The incident occurred about 40 miles from United Keno Hill Mine.

1962

January

• January 8, 1962: White Pass & Yukon Route purchase Loiselle Transport Ltd. of Dawson Creek on January 4th.
• January 8, 1962: Erwin Martens is installed as president of the Whitehorse Kiwanis Club on January 2.

• January 11, 1962: Norman Chamberlist protests his expulsion from territorial council. Justice John Parker dismisses Norman Chamberlist's case against Commissioner F.H. Collins and J.O. Livesey, territorial council speaker. Parker declared he nor any other court in Canada have the jurisdiction to enquire the council's decision.

• January 29, 1962: Northbound vehicle traffic over the Alaska Highway set an all-time record during 1961. Records show that a total of 16,994 vehicles entered Alaska over the highway during that year.

February

• February 1, 1962: Sunday movies end here this weekend. With them will go paid admission to Sunday hockey and bowling. The decision was made by officials of the three organizations responsible for the activities. They decided to stop the shows, not charge for senior hockey and to cutout the bowling after discussion with RCMP officers here. Under the Lord's Day Act paid admission on Sunday events is prohibited.
• February 1, 1962: Fire this morning destroyed Brewster's Lodge at Haines Junction, which has been operating since 1955. Nothing was saved but, fortunately, no one was hurt. All that remains is a cabin located at the rear of the lodge. The lodge building itself contained a cafe, tavern, six rooms and the owner's apartment. There were a few cabins in connection with it also.
• February 1, 1962: Two ten-man crews using power toboggans have started work on a topographical survey between Chapman Lake and Fort McPherson, with one crew leaving from each place.

• February 8, 1962: After protests from Indian groups about insufficient participation in the newly opened Skookum Jim Centre, Norman Shorty and Clara Tizya join the board of the Centre.

• February 15, 1962: Erik Nielsen, on behalf of Northern Affairs Minister Dinsdale, announces the establishment of two new mining districts: one in the south-east corner of the Yukon Territory; the other across the boundary in the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories.

• February 19, 1962: The Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous is held in mid-February. Alice Martine is the new Sourdough Rendezvous Queen.

• February 22, 1962: Northern affairs and territorial officials have announced the removal of buildings from squatter areas in Whitehorse is to commence at once. Areas include Whiskey Flats, Moccasin Flats, Sleepy Hollow, West of Eighth Avenue, and on the Two Mile.
• February 22, 1962: Wolves, within a few miles of Whitehorse, caused the death of one horse and severely injured a second during the weekend. The two animals belonging to Douglas Lowe of 609 Alexander were pursued and bitten about the hindquarters at the northwest end of Marsh Lake.
• February 22, 1962: A Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has been incorporated in the territory. The constitution of the society was signed by Dr. J. D. Munroe, Mrs. Gordon Dixon, Mrs. R. F. Evans, Kay MacDonald and Mrs. A. C. L. Adams.

• February 26, 1962: A bill passes in the House of Commons on February 13th according to which the Keewatin and Franklin districts of the Northwest Territories together will have a member in the next house of commons.
• February 26, 1962: Hougen's Ltd. search for the longest-married couple in the Yukon is won by Mr. And Mrs. Ira Van Bibber. The couple was married in 1903 and has lived in the territory ever since.

March

• March 1, 1962: At a talk in Banff, Northern Affairs minister Walter Dinsdale boosted a national park for the Yukon. Local opinion differences will need to be resolved.
• March 1, 1962: Reconstruction of the historic Palace Grand Theatre in Dawson City is now well advanced in preparation for the Gold Rush Festival this summer. The Theatre will be the centrepiece for the festival. Its stage will see a bound-for-Broadway play open there July second.
• March 1, 1962: Every customer wants to know what Jack Needham's planning at the Kee Bird. It's a revision of the floor plan between the pharmacy and the Ladies Wear, including an archway cut between the former Main Street Pharmacy and the Kee Bird Store itself.

• March 8, 1962: Bob Campbell is elected president of the Whitehorse Board of Trade on March 6. Dave Porter is 1st Vice President, Dr. Bill Buchan 2nd Vice President and Jim Boyce Treasurer. Beth Drayton is Manager.

• March 15, 1962: Yukon MP Erik Nielsen calls a halt to the proposed layoffs along the Northwest Highway System. Effective date for the end of work had been set at March 31.

• March 19, 1962: On March 18, Heather Berg is elected Queen of Dawson City's 2nd Ice Carnival

• March 26, 1962: The Skookum Jim Memorial Centre opens in Whitehorse on March 23.

April

• April 9, 1962: Gordon Cameron, former Whitehorse mayor, aircraft engineer, veteran, accepted for membership in the Yukon Order of Pioneers, manager of Klondike Helicopters and irrepressible wit, has been named Commissioner of the Yukon Territory. Mr. Cameron succeeds Fred H. Collins. He was the first Yukoner named to the post since George Black.
• April 9, 1962: There were 31 cases of measles reported to the chief medical health officer in Whitehorse between February 25 and March 24. Dr. J.D. Munroe reported the communicable disease total for the period included 12 cases of gonorrhea and one each of infectious hepatitis and tuberculosis also.
• April 9, 1962: Approximately $325,000 was the bid on construction of six ferry terminals for the Panhandle ferry system at Haines, Skagway, Petersburg, Wrangell, Juneau and Sitka. Ketchikan was omitted as the site there hasn't been picked yet.

• April 16, 1962: An unidentified flying object was spotted low over the horizon, northwest of Brooks Brook about 8:15 p.m. April 8 by CNT employees D. Gibson and E. O'Hori. They watched it for about 15 minutes.
• April 16, 1962: Funeral services were scheduled to be held today for Lars Hartson, well-known resident of Whitehorse, who died April 12 in Whitehorse General Hospital. Read the entire article here.
• April 16, 1962: Vernon Ekland and Ronald Burnett are recovering in hospital after being buried in a sewer trench cave-in Wednesday on the new vocational school site in Whitehorse.

May

• May 10, 1962: Bob Hughes is elected president of the Whitehorse Lions Club on May 9. He succeeds Bert Law as the Lions Club President.

• May 14, 1962: F.H. Collins receives the Eagles merit award from the Fraternal Order of Eagles.

• May 31, 1962: Federal Liberal Leader Lester Pearson visits Whitehorse.

June

• June 4, 1962: Riverboat engineer in the Yukon for more than thirty years, George McKay Rose died suddenly at his home in Whitehorse Saturday morning. He and his wife Gertrude came to the Yukon in 1922 and he worked on the S.S. Keno, the S.S. Whitehorse, and for thirty years he was engineer on the S.S. Tutshi.
• June 4, 1962: Two brothers in magistrate's court Saturday morning were sentenced to three years in jail and five lashes each for the May 25 robbery with violence of visiting Lion C.A. Stigen, 52, of Ketchikan, Alaska, in huis room at the Whitehorse Inn.
• June 4, 1962: Two men are believed to have drowned in the North during the weekend. At Carmacks, Wilson Washpan, 38, father of three children is missing and believed drowned in the Yukon River. At Liard Hot Springs, Ralph Anthony James, 38, of Anchorage, drowned when he went swimming with two of his sons.

• June 18, 1962: Erik Nielsen is re-elected as the Yukon's Member of Parliament, defeating Liberal candidate Vic Wylie. Despite floods, rains and generally unfavourable conditions throughout the territory some 82 per cent of the possible voters turned out at the polls.
• June 18, 1962: Three men drowned Sunday in another Yukon fishing tragedy. The men, working on the Watson Lake-Ross River road, met their death in the cold waters of Simpson Lake, 45 miles northwest of Watson Lake. Killed were Stewart Harold Marston, son of Rev. Harold Marston of Whitehorse United Church, Roland Alvin Kraft of Peachland, B.C., and Alfred W. Wilson of Armstrong, B.C.
• June 18, 1962: Army crews are working at top speed to restore traffic along the Alaska Highway. The road was closed by washouts that were accompanied by problems of water flowing over the road between Milepost 1111.6, Quill Creek, north to Milepost 1208, Snag Creek.

• June 28, 1962: A new mining strike in the Mayo mining district was made known Monday with the recording of 464 claims on an iron ore deposit by Crest Exploration, a subsidiary of Standard Oii of California. The claims are located between the headwaters of the Snake River and the Northwest Territories border.
• June 28, 1962: On JUne 23 the deep but melting snow in the Mackenzie mountains that drain the eastern Yukon took out two bridges across the Frances River. The first was the Bailey Bridge built by an army engineer unit last winter five miles up the Canada Tungsten Road lost two spans, totalling 150-feet in length, and another at mile 35.8 on the Watson Lake-Ross River Road lost a 60-foot section when it was battered by driftwood.
• June 28, 1962: A revamping and streamlining of civic administration is scheduled to take place in Whitehorse following departure of almost all of the municipal hall employees. City Clerk J. H. Thompson resigned his position yesterday while three members of the secretarial staff had announced their intention of leaving prior to this.

August

• August 21, 1962: A petition is circulating Whitehorse and calls for geographic and economic survey of a road from Carcross to Skagway.

September

• September 6, 1962: Fabian Frank Mostrom of the Cassiar district was taken under police escort to Prince George yesterday to stand trial in the shooting death of Dennis Dennis, 26, of same district. Mostrom, said to be a trapper, is charged with non- capital murder. A women was reported as being involved.
• September 6, 1962: Around the middle of this month this old town is going to lose a man that has done as much for the small fry sports-wise as any man in the territory could. John Shandro will leave after five years in the country. Four of these years he has served on the Little League executive.
• September 6, 1962: Standard Oil of California has announced a feasibility study will be carried out of its major iron ore discovery north of Mayo. Canadian Bechtel, specialists in pipeline and railroad construction, has been employed to do the job. The study will look into the economics of marketing the hematite ore.

October

• October 4, 1962: On October 2, Judge John Parker suggest the union of the Mackenzie district of the Northwest Territories and the Yukon into a single territory and, eventually, a province.

• October 11, 1962: "The Bay" will be opening a store in Whitehorse on October 17th.
• October 11, 1962: A 53-year-old Alaskan who crawled a quarter of a mile from the wreckage of a single-engine Piper Comanche to the Alaska Highway to summon help Saturday, has died from his injuries. Frederick Shaw was a passenger in the plane when it crashed at Mile 924 about 500 yards from the highway shortly after seven p.m. - Mr. Shaw did not make the highway until 5 a.m. Pilot Dr. Charles J. Pearson was also killed.
• October 11, 1962: Vets Cab operator Frank Martin has appeared before City Council and in court this past week on numerous charges including not abiding by Council orders, failing to file tax forms, and bootlegging.

• October 15, 1962: Joe's Airport Lodge at mile 1095 was destroyed in the early hours of Saturday morning [October 13th] from a fire of undetermined origin. Read the entire article here.

• October 18, 1962: Whitehorse residents go to the polls Monday to express their opinions on daylight saving time, paid admission to Sunday sport and Sunday movies. So far the subjects do not appear to have stirred any major controversy and have received little more than casual public comment.
• October 18, 1962: A special bylaw will be passed to give tax relief to all owners of property damaged in the Christmas Day fire on First Avenue. With the tax list already made up, no change could be made concerning the buildings wiped out in the fire without the special bylaw provision.
• October 18, 1962:

November

• November 12, 1962: At the Dawson City council meeting on November 7 the question of city administration was raised again. Dunc Strachan asked if it were possible to have a plebiscite at the time of the civic election in December when voters could express their wishes about the dissolution of city council.
• November 12, 1962: Three men are being sought by the RCMP in connection with missing French student Henri Meriguet.
• November 12, 1962: Four hundred and four quartz claims were recorded in the Yukon during October. The Whitehorse office saw 167 claims recorded, Watson Lake 98, Mayo 136 and Dawson 3. Four placer claims were recorded in Dawson City, 13 in Mayo, four in Whitehorse and none in Watson Lake.

December

• December 10, 1962: Two feet of freezing water - virtually slush ice - have crept over the Sleepy Hollow area of Whitehorse, driving many residents from their homes. The water came over the river banks for the first time Friday when the slush ice in the river slowed the flow to the point that it was partially dammed.
• December 10, 1962: Jan Montgomery, first woman to serve on city council, is standing for re-election in Thursday's civic vote. Miss Montgomery emphasizes the value of experience on council.
• December 10, 1962: Some 30 to 40 women and children have been evacuated to Maryhouse, which is now full and other arrangements have been made, if needed. The forestry department will have a standby four-by-four, radio equipped, on duty all night to give aid should the emergency situation worsen tonight. With water rising near the Well property in the far north of town, this may well-occur.

• December 17, 1962: A proposal to establish a national park in the Yukon was rejected by a 4-to-3 vote of Territorial councillors. One comment was that limiting mining would be "economic suicide."
• December 17, 1962: The residence of Mr. and Mrs. Erik Hammer was destroyed by fire Saturday noon. The trailer home was located at the North end of Moccasin Flats and the city fire truck had to drive down the railroad track to reach the property as the road was flooded and covered by ice not strong enough to support the vehicle.
• December 17, 1962: The territorial government, through Jack Gibson of the travel and publicity department, presented Whitehorse Trade Board with a $1,300 cheque to underwrite half the board's cost in building the tourist campground this summer near the rapids hydro dam and for operation of the downtown tourist bureau.

1963

January

• January 7, 1963: Father Mouchet is awarded the Golden Hammer by the scientific magazine Mechanix Illustrated. The award winning project is the kayak Northwind, used by Mouchet to visit Indian tribes along the Porcupine River.

• January 17, 1963: Former Commissioner F.H. Collins speaks on January 11 at the opening of the new Whitehorse school named after him. Commissioner Cameron officially cuts the ribbon.

• January 21, 1963: On January 17, Judge Parker declares the election of city alderman Shortt void because Shortt held a contract with the city as the time of his nomination. Ken Shortt is returned by acclamation to his council seat, after the end of his contract.

• January 24, 1963 Commissioner G.R. Cameron officiates on January 25, 1963 the opening of the Porter Creek Elementary School by cutting the ribbon.

• January 28, 1963: "Seven Old Crow skiers , with their instructor Father Mouchet, prepare for the Olympics. On February 11, Ben Charlie and Martha Benjamin, the two top skiers from Old Crow fly to Ottawa to participate in major international ski competitions. Martha Benjamin of Old Crow, mother of 5 children, wins the Senior Canadian Cross Country Ski Championship.

• January 31, 1963: Effective February 1, Indians in the Yukon have equal drinking rights with white people. The new ruling is made possible by an order-in-council from the cabinet at Ottawa, at the urging of Erik Nielsen.

February

• February 11, 1963: Yukon statistics reveal that in 1962 there were 7 times as many births as deaths. Births totalled 578; there were 83 deaths.

• February 14, 1963: Parents in the territory are asked to bring their children to the Whitehorse General Hospital to check their teeth for the nuclear material Strontium 90. A recent report from Alaska had suggested there was an increase in the percentage of Strontium 90 found in the carcasses of game. This was related in the report to atmospheric nuclear testing.
• February 14, 1963: Clyde Wann is back mining on the Keno Hill, where he started mining 38 years ago.

• February 21, 1963: Socony-Mobil Oil of Canada Ltd. announced Tuesday (February 19th) it has entered into an exploration agreement with Western Minerals Ltd. on 4.3 million acres in the Eagle Plains area in the northern Yukon.
• February 21, 1963: The Yukon Historical Society unveiled plans for a new museum for Whitehorse on January 8. The need for a new museum results from the shortage of space and the present fire hazard in the old building.
• February 21, 1963: Crest Exploration is planning an extensive program of sampling and diamond drilling on a large iron prospectin the Snake River and Cranswick River Areas of the Yukon and Northwest Territories - a chunk of territory covering some 200 square miles. A gravel airstrip is being built by Proctor Construction of Whitehorse.

• February 25, 1963: Erik Nielsen admitted no substantial progress had been made toward further paving of the Alaska Highway since the program stopped at Charlie Lake, north of Fort St. John.
• February 25, 1963: Funeral services were held in Champagne Sunday afternoon for Alice Smith of that community. In her eighties at the time of her death, she is survived by two children, Tony and Alex Smith and by a sister, Emma, at Burwash
• February 25, 1963: Father Rigaud of Ross River arrived in Whitehorse in a Pacific Western Beaver on skis yesterday afternoon with Ray Simco of Pacific Western to race his dog team in the Sourdough Rendezvous sled dog races. The events will be held on the river from a starting point near the beached riverboats. Father Rigaud was a strong contender in last year's events.

• February 28, 1963: The new dial phone system went into operation this week in Teslin. The party line with the advantage of being anywhere in town and being able to answer your phone is gone but the advantage of phoning now is that you can hear, the person you call can hear, but everyone else in town can't.
• February 28, 1963: Two persons died.in Whitehorse this weekend and, in both cases, it is believed liquor was involved. Selkirk Billy, 80, was found in five feet of water in the Yukon River yesterday near his home in the Sleepy Hollow area. He had been missing since the previous evening. Yesterday at about 11:30 a.m. Bessie Johnson, 57, was found dead on the hill across the river from the shipyards where a winter trail leads to the east bank. Her death is attributed to exposure. A widow, she lived on that side of the river but this was not her usual route home.
• February 28, 1963: The first feeding of oral polio vaccine in the Yukon has been completed. Reports show a total of 5,800 people took the vaccine (40% of the population). The attendance of school children and registered Indians was very good but the response from the general public could have been much better.

March

• March 26, 1963: Ralph Flores, 41, and Helen Klaben, 21, are rescued 49 days after their plane crashed on February 4 southeast of Watson Lake.

April

• April 11, 1963: Erik Nielsen is reelected Member of Parliament for his fourth term, with a near 700-vote edge over his nearest opponent. He defeats Vic Wylie, Liberal and Ray Wilson, Social Credit.

May

• May 2, 1963: The territorial council announces on April 29 that the St. Anne Hospital in Dawson will close during summer 1963. However, on request of the territorial government closure is delayed until the end of August (August 8, 1963).

• May 9, 1963: Whitehorse Electrical Contractor Norman S. Chamberlist Tuesday charged general contacting firms operating in the Yukon with "kicking the subcontractors around". He said the Yukon economy was being deprived of some $250,000 in payments due subcontractors but withheld by the general contractors.
• May 9, 1963: The Yukon River ice at Dawson broke up at 6:22 p.m. Sunday, May 5th. The ice was soft and thin this year in comparison with other years. A small ice jam occurred Sunday night but had disappeared by morning, with no ill effects to the town and the river is running clear. A Very quiet break-up.
• May 9, 1963: Funeral services were held at Christ Church Cathedral on May 6th for George Barrett of Tagish, who came to the Yukon in 1926 and operated a mink ranch and then worked as a telegrapher on the Dominion line.

June

• June 3, 1963: Whitehorse city council approves a bylaw giving green light to installation of natural gas lines under city streets and alleys. The right was granted Yukon Gas Limited. (see also October 12, 1961)
• June 3, 1963: A new store, the Yukon River Trading Post, opens in Carmacks. Owners are Clarence and Bev McKay.
• June 3, 1963: B.C.'s provincial cabinet stops the Yukon Railway project by rescinding the railway's special borrowing powers, its proposed right-of-way, and its authority to use crown land for the right-of way.

• June 24, 1963: Miss Canada of 1962, 19-year-old Nina Holden of Victoria, is married in Whitehorse on June 19.
• June 24, 1963: Soapy Smith's Old Parlour is moved to a new location in Skagway to be rebuilt.
• June 24, 1963: Erik Nielsen suggests in the House of Commons a special income tax exemption for the north.

• June 27, 1963: The Venerable Archdeacon of Klondyke, Rev. Allan E. Haldenby and his wife said farewell to many Yukon friends this evening at a reception held in their honour. Next week, the Haldenbys will be heading south to make their new home in Toronto, where he will be at St. Wilfrid's Church, Islington.
• June 27, 1963: Alaska Congressman Ralph J. Rivers says the Canadian government still has not asked for a resumption of talks on the paving of the Alaska Highway.
• June 27, 1963: Friends throughout the Yukon were saddened by the death of Wilson M. (Slim) Conoly, who had been a resident in the territory - except for a two-year break - since 1945.

July

• July 8, 1963: Brigadier G.H. Spencer will be appointed Commander and Chief Engineer of the Northwest Highway System on August 15. He succeeds Brig. Webb as Commander.

  

• July 15, 1963: Four Whitehorse RCMP officers and a prisoner were killed Saturday evening when a Beaver aircraft crashed and burned in Carmacks. Read the entire story here.
• July 15, 1963: The long awaited agreement covering the sale of Lot 19 is signed by the City of Whitehorse and White Pass & Yukon Route. The agreement opens squatters to purchase building sites in the area.
• July 15, 1963: The wash-out riddled Alaska Highway was opened again to traffic at 1 p.m. Friday after it was closed for several days last week. Canadian Army Engineers worked round-the-clock to restore the broken highway link around the Muncho Lake area, At one point, more than 42 separate washouts were recorded.
• July 15, 1963: Dawson and Wade has been awarded contract to pave the Two-Mile Hill. The bid for $74,955 has been approved and staking the three-lane-wide asphalting is underway by Territorial engineers. Two of the finished lanes will be for up hill traffic while a single lane will come down the hill. The paving will start at the end of the pavement near the RSCME gate and join up with the asphalting at the traffic circle.

• July 22, 1963: A solar eclipse over Whitehorse on July 20, but low clouds and fine drizzle lower the visibility.

• July 29, 1963: Joe Warner becomes the new manager of Burns.

August

• August 1, 1963: An order by the Canadian Army prohibiting the sale of Whitehorse Dairies products in Camp Takhini is lifted. The dairy products did not meet the acceptable standard required by the Department of National Defence.

• August 12, 1963: The S.S. Keno paddlewheeler at Dawson City is reopened to the public.
• August 12, 1963: Seaforth Creek Bridge at Mile 849 on the Alaska Highway is opened August 9.

• August 22, 1963: The Hector-Calumet mine of United Keno Hill Mines Ltd. collapses August 21. One missing miner is rescued 3 days later.

• August 26, 1963: Northern Affairs Minister J. Arthur Laing visits the Yukon.

• August 29, 1963: Police Magistrate A.C.L. Adams retires and leaves the Yukon September 1st. W. M. Trainor is appointed Yukon Magistrate.

September

• September 5, 1963: Northern Affairs Minister J. Arthur Laing announces that from this day forward, the road known as the Chapman Lake - Aklavik Road would be known now as the Dempster Highway.

• September 23, 1963: Whitehorse city council studied the downtown parking situation following Hougen's Ltd. suggestion that some no-parking zones along Main street could be used for parking during certain periods in the day.

• September 30, 1963: Prior to his move, former mayor Gordon Armstrong, first mayor of Whitehorse when the city was incorporated in 1950, is honoured during a civic banquet.

October

• October 24, 1963: The Haines Cut-Off Road connecting Haines with Haines Junction is kept open during the winter 1963/1964 for a year's trial basis.
• October 24, 1963: Ann Sindon Clarke becomes the bride of Leslie Lorne McLaughlin September 14.

• October 28, 1963: Meetings will start early next month to discuss the handover of the Canadian section of the Alaska Highway from the Canadian Army to the Department of Public Works.
• October 28, 1963: Yukon Magistrate W. J. Trainor is to be named a B.C. magistrate so he can preside in the courts at several Northern B.C. communities near the B.C.-Yukon border. As the Vancouver Sun says: "Among them are Lower Post, which gained fame last year as a wide-open lawless frontier town, and Cassiar, the asbestos mining centre."
• October 28, 1963: Although no official announcement has been made by the company, it has been common knowledge to Whitehorse resident for many months that Cryogenics Enterprises is planning to build a natural gas liquefaction plant near Fort Nelson to serve various markets including Whitehorse, where underground pipes would be installed for distribution after the gas arrives by truck.

November

• November 25, 1963: Whitehorse city council announces its plans to establish a Centennial Committee to consider ideas and projects which might be done in the city for 1967.

December

• December 12, 1963: Canada reaches an agreement with the state of Alaska to pay $127,000 for American crews to keep the Haines Cutoff open.

• December 16, 1963: A Pan Am DC6B to arrive on December 18 would be the last Pan Am flight to Whitehorse after 28 years of service. Whitehorse was abandoned because the runway wasn't suitable for jets, and there was too little traffic.
• December 16, 1963: Municipal elections to elect a mayor and aldermen are held in Whitehorse on December 12. Mayor Ed Jacobs is re-elected mayor of Whitehorse defeating Norm Chamberlist and Ken Shortt. Brian Daniels and Jan Montgomery are elected as aldermen and Paul Lucier and George Smith continued for second year of a two year term.

1964

January

• January 30, 1964: William Koropatnick is appointed Chief of Department of Public Works Northwest Highway System.
• January 30, 1964: A group of trainmen and longshoremen in Skagway have formed "Project 52" to bring the first locomotive in Alaska - W.P.Y.R. #52 - back to Skagway from Taku City on Tagish Lake. Read the entire article here.

February

• February 20, 1964: Two Yukon old-timers died in Whitehorse General Hospital last week within a few hours of each other. Oden Odell, 87, and "Tommy" Brooks, 81, had both been residents of the Senior Citizens' Home in Whitehorse.Read the entire article here.
• February 20, 1964: The first ten successful students graduated from the Whitehorse Vocational Training School yesterday.
• February 20, 1964: David Merrick's musical comedy "Foxy" was a hit during the Dawson City Gold Festival in 1962, but it is getting great reviews on Broadway now, especially for the 72-year-old star, Bert Lahr.

March

• March 2, 1964: The Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous was held from February 28th to March 1st. Diana McNeil is selected on March 1 as Queen for the 1964 Sourdough Rendezvous.

• March 12, 1964: The first locomotive ever to reach as far north as Alaska, "Old 52" passes through Whitehorse on its last journey on March 11, 1964. A group of Skagway citizens organized the transport from Taku City, B.C. to Skagway where it will be left as a historic monument.

• March 23, 1964: Two of the three occupants of a single-engined Beechcraft plane which made an emergency landing on ice-covered Patri Lake near Fort Nelson, B. C. Thursday night, flew through Whitehorse Friday on their way back to Fairbanks, Alaska. The aircraft was piloted by Frank Hern.

• March 25, 1964: Councillor John Watt proposes negotiations with the U.S. government for the purpose of obtaining a free port and a free corridor through the Alaska Pan Handle.

• March 30, 1964: On Good Friday, March 27th, the Alaska earthquake of magnitude 9.2 strikes the Pacific rim. This seismic event is not only the second largest ever to have been recorded but it lasted for over three minutes and was felt over an area of five hundred thousand square miles. Anchorage suffers extensivedamage. Valdez is hit by a tidal wave. The quake is felt in Whitehorse.

April

• April 2, 1964 On April 1st, Brigadier Spencer, Commander of the Canadian Army in the Yukon, turns over the Alaska Highway to the Department of Public Works under management of William Koropatrick.
• April 2, 1964 Whitehorse Mayor Ed Jacobs had to cast two deciding votes at a city council meeting Wednesday to enable the city to legally" charge water users on meters their monthly water bills. There are only 38 metered users in the city, and the bylaw doesn't include the ability to charge on a per gallon basis.
• April 2, 1964 It's Drama Festival opening night, and 25 theate-loving Alaskans will be in Whitehorse to participate in the three-day international event.

• April 9, 1964 The territorial council moves a motion to institute "an unbiased non-political news service to cover "News of the North" in the Yukon". The CBC broadcast over the Yukon network is considered not satisfactory.
• April 9, 1964 Rolf Hougen presents an outline for an economic organization to the Whitehorse Chamber. With their support, the Yukon Research and Development was founded. Rolf Hougen is selected to chair the group. Rolf invites a cross section of Yukoners to serve on the board. Judge John Parker is elected chairman of the Yukon Research and Development Institute June 22, 1964. Directors are Leo Proctor, Boris Styba, John Scott, Arnie Phillipson, Jim Smith, Pat Callison and Rolf Hougen.

• April 13, 1964: The trespassing of horses and cattle on Yukon highways is to come up for review in Territorial Council soon. At present, animals on the highway have right-of-way in the Yukon, but Councillor Bert Boyd says they need to hear from the people who have had their cars wrecked, been sent to hospital, lost their parents because of these animals.
• April 13, 1964: Mining exploration for the month of Mar 1964 was centered in the Whiteliorse Mining District. The main activity was in the vicinity of Van Gorda Creek where 169 quartz claims were staked, contiguous to the lead-zinc property owned by Kerr-Addison Mines.
• April 13, 1964: The V. I. P. house has been moved off the escarpment overlooking Whitehorse to a residential. lot in the city. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip stayed there during their visit to the Yukon in 1959. Governor-Generals and other high-ranking officials have stayed in this house during its life on the hill.

• April 16, 1964: Whitehorse City Council has passed a motion to amend the existing licence bylaw for banks, bars and beer parlors. The motion calls for an amendment so that beer parlors would pay a flat rate of $50 plus 10 cents per square foot of space and cocktail lounges would pay a flat rate of $100 plus 10 cents per square foot of space.
• April 16, 1964: One of the few Master Painters in Canada, Walter R. Carter, died in Whitehorse on April 9 after a long illness. He was a foreman painter in Vancouver for 27 years with the F. V. M. P. A., and designed the label on the Pacific milk-can which is still in use today. Read the entire article here.
• April 16, 1964: The telephone number connecting branches of Whitehorse General Hospital is 7-2561. A new switchboard has been installed connecting up more than 40 telephone units throughout the building. It will be in operation from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.

• April 20, 1964: Foreign Service attaches representing 20 different countries in Canada visit Whitehorse.
• April 20, 1964: A new log church, built by native people, was opened at Pelly River Crossing on April 10.

• April 23, 1964: The Whitehorse Star issues a special edition for its Hougen's Ltd. 20th anniversary.

• April 30, 1964: Jim Hanna resigns as president of Yukon Chamber of Mines becaues of members' "rigid opposition" to a national park in the Yukon.

May

• May 4, 1964: The Chamber of Commerce tourist committee led by Eric Wienecke sponsor a big "Clean up Whiskey Flats" campaign on May 2, 1964.

• May 25, 1964: It is announced that the Army Signal Station in Camp Takhini is preparing to close down after 42 years of operation in the Yukon Territory.
• May 25, 1964: Deaconness Hilda Hellaby receives an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Anglican Theological College in Vancouver.

• May 28, 1964: First taps for draft beer in Whitehorse are installed at the Edgewater Hotel.

June

• June 8, 1964: Flood waters hit Dawson and Mayo as hot temperatures caused a rapid runoff of snow-water from the hills. About 85 per cent of Mayo are evacuated and mover to higher ground. Canadian Pacific Airlines flies 5,700 pounds of bread and potatoes into Dawson. A planeload of brass from Ottawa arrives in the Yukon June 11, 1964. John Turner, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Northern Affairs, John Gorden, R.A.J. Philips, A.B. Yates, Gordon Gibson, Gordon Cameron and Erik Nielsen visit.

• June 15, 1964: The Old Log Church in Whitehorse is re-opened to the public as a museum

• June 18, 1964: Robert Service Park officially opens June 20, 1964.

• June 22, 1964: City council discusses the integration of the Marwell in the city limits.

• June 29, 1964: Pat Swanson is elected Queen of the Dominion Day activities.
• June 29, 1964: A ceremony in Whitehorse on June 23rd marked the army's official farewell from the Territory. The Federal Department of Public Works takes over the maintenance of the Alaska Highway.

July

• July 23, 1964: The Edmonton Exhibition Association has had the term "Klondike Days" copyrighted. They also made an attempt to copyright the name "Klondike Kate" but were turned down.

• July 27, 1964: Operation "doorstep", a TB prevention program during which more than 11,000 persons were screened, is ending.
• July 27, 1964: City council discusses the question of the final location for the sternwheelers. A Whitehorse tourist committee wants the paddlewheelers moved from Shipyard Parks to South Whiskey Flats. City Council wants to save the costs of moving and reserve the Whiskey Flats as open space.

• July 30, 1964: This past winter, a group of trainmen and longshoremen at Skagway banded together and formed an organization called "Project 52" to return W. P. & Y. R. locomotive #52 to Skagway from Taku City, B.C. where she now rests.

August

• August 13, 1964: The community of Old Crow "goes modern" with the start of operation of a new power plant.

• August 20, 1964: The final chapter in the Canol number 4 pipe line story is written in Whitehorse. The White Pass and Yukon Route have completed the reclamation and stock piling of the Canadian section of the pipeline.

• August 27, 1964: Northern Affairs Minister Arthur Laing arrived in Whitehorse yesterday, leading a group of diplomats from Sweden, Denmark, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, and Great Britain.
• August 27, 1964: Commonwealth Resources Engineering Corp. has sent a letter to Council stating their readiness to do a feasibility survey for natural gas services in Whitehorse, on the condition that if the City decides to install natural gas, their company would get the contract.
• August 27, 1964: Spartan's twin-engine Anson crashed into the Yukon River just east of Whitehorse early Monday evening, killing the sole occupant, Wesley Stanley Weston, 26, of Calgary.

September

• September 9, 1964: Elections for the territorial council took place on September 8th. Bert Boyd, George Shaw, Ken McKinnon, John Watt, and Don Taylor are electedto the Yukon Territorial Council. By acclamation, Ken Thompson and Fred Southam make up the seven member council.

• September 14, 1964: A three day Alaska - B.C. - Yukon conference opened in Whitehorse this afternoon. Gov. Egan of Alaska, Premier W.A.C. Bennett of B.C. and Commissioner Gordon Cameron of the Yukon led their delegations. Premier Bennett suggested in his opening speech amalgation of B.C. and the Yukon Territory.
• September 14, 1964: Sumitomo Metal Mining Company, one of Japan's "Big 11" trading companies, has signed an agreement with New Imperial granting them an initial six-month option to finance development of the company's properties, including construction of a mill at Whitehorse and the sale of ore and concentrate.
• September 14, 1964: A mystery bus trip taking in several of the loveliest scenic spots in the Whitehorse area is offered to local residents who would like a last look at the autumn leaves next Sunday. The bus leaves from outside the Whitehorse Star office at 10 a.m. weather permitting. Cost of the tour is $1.50 per person and it will last several hours.

• September 24, 1964: The Whitehorse chapter of I.O.D.E. celebrates the 50th anniversary of its foundation on October 21, 1914.

• September 28, 1964: Northern Affairs Minister Arthur Laing announces that the Haines Road will be maintained throughout the winter 1964/1965. It is still considered 'experimental'.

October

• October 5, 1964: Tarr Inlet makes the news across the country as a possible far north Canadian port.

• October 15, 1964: Yukon's former commissioner F.H. Collins states Premier Bennett's proposal regarding the union of B.C. and Yukon constitutes "a logical, traditional development northward". The union "would provide and integrated an integrated economy for the Yukon.

• October 22, 1964: The Lions Club has donated their very popular outdoor swimming pool on 3rd Avenue in Whitehorse to the City.
• October 22, 1964: A proposed section in the new Taxi Bylaw caused a heated debate at Council last night. It gives the Inspector authority to refuse to issue a taxi operator's permit to anyone because of a criminal record, or their driving record, health, or age.
• October 22, 1964: A request has been made by the Retail Merchants' Committee of the Chamber to place to City's Christmas tree on the roof of the White Pass building instead of in front of it. The request was passed on to the City's engineer.

• October 26, 1964: Development stage is reached in the Snake River iron deposit in the Yukon, one of the world's largest medium grade ore bodies.

  

• October 29, 1964: William John Duncan Dempster, the man who found the ill-fated Fitzegerald patrol between Dawson City and Fort McPherson in 1911 and namesake of the Dempster Highway, died in Vancouver on October 25, at the age of 88.
• October 29, 1964: Replying to a question about why the Yukon should join BC, Herb Bruch said: "One tourism; two, paved highway that would mean resource development; three, natural flow of economy runs north and south; four, long-range benefits and five, the separate border doesn't benefit anyone." Norm Chamberlist asked why BC hasn't paved their section of the highway from Fort St. John to Lower Post.
• October 29, 1964: A score of local residents have appeared as witnesses in an Air Transport Board hearing, in support of Air Trails Limited's application to the Board for a Group 4 Class B air service charter. The application was opposed by Yukon Flying Services.

November

• November 9, 1964: The new Teslin school was officially opened by Commissioner G.R. Cameron on November 4th. It was built by General Enterprises, who trucked up 300 tons of supplies for the project.
• November 9, 1964: Interest in further development of Tarr Inlet as a Canadian seaport is growing outside the Yukon. News from Vancouver reveals that the Tatshenshini Valley and Tarr Inlet Transportation and Development Corporation has applied for incorporation in British Columbia.
• November 9, 1964: At the opening of the Yukon Council session, Commissioner Cameron said that despite withdrawal of the Canadian Army in the spring there had been no disastrous change in Yukon's economy as had been feared. As well, the tourist industry in Yukon recorded a seven-per-cent increase despite the Alaska earthquake, mining activity is coming back into its own, and the Haines Road is to be kept open, as is the Canada Tungsten Road.

• November 19, 1964: Haines Junction holds their first Armistice parade ever on November 11.

• November 23, 1964: Marking the anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy one year ago, Canada names a mountain peak in the Yukon, in the St. Elias range, for the former American president who was assassinated a year earlier.
• November 23, 1964: The Federal government gives a $250,000 grant for the construction of a City Hall complex and a new museum.

• November 26, 1964: The new CNT building in Whitehorse is formally opened.
• November 26, 1964: Erik Nielsen, Yukon's Member of Parliament, exposes a major national scandal by naming the federal Minister of Justice, Guy Favreau, in a bribery scandal.

• November 30, 1964: The Whitehorse Kiwanis club opens an indoor ice rink on the corner of 1st Avenue and Strickland on November 29.

December

• December 31, 1964: New Imperial Mines announces its plans to construct a mill near Whitehorse early in 1965.

1965

January

• January 7, 1965: An editorial described the controversy about whether or not the Robert Service Campground, which was rebuilt and greatly expanded by the Chamber of Commerce in 1963, should continue to receive government funding.

• January 11, 1965: Scurvey Shorty is elected Chief of the Whitehorse Indian Band. It is the first Council election held since 1957.

• January 18, 1965: A well for supplying water to the residents of Porter Creek is put into service on January 13, replacing the water delivery truck.

• January 28, 1965: City of Whitehorse officials complete a re-assessment of all lands within the city limits. The re-assessment was ordered by Judge John Parker following the appeal by White Pass and Yukon Route.
• January 28, 1965: Whitehorse becomes one of three satellite tracking station.

February

• February 1, 1965: The B.C. government is been requested to do on site surveys of Tarr Inlet during summer 1965. Tarr Inlet could become a Canadian port, thus giving Yukon access to tidewater.

• February 11, 1965: Connelly Dawson Airways Limited have bought Yukon Flying Services from Lloyd Romfo at Whitehorse. Formerly based at Dawson City, Connelly Dawson will move most of their maintenance facilities to a base at Whitehorse, in the former Yukon Flying Services headquarters. The company will be flying out of both Whitehorse and Dawson, operating 14 aircraft.

• February 18, 1965: Superintendent of Education Harry Thompson announces that February 26 will be a school holiday for all students to enable them to enjoy the Sourdough Rendezvous.

March

• March 8, 1965: Cassiar Asbestos announces its plans to bring the Clinton Creek mine northwest of Dawson into production by 1968.
• March 8, 1965: Snowplows keep the Canol Road open throughtout the winter from Johnson's Crossing to Ross River. The road had been closed every winter since the Second World War.

• March 15, 1965: Oil has been discovered 60 miles north of Dawson City, Northern Affairs Minister Arthur Laing announced Friday. The minister said the first oil strike in Yukon Territory is not large but he predicted a major drilling program will be under way by 1968. However, Yukon government officials were baffled by the announcement, of which they had no prior details. Herb Rutz, Socony Mobil boss at Dawson City said that there had been no such find so close to Dawson to his knowledge.
• March 15, 1965: Inspector J. L. "Joe" Vachon, commanding officer RCMP Whitehorse sub-division, leaves with his family at the end of this week for a new post in Calgary. Installed as a member of the Yukon Order of Pioneers at Dawson last week, Inspector Vachon is the second of the Force to receive that honor; the first was Inspector Dempster. "Joe" set a new record for length as officer commanding in Yukon - five years less two months.

• March 18, 1965: Whitehorse City Council discusses the take-over of Camp Takhini.

• March 22, 1965: Senator Robert Kennedy arrives in Whitehorse to climb Mt. Kennedy. He becomes the first man to reach the top.

• March 29, 1965: The territorial council approves March 26, 1965 the introduction of daylight saving time in the Yukon, for a year's trial. The first daylight saving time will start April 26th.

April

• April 1, 1965:Mystery still surrounded the fate of a 26-year-old native of Atlin today, two weeks after he disappeared from a coastal ferry. Budrick Morris "Buddy" Edzerza had been travelling from Prince Rupert to Alice Arm on his way back to his job with Granduc Mining Company near Stewart, when he vanished from the boat. Police at Prince Rupert state he is presumed dead.
• April 1, 1965: Artist Dr. Maurice Haycock is visiting Whitehorse during a trip to sketch the mountains and glaciers of Kluane.
• April 1, 1965: Gerald Henry Priest, former UKHM assayer, was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for theft of silver ore by Mr. Justice John Parker this morning, and prospector and placer miner Anthony Bobcik was sentenced to three years less four months.

  

• April 5, 1965: Tenders for the new Whitehorse jail are to be called May first, with construction to be completed by mid-1966. Other government buildings planned for this year include a new Yukon Regional Library at Whitehorse, to cost $150,000, an extension to the Whitehorse Vocational Training School, to cost $229,000, extension and revovation at Christ the King High School, $105,000, an extension to Dawson Elementary-High School, $106,000, extension to Watson Lake Elementary-High School, $65,000 and a new school at Carcross for $114,350. New Whitehorse Liquor Store will cost $310,000. A $60,000 addition to F. H. Collins Secondary School is already under construction and work is proceeding on the new $101,000 garage and $8,000 storage shed at Carmacks.
• April 5, 1965: A huge North American water diversion project is being discussed. It would divert waters from Alaska, the Yukon and B.C. through a complex of dams, reservoirs, canals, seaways and pumping stations to Canadian plains, United States and Mexico.
• April 5, 1965: An American expedition which had planned to climb Mount Kennedy in the Yukon this month, started out yesterday for another peak instead. They hope to scale Mount King George, about 30 miles west of Mt. Kennedy, now considered the highest unclimbed peak in North America.

• April 8, 1965: New Imperial Mines diamond drilling proves an immense ore body at McCrae.

• April 19, 1965: Canada's Indian Princess Irene Seeseequasis from Saskatchewan gets married in Whitehorse April 19.

• April 22, 1965: Whitehorse City Council approves the installation of an artificial ice plant.

• April 26, 1965: Canada's newest gold mine, a 60-ton mill, goes into production in June near Carmacks.

• April 29, 1965: Northern Affairs Minister Arthur Laing announces a budget of $3.8 Million for the 3-year construction of the 140 mile road from Ross River to Carmacks, opening up one of the richest mineral areas of the Yukon. Works start in 1965.

May

• May 3, 1965: More than 30 people were charged over the weekend for not having new licence plates on their vehicles.
• May 3, 1965: Alaska's Highways Commissioner D. A. McKinnon announced that the winter maintenance of the Haines cutoff was "a definite success" this year and proved the feasibility of winter-time operation of the route. Between December 1, 1964 and March 1, 1965, a total of 1,509 vehicles used the Haines highway, compared with 816 the previous year. Canada paid costs of maintenance, and the State of Alaska provided the men and equipment for the job.
• May 3, 1965: Two thousand tons a day, open pit mining can be "a paying proposition" at New Imperial Mines near Whitehorse, Arnold Pitt, company president, told a directors' meeting in Toronto last Friday. Diamond drilling is continuing at War Eagle, Cowley Park and Little Chief, and a mill is expected to be built this year.

• May 17, 1965: The world's highest rescue was staged by the RCAF when Flight Lieutenant Don Campbell and crew airlifted a stranded Klondike Helicopters Bell 47G-3 B-1 from the 13,600-foot level of Mt. Kennedy with a CH-113 Labrador.
• May 17, 1965: A former Mount Nansen Mines employee, August Gaudry, appeared in police court Friday afternoon and was arraigned on a charge of the non-capital murder of Henry "Shorty" Roiles on May 4th.
• May 17, 1965: In "News From Old Crow," April 29 - Daniel Frost went out to Flat for a trip with Skidoo for caribou but no sign and no caribou so he camp once and arrived into town on April 30. He saw Mary Kassi and she got 40 rats already. Was she's lucky woman she could easily make hundred rats next week.

• May 20, 1965: After strong opposition from the Yukon, Edmonton's application to copyright the words "Klondike Days" and "Klondike Kate" has been withdrawn. No reason is given for the withdrawal.

June

• June 3, 1965: The top headline reads "NO! NO! YOU CAN'T TAKE BUD AWAY!" after a picture posted in the Calgary Herald identified "Yukon Bud Fisher" as being from Edmonton.
• June 3, 1965: A fire at Watson Lake on June 1st destroyed the Community Hall containing 3 sheets of ice for curling, and the recreation centre.
• June 3, 1965: An Air Transport Board hearing concerning the application by Air Trails Limited to operate a charter flight service from Whitehorse re-opened today. The first hearing was held last October, when opposition was expressed by Yukon Flying Service, now absorbed by Great Northern Airways.
• June 3, 1965: A bill to set up an Alaska-Yukon highway authority, charged with modernizing the Alaska Highway project is introduced in the House of Commons June 1.

• June 10, 1965: Commissioner G. R. Cameron presented the highest award in the Canadian Girl Guide Movement to 16-year-old Esta Sparks last night. Esta is the first girl to take all her Guide training in the Yukon and win the award.

• June 14, 1965: Whitehorse Star writer June Franklin receives the national award for best feature column in the Canadian Women's Press Club annual competition.

• June 30, 1965: D.R. Delaporte is appointed the general manager at United Keno Hill Mines as of July 1.
• June 30, 1965: At corner of Elliott and Third, where MacPherson and Phelps home used to stand, the new Casca building is being constructed. It will house among others the new government liquor store, and CBC studio, Jack Humme Insurance, Jim Hanna Optometrist and the T. Eaton Mail Order. The building opens for business in the beginning of December.

July

• July 12, 1965: Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 21 on its way from Vancouver to Whitehorse explodes and crashes near 100 Mile House on July 8. All 52 people aboard, including five Yukoners, are killed. Commissioner G.R. Cameron orders all flags on Territorial buildings to be flown at half mast for three days. A bomb on board the flight is suspected but never proven.
• July 12, 1965: Proctor Construction is disposing of a million dollars worth of equipment in an auction to be held Friday, and a special chartered CPA DC-6B will be bringing potential bidders up from Vancouver on Thursday. Mr. Proctor says he will retain his mining interests in the territory and is keeping a very few pieces of equipment in connection with mining.

• July 26, 1965: A cheering crowd of several hundred Whitehorse residents gave 48 visiting students from Toronto and Montreal and their escorting teachers a warm welcome at Whitehorse airport Thursday night. They had waited patiently for an extra hour or more as Flight 21 stopped to refuel in Watson Lake.
• July 26, 1965: A vacant apartment building at 127 Arnheim in Camp Takhini went up in flames Thursday afternoon. Children playing with matches were thought to be the cause of the fire. The building was one of many advertised for sale recently.

• July 29, 1965: The Wally Byam caravan of 150 trailers and 350 people driving up the Alaska Highway arrived in Whitehorse on July 26th. They are parked on Fourth Avenue south of the Elks Hall. This is the first trip north for a Wally Byam caravan.

August

• August 9, 1965: White Pass and Yukon Route have sold their bus business to Canadian Coachways, with the change of ownership to take place on August 5th. The run from Whitehorse to Haines is affected, and four buses will be transferred: two new 39-passenger Challenger types, one 41-passenger coach, and an 8-passenger Checker.
• August 9, 1965: The last six members of the Harvard Mountaineering Club expedition on Mount St. Elias have been flown out. Two members of the group reached the 18,008-foot summit, and four members were slightly injured during the climb.
• August 9, 1965: Forest fires are still raging along a fifteen-mile front bordering the Alaska Highway south of Watson Lake. The highway has re-opened and traffic is moving through the heavy smoke. A fire is still threatening the Coal River Highways camp and the Fireside Inn across the road.

• August 26, 1965: Captain George Black was buried today in the Field of Honour at Burnaby's Forest Lawn Cemetery. In the Yukon, flags were at half mast for one of the most prominent Klondikers ever to walk the Trail of '98. He died at Shaughnessy Hospital on August 23rd, at the age of 92.

September

• September 2, 1965: The Department of Northern Affairs announces the S.S. Klondike will be preserverd as a national historic site. A museum will be established inside the vessel. The S.S. Klondike will be moved to the South Whiskey Flats. The S.S. Keno will be preserved at Dawson. (see also February 17, 1966)

• September 27, 1965: On September 25, Erik Nielsen is chosen by the Yukon Progressive Conservatives as candidate in the federal election.
• September 27, 1965: On September 23, the Yukon Liberal Association nominates Ray McKamey as their official candidate for the federal elections.

• September 30, 1965: The Canadian government disapproves a U.S. proposal to build a dam on the Yukon River in central Alaska.

October

• October 4, 1965: Old locomotive No.1 that ran on the Klondike Mines Railroad in the Dawson area has been sold by Yukon Consolidated Gold Corp. to Roger Burnell of Vancouver, and passed through Whitehorse over the weekend, on its way to Vancouver. Read the entire article here.
• October 4, 1965: With cold weather closing in, more calls are being made on Mary House, and in turn, Mary House is calling for help. The Whitehorse centre which provides temporary accommodation, food and clothing needy is now composed of three buildings... St. Joseph's for men, St. Catherine's for women, but the original and best known unit is Mary House.
• October 4, 1965: Another link with the early days in the Klondike was severed with the death in Vancouver September 24 of Mrs. Eliza Warne, "Aunt Betty" to hundreds of Yukoners. Born in Longford, Ireland, March 20, 1876, Mrs. Warne walked in over the Trail of '98 and floated downriver to Dawson on a barge, in 1903, with her husband.

• October 14, 1965: On October 13, Northern Affairs Minister Laing announces a 10-year road building program for the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

November

• November 1, 1965: J. D. Skinner, one of Canada's oldest printers and newspapermen, died on October 16th in Edmonton, at the age of 90. During his career he had been working on, or associated with 22 printing shops or newspapers. From 1925 until 1930 he was editor and publisher of the Whitehorse Star.
• November 1, 1965: At 12:01 on November 1, the City of Skagway officially changed from Yukon Standard Time to Pacific Standard Time. While being on Yukon time made it easier for the railway, being on Pacific time like other Southeast Alaska communities makes it easier for ship passengers.
• November 1, 1965: After raising our hopes of early skiing the weather seems to have turned fickle. However some of the more ardent members of the Whitehorse Ski Club took a trip up Montana Mountain, near Carcross, last weekend and despite the blowing conditions, had a good time.

• November 9, 1965: Erik Nielsen was re-elected MP of the Yukon on November 8, defeating the Liberal candidate, Ray McKamey, by about 5,500 votes. Lester Pearson remains Prime Minister of a minority government.
• November 9, 1965: Word spread quickly in Watson Lake Monday that the long-awaited Steelox building to be used for a Community Hall had arrived. To be located on the site occupied by the former community hall which was burned this year, the building will be 198 by 100 feet and will house the curling rink, skating rink and community recreation centre.
• November 9, 1965: Two large freight planes are engaged in flying loads of drilling mud, being trucked up the highway from Fort St. John, from here to Inuvik, where the British American Oil Co. has four or five rigs in operation. Pacific Western Airlines is using a C-46, and Wardair has a Bristol Freighter in service.

• November 22, 1965: The inquest into the death of 52 people aboard a Canadian Pacific Airlines DC6 last July continued in Vancouver today. John Hyra, a forest fire lookout near 100 Mile House, testified that he and a companion heard an explosion when the regular CPA flight came overhead. They saw smoke billow out from the plane, then the tail section parted and the aircraft plunged to the ground. John Love, aircraft accident investigator for the Department of Transport, testified the explosion probably occurred in the toilet bowl in the portside rear lavatory of the plane.
• November 22, 1965: Territorial councillors today attacked a proposed amendment to the liquor ordinance which would make it illegal for private individuals who brew licenced home-made beer and wine to give "reasonable amounts" to guests in their home.
• November 22, 1965: Douglas Low, 36, well known big game guide, had a harrowing experience in the icy waters of the Tagish River on Monday. Read the entire story here.

• November 25, 1965: Territorial council has decided to appeal to the Northern Affairs Department to start construction of a bridge over the Yukon River at Dawson and dispense with the existing ferry system.

December

• December 2, 1965: One of the last remaining Klondike pioneers died early Tuesday morning (November 30th) at Whitehorse General Hospital. Ira Van Bibber had been in excellent health all his life and suffered only a brief illness beforehis death. He was 88.

• December 6, 1965: The Whitehorse Civic Centre was officially opened December 5th.
• December 6, 1965: Rolf Hougen announces that he has purchased a controlling interest in Northern Television Systems, which operates WHTV at Whitehorse. He is also investigating the possibility of immediate installation of videotapes to bring current programs, sports, and current events to local viewers.

  

• December 9, 1965: Great Northern Airways Cessna 180 CF-LCV crashed through the ice of Lake Laberge yesterday, killing 3 people, pilot Howard Carey, 29, of Calgary, and two Water Resources staff members from Whitehorse, Cresswell Wright, 37, and Richard Anderson, 38. At approximately the same time, 5 other pilots were in difficulties as the weather closed in, forcing 4 to land on the Alaska Highway at various points, and the other on the Mayo Road.
• December 9, 1965: New Imperial Mines are one step closer to production at their copper property near Whitehorse following a special general meeting of shareholders in Toronto yesterday.
• December 9, 1965: On December 7th, a motion by the territorial council requested the federal government to institute a 10-to-20-year phased program implementing provincial status for the Yukon, beginning in 1967.

• December 14, 1965: New Imperial Mine announces its decision to open a thousand tonne copper mine nine miles out of city limits after signing a contract with Sumitomo. Ross Kenway, Mine Manager, said the mill will be near McCrae.

• December 20, 1965: Howard Firth is the new mayor of Whitehorse in December 16 election, defeating Duke Collins, Ed Jacobs, and Paul Lucier. Jim Light and Steve Henke are elected Alderman.

• December 30, 1965: Commissioner G.R. Cameron announces his resignation to take effect June 1, 1966.

1966

January

• January 6 - November 24, 1966: A territorial plebiscite on daylight saving time is carried out throughout the Yukon. As a result of the plebiscite the Yukon has two time zones as of February 26. All area east of the 136th Meridian and south of the 62nd parallel in the Yukon Territory go on one hour fast time. The remainder stays on Yukon Standard Time all year round. At the end of the year, residents of Haines Junction request to be placed on Yukon Southern Standard time, the same as Whitehorse, rather than northern standard time. (see also May 11, 1967)

• January 10, 1966: CN Telecommunications announces to install telephone lines between Dawson City and the Clinton Creek asbestos mine mill in June.

• January 13, 1966: Northern Affairs Minister Arthur Laing turns down a request from territorial council asking for the construction of a bridge over the Yukon River at Dawson City. A $3,000,000 bridge cannot be justified under existing conditions and rate of industrial development. (see also November 25, 1965)

• January 17, 1966: Steve Henke is the new president of the Whitehorse Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion.

• January 27, 1966: The Yukon Regional Library in Whitehorse is officially opened January 28.

February

• February 14, 1966: Patsy Henderson, the last surviving member of the group which sparked the gold rush to the Klondike in 1896, died on February 11, at the age of 84. As a boy he was camped on the banks of the Klondike River when his relatives discovered gold on Rabbit Creek near Dawson City. Read the entire article here.
• February 14, 1966: The Yukon's territorial flower, the fireweed, and coat of arms will be featured on a new 5-cent postage stamp to be issued March 23rd. A similar stamp with the Northwest Territories' emblem will be issed the same day.
• February 14, 1966: Mr. and Mrs. Bob Fleming of Teslin today reported seeing a UFO (unidentified flying object) near Squanga Lake as they headed home on the Alaska Highway. They kept it in sight for a full minute as it descended then sped away.

• February 17, 1966: Members of the Yukon Historical Society oppose the move of the S.S. Klondike to a new park-site near the Robert Campbell Bridge, stating the boat should be left in its original position in shipyard park. (see also September 2, 1965)

March

• March 17, 1966: A bridge is built over the the Forty Mile River.
• March 17, 1966: The operations of United Keno Hill Mines was North America's largest primary production of silver in 1965.

• March 21, 1966: Northern Affairs Minister Arthur Laing announces $112,000,000 housing aid for Indians.
• March 21, 1966: Former Northern Affairs Minister Alvin Hamilton proposes a deal according to which the United States gives Canada access by rail, road, pipeline and air to the Pacific and Canada paves the Alaska Highway.

• March 28, 1966: The Yukon Electrical Company Ltd. begins supplying power to the community of Ross River on March 8.

  

• March 31, 1966: In view of the Expo'67 in Montreal, Yukon Territorial Council discusses ways and means of halting Edmonton's theft of the Klondike theme. April 4, 1966, Yukoners are urged to write letters of support to outside papers, local papers, their Territorial Councillors and former northerners, to register at Klondike Defence Headquarters, and to add names to the mailing list for campaign letters. A week later, the communities of Skagway, Haines and Haines Junction agree to back up the Yukon in its determination to fight "Edmonton's usurpation of the Klondike". The campaign even hits national TV as three CBC television newsmen arrive in Whitehorse April 12, 1966. Dr. Maurice Haycock donates his oil painting of Third Avenue to help raise funds for the Yukon's Klondike Defence Force (April 28, 1966). Edmonton retreats eventually and states not to use the Klondike theme at the Expo '67 in Montreal (April 28, 1966).

April

• April 7, 1966: Dawson residents have informed Commissioner G.R. Cameron of their unanimous support of Territorial Council's stand against the City of Edmonton's commercial exploitation of the Klondike theme.
• April 7, 1966: Arnold Pitt, president of New Imperial Mines, announced a ten- year-term contract for sale of concentrates to Sumitomo Metal Mining Company, and increase of mill capacity from previously announced 2,000 tons, to 2,500 tons per day.
• April 7, 1966: Approximately 550 salaried employees of the territorial government are receiving an interim salary increase of 10 per cent effective April 1, 1966. Territorial council Wednesday unanimously approved the proposed increase, the second of a three-stage salary increase and reclassification program for government employees. This second boost will cost the government an estimated $240,000.

• April 11, 1966: The old government liquor store at Steele and Second Avenue disappears as the site is readied for the new City Hall Complex. The new centennial structure displaces the liquore store, former city hall, Signal corps building, Fire Hall, Indian Co-op at the corner of Second Avenue and Steele Street.

• April 18, 1966: Whitehorse contractors Kunze and Olson received confirmation by telegram Friday that they are to proceed with the removal of the riverboat "S.S. Klondike" from its present location in the old White Pass shipyards to the new park site south of the Robert Campbell Bridge.
• April 18, 1966: A meeting was held Friday morning between Territorial council, Whitehorse City council and representatives of White Pass to discuss the drastic shortage of property in the city. White Pass said they have been quite willing to sell property for residential use, particularly Lot 19.
• April 18, 1966: Bud Fisher, the Yukon's hard-working promotion man, passed through Whitehorse this week enroute to another assignment. He recently returned from an extended tour of the West Coast.

• April 25, 1966: On April 22, the territorial government approves the purchase of a parcel of land from lot 19 in order to build a new Junior High School.
• April 25, 1966: The Whitehorse Vocational School changes its name to "Yukon Vocational and Technical Centre".

• April 28, 1966: first issue with a new title design.

May

• May 2, 1966: Clouds and rain closed in Monday as planes from Whitehorse airport widened their search for a missing Alaskan bush pilot, 39-year-old Frank Hern. His non-stop attempt at a world record flight in his new Cessna 150 has apparently ended in tragedy among 6,000-foot Yukon mountain peaks. The discovery of the wreckage and Hern's body 24 miles west of Aishihik was reported in the September 29, 1966 issue.
• May 2, 1966: Local teenagers have been complaining lately that they cannot hold their dances without rowdies - usually from outside - causing disturbances. On Monday morning in court, Justice of the Peace Bill Thurber dealt with two of the trouble makers, one from Dawson Creek.
• May 2, 1966: Muriel Phelps, a 21-year-old third generation Yukoner, has been killed in a car accident near Agassis, British Columbia.

• May 9, 1966: On May 6, the territorial council takes the first big step toward attaining provincial autonomy for the Yukon. A proposal is outlined by which the territory could start its move toward provincial status over the next 12 years.

• May 30, 1966: Gordon Cameron steps out of his job as Commissioner of the Yukon.

June

• June 2, 1966: In a plebiscite held on June 1, Whitehorse agrees to the construction of a new City Hall Complex, but is opposed to the integration of the Takhini area.

• June 6, 1966: Following a vote in the House of Commons, the Yukon is denied a hearing regarding its provincial status.
• June 6, 1966: Mike Dubinsky, 40, proprietor af the Sheep Mountain Motel, Mile 1054 on the Alaska Highway, died Saturday morning when overcome by fumes in a well, down which he had climbed to do some work. An Alaskan truck driver, 18-year-old Vincent Gorup, who had stopped at Dubinsky's lodge for gas, attempted to rescue him, but he too collapsed from the fumes. Word was sent to the Icefield Ranges Research Station across the highway on Kluane Lake, and an employee pulled both men from the well, but Mr. Dubinsky was dead.
• June 6, 1966: A new Vancouver-based mining company, Northlake Mines Limited, has been incorporated to explore large blocks of copper-lead-zinc claims located in the Ross River-Watson Lake area. At latest report, the company had in excess of 800 claims. Dr. Peter Sevensma's geological report has encouraged a large-scale exploration program. Gas caches have been established, a helicopter lined up for the season and arrangements have been made for extensive geophysical surveys.

• June 16, 1966: Al Kulan, co-founder of the Anvil Mines, donates $25,000 to plant trees in Whitehorse as a Centennial project.
• June 16, 1966: The sternwheeler, "Klondike" is moved to new location in Whiskey Flats. Eight tons of Palmolive Princess Snow Flakes (soap), slightly dampened, are used to grease the wooden pads for the moving of the S.S. Klondike. On June 23, 1966, The S.S. Klondike is moved from Shipyard parks to its new location near the Robert Campbell bridge. Chuck Morgan is in charge of the six week project in which the historic riverboat is towed on pads down First Avenue from the shipyard area to its new location. On July 18th, mayor Howard Firth presented Chuck Morgan with a gold miniature of the S.S. Klondike to mark the completion of the move.

• June 23, 1966: A fire traps miners at the No Cash between Elsa and Calumet. Seven miners are rescued, and four other men died.
• June 23, 1966: The federal government declares the paving of the Alaska Highway unfeasible due to high costs.

July

• July 4, 1966: James Phillip Muratt is back in custody today after triggering one of the biggest manhunts in the north in several years. The 27-year-old native who had escaped from a prison farm at Chilliwack, B.C. on June 7th was captured near Lower Post. Read the entire article here.
• July 4, 1966: Ron Connelly, well-known Yukon pilot, escaped injury but the practically new turbo-jet Beaver aircraft he was flying was seriously damaged Friday afternoon on a flight near the North Klondike River south from Dawson City. Alone in the Beaver at the time, Connelly experienced engine trouble reported to be a type of "flame-out" and only had time to radio John Wakefield at Dawson that he was making a forced landing. Unfortunately, he was not able to land on water and hit the trees in the emergency.
• July 4, 1966: Nineteen-year-old Russell Graham, son of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Graham of Porter Creek, has been awarded a certificate for gallantry by Canada's Chief Scout, His Excellency, Governor-General Vanier. The citation accompanying the award states that as a Rover Scout, in 1964, Russell Graham rescued another Porter Creek resident, Bradley Bratvold, from drowning. He had gotten into difficulty in an attempt to swim across the power dam ravine on the Fish Lake road.

• July 11, 1966: On July 8, Mary Johnson of Burwash was chosen as the Yukon candidate for title of Canada's Indian Princess. She will travel to Calgary on July 18th to compete for the national title.
• July 11, 1966: A report received by Whitehorse RCMP that a body had been discovered near Squanga Lake by a teenager turned out to be a moose that had been shot out of season.
• July 11, 1966: Wednesday's court docket had John William Reith of Carcross charged with transporting open liquor in a car. He was fined $15 and costs... Theresa Shorty was fined $25 and costs for possession of liquor off the reserve... Ida Harry, charged with the same offence, was sentenced to seven days in jail... Tom Smith paid $15 and costs for being intoxicated off the reserve. Archie Peter Tizya, charged with common assault against Robert Dudlitz, Whitehorse Inn bartender, was fined $50 and costs, and ordered to make compensation in the amount of $5 for a new shirt.

August

• August 1, 1966: Huge forest fires threaten Dawson.
• August 1, 1966: White Pass & Yukon Route donate $25,000 for a film about the Yukon as part of the Centennial project.

• August 29, 1966: After twenty years operation, RCAF station Whitehorse announces its closure for the end of 1967.

September

• September 1, 1966: The new TraveLodge Motor Hotel planned for downtown Whitehorse will get under way soon, Paul L. Gagnon, president of the International Motor Hotels Corporation said in Whitehorse today. Final completion and opening of the ultra-modern structure, which will contain 51 hotel rooms, is scheduled for June 1, 1967.

  

• September 6, 1966: Plans for a marina on the east shore of Schwatka Lake were revealed at a Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce luncheon meeting today. Small boat docking facilities have been urged by Arnie Philipsen and other members of a special committee investigating the hazard to seaplanes which land at the west-side dock.
• September 6, 1966: Whitehorse Motorcycle Club scored a victory in Edmonton Monday when Bob Jacobs took first place in the Western Canadian Championships. He was competing in the 500cc Junior Class on his 500cc Triumph.
• September 6, 1966: Evelyn M. MacBride, wife of William David MacBride, died in Vancouver on August 31.

• September 29, 1966: A young man in the prime of life, a project financed by businessmen in a small Alaskan town, plans for a record-breaking flight....all came to an end on a rocky mountain slope in the Yukon last April 28. The world did not learn the truth for five long months, and could well have passed by for years if early snows had chosen to cover the little red and white Cessna once again. Mercifully, death had come instantly for Frank Hern, and for a pilot perhaps it was a good way to go.

October

• October 3, 1966: Former magistrate A.C.L. Adams died in Vancouver on October 1.
• October 3, 1966: A meeting of the Whitehorse Board of Health asks to amend and enforce Bylaw 16A: all boys and girls 16 and under are required to observe the 9:30 curfew from September 1 to June 30, with an extra half-hour during summer holidays. At all other times they must be accompanied bt a parent or guardian.

• October 11, 1966: Fire prevention week starts with a fire at Whitehorse Elementary School on October 8. All 600 Whitehorse Elementary students need to be accomodated at Takhini, Selkirk and the Yukon Hall. Read the entire article here.

• October 14, 1966: The Whitehorse Star issues a special edition at the announcement of the Keno Hill Mines closure in the next months. A "continued critical shortage of underground miners has resulted in substantial reductions of output, to the point where it is not possible to maintain a profitable rate of production".

• October 17, 1966: Jimmy Smith is named Commissioner of the Yukon by Arthur Laing. He succeeds Gordon Cameron on November 7. Mr. Smith was President of the Whitehorse Board of Trade, Alderman for the City of Whitehorse, and a Yukon Territorial Councillor. Read the entire article here.

• October 31, 1966: Erik Nielsen announces the proposal of Satellite TV for the north to the Board of Broadcast Governors. According to his announcment, the third network of NTV and the all-Canadian satellite CANSAT will make possible for the first time, live television service to the Yukon and Northwest Territories.

November

• November 10, 1966: The new 80-ton steel-hulled ferry now under construction at Vancouver, for service at Dawson City, will be named George Black.

• November 17, 1966: Territorial Council votes in favor of a motion that plaques to be erected on Yukon centennial projects be worded in English only.
• November 17, 1966: With the closing down of Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation, three gold dredges cease operation permanently. The last dredge to operate in the Klondike shuts down. It is now a National Historic site on Bonanza Creek.
• November 17, 1966: The first charge relating to curfew regulations in Whitehorse was laid in Magistrate's court Tuesday morning. Mrs. George Arthus Dawson pleased guilty to allowing three children under sixteen years of age to be out after the 9:30 curfew deadline, and was fined $10.

• November 24, 1966: Territorial Council agrees on November 23 that installation of television in territorial taverns should be allowed.
• November 24, 1966: The federal government awards a contract for a feasibility study on transportation routes between the Yukon and tidewater ports on the Alaskan Panhandle (Skagway road).

• November 28, 1966: Clara Tizya is selected by the National Indian Advisory Board to represent the Indian women of Canada at the official opening of the Indians of Canada Pavillion Expo '67.
• November 28, 1966: A number of new programming arrangments are announced by WHTV. Among others a daily film newscast is introduced. "Arrival of these up-to-date newscast will depend on good flying weather and may be delayed from time to time."

December

• December 1, 1966: Dawn Marie Monahan, ten-year-old daughter of Mrs. Fay Monahan of Whitehorse, died yesterday as the result of an attack by a pack of dogs in the Sleepy Hollow area north of the city. Ten minutes after hearing of the tragedy, Commissioner James Smith signed a special order, and an RCMP spokesman made it loud and clear: "Stray dogs will be shot."

• December 12, 1966: Dawson City and Mayo set new low temperature records: in Dawson the temperature dipped down to -61 degrees F on December 11, and it was -62 in Mayo.

• December 22, 1966: A half-page interview with 56-year-old war veteran Chief Charlie Isaac of Moosehide by a Vancouver Province reporter is published.

1967

January

• January 19, 1967: New city constable Lorne Dean Phillips is sworn in January 17, 1967 by Judge John Parker.
• January 19, 1967: Members of the Lions Club have erected survival shelters along the highway between Mayo and Elsa.
• January 19, 1967: The search for oil is on in the Yukon. Close to two million acres north of the B.C. border, near Watson Lake, have been filed for exploration.

• January 26, 1967: The Yukon is allowed to have its own pavillion at Expo '67. During the Expo, Al Oster and Hank Karr entertain fair goers for weeks.
• January 26, 1967: Frank Goulter, the oldest surviving member of the Royal North West Mounted Police, celebrates his 90th birthday.

February

• February 2, 1967: Northern Development Minister Laing agrees to ask the cabinet to approve a commission of inquiry into the development of self-government for the Yukon.

• February 6, 1967: Elijah Smith was elected Chief of the Whitehorse Indian Band yesterday, in the band's second election. In the first one, in 1965, Scurvey Short had been elected Chief.
• February 6, 1967: A proposal comes from Alaskans that as many Yukon river steamers as possible be repaired and refitted in time for opening of navigation in 1967, as a measure to increase tourism in the region.
• An apparent murder-suicide at a remote cabin near Minto left 4 people dead.

• February 9, 1967: The former St. Agnes Hostel was totally destroyed by fire yesterday afternoon. Until last summer, the hall had been a residence for Indian pupils from many parts of the Yukon. Originally a wartime Army hut, the building had been converted through the years into a comfortable home for scores of children before government hostels were constructed. It was now being used as a Diocesan centre and offices of the Anglican Church. Valuable church records were reported smoke damaged but intact. The Rev. Charles Walters, whose quarters were in the building, lost his clothing and personal possessions.
• February 9, 1967: The Commissioner of the Yukon is now reporting directly to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
• February 9, 1967: Pierre Berton writes a Canadian musical, set in the days of the Klondike goldrush.

• February 13, 1967: A mass of smouldering rubble ws all that remained today of the Porter Creek Elementary School after a late night fire Sunday. Cost of replacing the five classrooms, auditorium and office space was estimated at $400,000 today. Read the entire article here.
• February 13, 1967: The first Canada Winter Games flag flutters in Whitehorse. The flag was raised simultaneously with the one at Quebec City where the games take place.
• February 13, 1967: High grade antimony ore has been discovered in the copper belt seven miles southwest of Whitehorse, on 56 claims held jointly by Quatsino Copper-Gold Mines Limited, New Privateer Mine Limited and Buchanan Mines Ltd.

• February 16, 1967: With 10-year-old Joanne Snyder and 67-year-old Clem Eminger, the Yukon sends the youngest and the oldest participants to the Games.
• February 16, 1967: A.P. Philipsen has been re-elected president of the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce.

• February 23, 1967: The Air Transport Board has approved the licencing of Trans North Turbo Air, a charter helicopter company which will operate out of Whitehorse. General Manager Al Kapty says the company has one Bell 47 G2 helicopter, and will be taking delivery of two other machines in March. The helicopters, which are turbo charged, are high altitude machines and will fly up to 20,000 feet. The cruising speed is 90 miles an hour and the B1 carries a 600 pound load.

• February 27, 1967: Miss Dawson City, Lenore Hakonson, is Rendezvous Sourdough Queen 1967. Sourdough Rendezvous is held from Feb. 23rd to Feb. 26th.

March

• March 9, 1967: The Whitehorse Lions Club suggests naming a mountain in the Arkell (Kusawa) Lake district after General Georges Vanier who died a few days earlier.

• March 13, 1967: Hanna Phelps, wife of W.L. Phelps, died in Vancouver on March 9 at the age of 86. She was predeceased by her husband Willard "Deacon" Phelps in 1951. Their home on Main Street is now the location of Murdoch's Gem Shop.

• March 16, 1967: Victoria Faulkner is presented a life membership by the Yukon Historical Society on March 9.

• March 20, 1967: Cyprus Mines Corporation announces that its 60-percent-owned affiliate Anvil Mining Corporation Ltd. has decided to proceed with production from its lead-zinc-silver orebody in the Vangorda area of the central Yukon.

April

• April 6, 1967: Lynn Lambert of Destruction Bay is the winner of the Yukon Flag contest. The flag becomes the Yukon's official flag and Lambert receives $100 for his design.
• April 6, 1967: White Pass & Yukon Route report that 1966 was the best in the Corporation's history.

• April 20, 1967: Whitehorse City Council orders a new building code because the present requirements are "raising costs to an impossible level".
• April 20, 1967: Territorial council agrees to Anvil's plan to develop a townsite between Ross River and Faro, near the Anvil mining operation area.

• April 24, 1967: Yukon Commissioner James Smith officially opens the new Ross River school on April 20.

May

• May 1, 1967: The new Dawson ferry, the George Black, has arrived in Whitehorse on White Pass & Yukon Route flatcars. Built by Allied Shipbuilders of Vancouver, she was cut into sections for shipment, and will be reassembled at Whitehorse then sailed to Dawson.
• May 1, 1967: Porter Creek residents will have to pay only one third of the cost of a water system to service their 300 lots, if they approve a poll to be taken within the next few weeks. Territorial government has provided nearly $363,000 in its 1967 budget for installation of the water system, of which $212,695 will come out of territorial funds. The remainder, about $150,000 would be recovered from frontage taxation of the 300 Porter Creek lots over a period of years.
• May 1, 1967: Dennis Wiens, 16, son of Charles Wiens of the Sleepy Hollow area, won the 47-mile walk from Carcross to Whitehorse Saturday, covering the distance in ten hours and fifty nine minutes. Over 250 boys, girls and adults started the trek in the dark shortly after 3. a.m. at Carcross.

• May 4, 1967: The first open pit mine in the Yukon, the New Imperial Mines copper mine at Whitehorse, went on three-shift continuous operation on May 1st.
• May 4, 1967: Territorial Council today approved Lynn Lambert's design as official Yukon Flag: Green, white and blue tricolour, with the Yukon coat of arms and floral emblem in the centre panel.
• May 4, 1967: The Montreal World's Fair opened last weekend. The Territorial Pavilion is staffed by six hostesses: Shirley Jensen, of Travel and Publicity staff at Whitehorse, who is in charae of the exhibit, Dorothy Robertson, Linda Kunze, Carol Parkinson, Pat Fitzgerald, and Chrysanthe Tromans.

• May 11, 1967: The Yukon goes on a new double time system as of May 28th. The residents of Haines Junction are now on the same time as Whitehorse. (see also November 24, 1966)
• May 11: The first shipment of copper concentrate leaves the New Imperial copper mine near Whitehorse on May 11.
• May 11, 1967: National Museum scientists uncover the oldest evidence of man yet found in the Canadian north. The discovery of prehistoric bones in the Old Crow river flats indicate early man may have lived in the Yukon as long as 40,000 years ago.

• May 29, 1967: Princess Alexandra and her husband, Hon. Angus Ogilvie, visit Whitehorse on May 28. They planted a new tree at F.H. Collins school and open the new MacBride Museum.

June

• June 5, 1967: The Ferry 'George Black' was launched at Whitehorse on June 3rd. It arrived by road and was assembled for the trip down the Yukon river to Dawson City where it will ferry vehicles across the river including trucks loaded with asbestos from the Clinton Creek Mine.
• June 5, 1967: A government contract is awarded for surveying a route that could mean a highway between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans. The road would lead from east of Dawson City to Fort MacPherson.
• June 5, 1967: Four-year-old Elizabeth Peters of Ross River was saved by an emergency flight in a Great North Cessna 180 after a knife she was holding penetrated her stomach after her brother pushed her.

• June 16, 1967: Company president Arnold Pitt declares New Imperial Mines near Whitehorse officially open.

• June 29, 1967: The Whitehorse Star issues a special edition for the opening of the new City Hall on July 1.
• June 29, 1967: Two companies of the Regiment of the Canadian Guards receive colours representing the Yukon and the Northwest Territories in a ceremony on Parliament Hill on June 26.

July

• July 6, 1967: Pamela Reeves was elected queen of the Haines Strawberry Festival on July 1.
• July 6, 1967: Yukon's well-known big game outfitter, Johnnie Johns is featured in a new booklet written by Dent Baltzell and published by the Rockford Press. It's called "The Alcan Journal" and is 64 pages of pictures, descriptions of the Alaska Highway, poetry, and conversations with Mr. Johns.
• July 6, 1967: In the spring session, Territorial Council turned down a room tax and increased liquor taxes. As result, a long list of projects has now been cancelled, from maintenance of the Old Crow airport to a new seniors' residence in Whitehorse and the proposed Dawson Historic Sites Development program.

• July 20, 1967: Dr. Hilda Hellaby officiated at her first marriage, in Mayo, on July 15. A deaconess in the Anglican Church, licensed to officiate in her parish, she has recently obtained a civil licence which authorizes her to perform marriages.
• July 20, 1967: Three of the Vancouver climbers attempting an assault on Mount Logan were brought out to Kluane base camp Wednesday afternoon by Great Northern Airways pilot Lloyd Ryder without reaching the peak. Jim Craig, leader of the private climbing party, which is not associated with the Yukon Centennial Expedition, reported they had been within 700 feet of the top of the ridge they had chosen, but had run out of time and were forced to return to their high camp. Bad luck had plagued the climb from the beginning.
• July 20, 1967: The new Centennial City Hall complex is in use, but a list of deficiencies in the buildings has been received by council from the architects. Council agreed to hold back the final $ 23,000 payment to the contractor until every detail has been settled.

  

• July 27, 1967: Major Fred E. Williams and Captain Stephen Thornton of the United States Air Force were killed instantly at noon Tuesday [July 25], when their twin engine Canberra B-57 fighter bomber crashed at Whitehorse airport. It was one of a group of 13 jet aircraft which had been travelling from Stewart Air Force Base near New York to the Eielson base near Fairbanks. They were landing at Whitehorse for refueling when the tragedy occurred.
• July 27, 1967: Inspector P.S. Wood of the R.C.M.P. arrived with his family in Whitehorse last evening to take up his duties as Officer Commanding, Yukon Sub-Division. He is 41 years old, is married and has four children. He succeeds Inspector Lew Pantry, who left earlier this summer to become Liaison Officer with the F.B.I. in Washington, D.C.
• July 27, 1967: Twenty one members of the Arctic Institute of North America flew to Whitehorse from Fairbanks today in their Nordair charter plane as they neared completion of their Middle North Tour. They toured New Imperial Mine and tomorrow morning they will see the MacBride Museum and tour the area by bus.

• July 31, 1967: Four Whitehorse men apply to the Board of Broadcast Governors for a broadcast television station licence. The four partners are former Territorial Councillor John Watt, crown prosecutor N.V.K. Wylie, accountant and hotelman Boris Styba and Magistrate William J. Trainor. Whitehorse is one of the cities selected for a CBC-TV station but plans would be abandoned if the privately-owned affiliate is established.
• July 31, 1967: The body of a 33-year-old American was found near Watson Lake Friday evening in a gravel pit one mile west of town. He had been killed by a gunshot wound to his head. An unofficial source said that the man had been travelling with two other Americans, who are now being sought by police.
• July 31, 1967: Ronald Heynen, six-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus Heynen of Riverdale , was revived Friday afternoon after being hauled out from the bottom of the Whitehorse Civic Swimming Pool... but it took the combined efforts of a team of experts, starting with Junior Guard Shannon Thibault, to bring him around.

August

• August 3, 1967: Mabel R. Wernecke, widow of Livingston Wernecke, died on July 22.

• August 21, 1967: The Yukon has its own special day at Expo '67.

September

• September 7, 1967: The Russian ambassador to Canada Ivan F. Shnedko visits Whitehorse.

• September 14, 1967: Yukoners elect a new city council on September 11.

• September 21, 1967: CBC announces that 8 or 10 frontier TV stations are to be established in remote Canadian communities in 1968. The "frontier package" - four hours a day of delayed black and white programming.

• September 28, 1967: N.V.K. (Vic) Wylie, representing a group, appears before the Board of Governors applying for license to install a private T.V. station in Whitehorse. The Board of Broadcast Governors defers private T.V. application, stating it wants another look at CBC plans for Whitehorse TV.

October

• October 9, 1967: City Council decides to install parking meters in Whitehorse. The cost to park at a meter is 5 cents per ½ hour and 10 cents per hour.

• October 12, 1967: The construction of a 300 ton-per-day mill is under way at the silver-gold mine of Arctic Mining and Exploration Ltd. at Carcross.

• October 14, 1967: Jackie Kennedy visits the Yukon Pavillion at Expo '67.
• October 14, 1967: Mayor Howard Firth donates a bronze plaque to the city council.

• October 19, 1967: A new Yukon political party, dedicated to acquiring more autonomy for the territory, is proposed. The party would be made up of members of both Liberal and Progressive Conservative supporters.

• October 26 - November 9, 1967: The Yukon Electrical Company moves its offices to First and Elliott Streets. The building is officially opened on November 7.
• October 26, 1967: The Toronto-Dominion Bank announces it will open a branch in Whitehorse on November 10. Bert Giesbrecht becomes manager.

November

• November 2, 1967: The first haul of asbestos fibre from the new Clinton Creek mine travels down the highway from Dawson City on November 1.

• November 9, 1967: The Yukon Territory's first woman councillor, Joan Gordon, takes her oath of office November 6.

• November 13, 1967: A number of Yukon residents receive Confederation of Canada Centennial medals: Among the recipients are Dr. Hilda Hellaby, Howard Firth, Robert Campbell, Henry H. Marsh, Alan Innes-Taylor, John Parker, James Philip Mulvihill, Harold Marston, H.A. Johnson.
• November 13, 1967: A mountain peak in the McArthur Group of mountains is officially named after the late Ira van Bibber.

• November 30, 1967: Laura Beatrice Berton, mother of Pierre Berton and author, died on November 25.

December

• December 4, 1967: Clyde G. Wann, who came to the Yukon in 1927 and established Yukon Airways, died suddenly in Whitehorse on December 3 at the age of 67. He built several lodges on the Alaska Highway and established a Chrysler Dealership.
• December 4, 1967: Ore from the Anvil Mine near Ross River is going to be shipped through Whitehorse. Transportation plans include a $4 million bulk loading and storage terminal at Skagway, special railroad equipment, 30-40 highway trucks, and a total of 175 new employees.
• December 4, 1967: A good friend of the Yukon Territory, the great American comedian Bert Lahr, died in New York yesterday at the age of 72. He made many friends in the Yukon in 1962 when, at the Dawson City Festival, he starred in the production "Foxy" at the Palace Grand Theatre.

• December 7, 1967: On December 1st, Commissioner James Smith announced that the Yukon now has a flag. It was designed by draughtsman Lynn Lambert of Whitehorse, who won a Royal Canadian Legion Centennial contest with his suggestion.
• December 7, 1967: An agreement for the territorial government to assist in the construction of a townsite near the Anvil Mine has died due to estimated costs of the project tripling.
• December 7, 1967: An overflow crowd of Whitehorse residents attended the premiere showing of the new White Pass film, "Frontier Busters," at the Whitehorse Inn ballroom on November 30th.

• December 14, 1967: We're not going to have an Arctic Games this winter but we are going to have a Polar Games. March 9-10 of 1968 will see some four hundred youngsters from 12 years of age up, competing in what will be known as the First Polar Games. Carrol Keddy came up with the idea of inviting teams of Hi School youngsters be to come into Whitehorse for a series of competitions in basketball, table tennis, volleyball and badminton.

• December 18 - December 23, 1967: Bert Wybrew wins the municipial elections on December 14 and is the new mayor of Whitehorse. However, Duke Collins and R.B. Cousin contest the results of the municipal elections and file a petition.

1968

January

• January 4, 1968: On January 2, Tommy Banks, 14, and Errol Smyth, 16, see a UFO near Grey Mountain while out on their snowcruisers.

  

• January 6, 1968: The Canadian Forces base at Whitehorse will be officially closed on July 1st; official word was received by Squadron Leader B. A. Laurin Friday. A total of 800 people, 10% of the City's population, will be leaving. The Whitehorse Star issued a special edition on January 8.

• January 13, 1968: After renovation, the log skyscraper is being used again. The property was purchased by Paul White and Earl Bennett and one-room appartments with modern conveniences have been installed.

• January 18, 1968: The election of Bert Wybrew as Mayor of Whitehorse are declared void by Mr. Justice John Parker. It was proven that at least two voters were not eligible to cast their ballots (see also December 1967).

• January 20, 1968: Gold rush pioneer Charles Herbert Hamilton died in Calgary at the age of 95.

• January 27, 1968: The White Pass & Yukon Route has applied to lease tidelands at Skagway to develop a freight terminal for the shipment of mineral ores in particular. Included will be a dredge ship basin capable of accommodating vessels of up to 35,000 tons.

February

• February 1, 1968: John Allan MacDonald is appointed Deputy Minister of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

March

• March 4, 1968: G.A. McIntyre, 57, of Whitehorse, has been appointed to the newly created position of Regional Director Of Resources for the Yukon Territory. He will be the senior official of the Resource and Economic Development group of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
• March 4, 1968: Darrall S. Collins and Albert J. Wybrew were the only candidates to file nomination papers by noon today for the oftice of mayor of the City of Whitehorse. Voters will go to the polls on Thursday, March 14, to decide which of the two will guide the destiny of the city for a two-year term, succeeding Mayor Howard Firth.
• March 4, 1968: Bud Fisher, Yukon mascot and principal tourist sales symbol, has headed south to the USA on his annual sales trip which will take him to Seattle, Reno, San Marcos, San Diego, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinatti, Detroit and Chicago. He expects to be on the road nearly three months.

• March 7, 1968: Territorial Council Wednesday supported the recommendation of its Financial Advisory Committee that the new Senior Citizen's Home be located in the Riverdale area, and it is expected that tender calls will be announced soon.
• March 7, 1968: Commissioner James Smith announces that Walter Troberg is named Administrator for Dawson City. The municipal election at Dawson City were declared void by Mr. Justice John Parker in December 1967.
• March 7, 1968: Pilot Doug Moore and passengers Gordon Lennox and Skip Halsey in a Great Northern Airways Beaver escaped injury yesterday afternoon when an attempt to take off from the Livingstone Creek runway ended in disaster.

• March 11, 1968: At the conclusion of the First International Polar Games, a special trophy was given to Miss "Polar Games" Carrol Keddy who originated the idea of the games and worked so hard to make the weekend the success it was. Nine schools from the Yukon, Inuvik, Fairbanks, and Fort St. John were represented.
• March 11, 1968: Commissioner James Smith and owner Bill Sheffield of Alaska cut the ribbon to open the new Travelodge Hotel in Whitehorse. Councillor Norman Chamberlist said he will protest the granting of an interim liquor licence, done following errors in the application.
• March 11, 1968: The day shift at Arctic Mines at Carcross refused to work this morning, and a spokesman said the night shift would not go on duty, until conditions in the cookhouse were improved by the management. About 35 men were involved in the work stoppage.

• March 18, 1968: Bert Wybrew takes the oath of office as Mayor of Whitehorse on March 15. He won the municipal by-elections held on March 14.

April

• April 11, 1968: Retiring Mayor Howard Firth is honoured at the city council. He is the only man in the world who has been mayor of both Dawson City and Whitehorse.

• April 15, 1968: The ferry McQuesten has been brought from Dawson to Whitehorse by truck. It will undergo some modifications and then will be trucked to Ross River for service across the Pelly River.
• April 15, 1968: Norman Chamberlist, Territorial Councillor for Whitehorse East, will appear in court tomorrow to begin his fight against the city's new "mechanical bandits" on behalf of scores of motorists who have been fined for not putting money into parking meters, which he says the city had no legal right to install.
• April 15, 1968: A photo on the front page shows a new Volkswagen being driven into a Great Northern Airways DC-3 for shipment to Inuvik, where it will be used by GNA staff.

• April 25, 1968: Liard Construction of Whitehorse submitted the low bid of $259,600 to rebuild 70 miles of the Canol Road from Ross River settlement at Mile 138 to Sheldon Lake area at Mile 208. Eventually it is hoped to re-open the entire road into Norman Wells. The contract includes operation of the government ferry at Ross River for five months.
• April 25, 1968: With the growth and extension of roads throughout the Yukon Territory, the Engineering department of the Territorial Government was requested by Ottawa to supply numbers to identify the various roads. They still go by the old names locally, but now have numbers as well.
• April 25, 1968: Housing at the former RCAF area of Hillcrest is to be disposed of by July 1st. Included are 75 Steelox buildings and 90 houses. The coming sale is causing a great deal of controversy.

May

• May 6, 1968: Erik Nielsen is nominated as the Yukon Progressive Conservative Party's official candidate on May 4.

• May 9, 1968: The old White Pass Engine No. 51 is moved to a place beside the old MacBride Museum on First Avenue.
• May 9, 1968: Diane and Ed Smith, formerly of Juneau, now making their home in Atlin, have recently purchased the Kootenay Hotel from the Shaws and Roxboroughs. They are doing a thorough job of renovating the building.

• May 16, 1968: Approximately 230 visiting Lions attend a three day convention in Whitehorse.
• May 16, 1968: Prime Minister Trudeau arrives for a visit in Whitehorse on May 11. Read the entire article here.

• May 30, 1968: The 77 foot river boat "Hootalinqua" is transported on wheels through Whitehorse, on its way to Carcross. The sternwheeler is the last of its kind. Built in 1946, the Hootalinqua hauled freight up the river after which she was named.

June

• June 10, 1968: The Ministers of Northern Development and Industry, Arthur Laing and C.M. Drury, issue a bulletin June 7, 1968 according to which all surplus housing units at the Hillcrest subdivision above the Whitehorse airport are to be sold.

• June 13, 1968: White Pass & Yukon Route announce the construction of a second 6000-ton container ship for the Vancouver Skagway service. It is named the M.V. Frank H. Brown.

• June 20, 1968: Mayor Bert Wybrew announces that he would seek approval from Whitehorse City Council for a plebiscite on the parking meter system. Whitehorse City Council decides on October 28 not to hold a plebiscite.

July

• July 4, 1968: "In a lonely spot far up a Yukon mountain valley, six young Japanese Alpine climbers Sunday performed the traditional Buddhist cremation ceremony for the bodied of two companions lost in an avalanche in the St. Elias range three weeks before." Read the entire article here.

• July 8, 1968: The Yukon's newest town is to be called Faro. Territorial Council agreed Friday that the suggestion made by Anvil engineer Robert Thurmond should be accepted, since the Corporation is spending enough money to justify naming the new townsite. Faro is a game of chance, popular during the Klondike Gold Rush, and it is hoped that Anvil holds a winning hand.
• July 8, 1968: Mine development work and concentrator construction in recent months at the Mount Nansen Mines Ltd. silver/gold property located 40 miles west of Carmacks has been progressing on schedule with encouraging results. Peso Silver Mines Ltd. holds 56% of the shares of Mount Nansen Mines Ltd.
• July 8, 1968: The new Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, as announced by Prime Minister Trudeau last weekend, is Jean Jacques Joseph Chretien of Three Rivers, Quebec. He succeeds Arthur Laing in the cabinet post, as Laing moves to the Department of Public Works.

• July 11, 1968: Erik Nielsen is elected Member of Parliament, defeating Chris Findlay in a close race. The Progressive Conservative won with 63-vote majority. Shortly after (July 18), The Liberal party contests the results and asks for a recount. On August 26, Erik Nielsen is sworn in Ottawa as the Yukon's Member of Parliament. The Liberal Party announces to proceed to file a petition to controvert the election results. The petition filed on August 29 cites 99 persons as improperly casting their votes.

• July 22, 1968: Prime Minister Trudeau is on his second visit to the Yukon during the summer 1968.

  

• July 25, 1968: An aerial survey for a railroad to move Yukon's mineral resources to the continental market is announced by the Department of Northern Development. Read the entire article here.
• July 25, 1968: On August 5th, 126 former air force houses at Hillcrest will go up for sale to the public, at prices starting at $12,800. Read the entire article here.
• July 25, 1968: Two U.S. oil companies reported today an Alaskan discovery of what they called one of the largest petroleum accumulations known to the world. The location was reported in the general area of Prudhoe Bay, 390 miles north of Fairbanks and 150 miles southeast of Point Barrow.

• July 29, 1968: V.C Mellor was elected mayor in Dawson City's civic election Friday when he polled 110 votes to his opponent W.L. Hakonson's 86. In the five-way aldermanic race, M.J. Comadina with 135, Henry Dubois with 133 and Cedric Carr with 96 votes were elected.
• July 29, 1968: The Wally Byam caravan is back in Whitehorse, on their way south. There are 123 trailers - 263 travellers from 32 states, and 2 couples from Canada.
• July 29, 1968: Construction has begun on a new Toronto-Dominion bank building at the corner of Second and Main. General Enterprises was the low bidder at $271,000. It is expected to be completed in early January.

August

• August 1, 1968: Jean Chretien is appointed Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in the newly elected Trudeau government.

• August 8, 1968: Arctic Gold & Silver Mines Ltd., located eight miles from Carcross, was officially opened August 10. Jean Chretien, on his visit to the Yukon, participated in the ceremony.

• August 22, 1968: Liard Construction has been awarded a contract for clearing land in the new Anvil Mine townsite of Faro, at a cost of approximately $40,000.00.

September

• September 5, 1968: Site of the Yukon's newest town, Faro, is a busy place these days, as contracts are let for clearing, preparation and construction of the townsite for Anvil Mine near Ross River. The townsite is expected to be ready late next September, and the big base metal operation is also scheduled for production in 1969.
• September 5, 1968: Earl K. McArthur, former manager of the Transport Division for Cassiar Asbestos Corporation and United Keno Hill Mines, leaves the Yukon for a new job in Quebec city.

• September 9, 1968: The historic Bank of Montreal closes its doors in Dawson on September 30 after 70 years of service. Reason is the declining population.

• September 12, 1968: WHTV announces a second black and white television channel on the cable system. The $15 rate remains the same. The CBC Frontier package is also added bringing the total channels available to cable subscribers to three.

• September 19, 1968: J.O. Hutton's announces his resignation as city manager. City council is not sure whether or not to continue this position.

• September 30, 1968: Dr. William Carr and Associates complete an economic study for the Yukon Government that forecasts a Yukon population of 57,000 people by 1985.

October

• October 3, 1968: German president Dr. Eugene Gerstenmaier arrives October 4 for an official visit to the Yukon.

• October 10, 1968: Yukon big game outfitter Alex Van Bibber of Champagne took the territory's first albino moose on October 3. Read the entire article here.

• October 17, 1968: The Porter Creek School is named for Jack Hulland, the former school superintendent, who served in that capacity from 1938 to 1955. He saw the school system grow from 200 students in six schools to 1414 pupils in 15 schools.

• October 21, 1968: Jean Chretien is in the Yukon again, this time to consult with local Indians. Among them Chief Charlie Abel of Old Crow and Chief Frank Sidney of Teslin. There will be sixteen Indian delegates to discuss changes to the Indian Act. Elijah Smith is elected to represent them at future meetings in Ottawa.

• October 24, 1968: Yukon Indians agree to form a new Native Brotherhood. Elijah Smith is the first president. The Brotherhood's goal is to work for equal rights for status and non-status Indians, payment for Indian land, and the teaching of the Indian language and culture.

November

• November 18, 1968: George and Angela Sidney celebrate their (delayed) 50th wedding anniversary.
• November 18, 1968: Another producing mine within 50 miles of Whitehorse seemed a certainty this week as president James M. O'Brien of Venus Mines Limited announced the recommendations contained in a feasibility report. Located at the foot of Montana Mountain on the Windy Arm of Tagish Lake, the mine site is just a mile and a half north of the B.C. border, and is to be connected with Carcross by a 16-mile road which is presently under construction.
• November 18, 1968: The Kootenay Hotel in Atlin, which just re-opened in June after a major renovation, was destroyed by fire. The Goodwin family and 6 guests escaped without injury after being alerted by the Goodwin's husky pup.

• November 21, 1968: Since the new Divorce Act became effective across Canada on July 1, 1968, 27 divorce actions have been started at Whitehorse, compared with an average over the past several years of 18 for the whole year. Most divorce actions in the Yukon are by couples who have been separated between three and five years.
• November 21, 1968: The City of Whitehorse is buying the collection of Yukon acts offered for sale this summer by a long time resident and will pay the $ 11,500 cost out of the parking meter fines collected to date.
• November 21, 1968: Arctic Gold and Silver Mines Ltd., which has suffered from production problems since its mill at Carcross started operation in August, should show a profit of $60,000 to $100,000 in December, shareholders were told Monday by Dr. D. D. Campbell, geological consultant.

December

• December 16, 1968: B.C. Premier Bennett releases the brief his government will present at the federal-provincial constitutional conference. In the proposal B.C. would annex the Yukon and parts of the N.W.T.

• December 30, 1968: CRTC approves Rolf Hougen's application for a commercial radio station.

1969

January

• January 16, 1969: A Yukon landmark, the Dawson Wholesale, burns down.

February

• February 3, 1969: "Zoltan Macko was committed for trial Friday, at the conclusion of a preliminary hearing into a charge of non capital murder. The 30 year old miner from Hungary has been charged in connection with the shooting death of Mehmed Dupobac, also 30, at Arctic Gold and Silver Mine near Carcross on December 10 last year." Read the entire article here.

• February 6, 1969: Al Raine, former manager of the Royal Bank in Elsa, announces engagement to famed Canadian down hill skier, Nancy Greene. Al started skiing at the Calument Club under the tutelage of August Pociwauschek. He then went to Austria for two years and became chief coach of the Canada's national ski team. Haakon Arntzen won the Gordon Taylor ski trophy with Inuvik skiers, Paul Andrew and Ernie Lennie, among the top contenders. Three Old Crow competitors, Shirley Frost, Neta Benjamin and Glenna Frost swept the women's event.

• February 17, 1969: Johnnie Smith is elected Chief on the Whitehorse Indian Band. He is the son of former Chief, Billy Smith.
• February 17, 1969: Helen Horback is elected head of the Yukon Historical Society.

March

• March 3, 1969: Jean Chretien, the federal Minister of Indian Affairs, attends the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous. Pat Daws is elected Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous Queen.

• March 6, 1969: Two RCMP dogteams will set out from Old Crow, most northerly settlement in the Yukon, sometime on Monday, March 10, on the last long patrol. The Force is disposing of all its dogteams this year and at present there are dogs being used at only four northern detachments. Read this article and others about the patrol here.

• March 10, 1969: Harry C.B. Maddison is appointed Judge of the Yukon succeeding John Parker. Maddison is sworn in on March 12.

• March 13, 1969: The second annual Polar Games are opened in Whitehorse March 14.

• March 20, 1969: Whitehorse City Council agrees on a plebiscite about drinking age to be lowered from 21 to 19.

• March 31, 1969: Fire destroys Old Crow's four room school. Kindergarten to grade nine is taught in the school.

April

• April 3, 1969: Part of what is believed to be the most complete collection of photographs taken in and around the actual Klondike gold discovery area has been catalogued in Seattle. Paul E. Tiertje found the 231 glass plate negatives by Kinsey & Kinsey under the family's porch. He is looking for a suitable permanent home for them.
• April 3, 1969: A chapter of the Rotary Club is being organized in Whitehorse, sponsored by the Prince Rupert chapter. Duke S. Collins as President and Everett Ball as Secretary will apply for the club's charter with Rotary International.
• April 3, 1969: The only bid submitted for construction of a business complex at Faro townsite, fom Turret Construction company of Montreal, has been turned down by the Yukon government. No figures were released but a spokesman said other arrangements will now be investigated.

• April 10, 1969: A Northern Conference is held in Whitehorse. Among the guests are former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, Jean Chretien and Gordon Cameron. The Right Honourable John Diefenbaker is guest speaker at the Third Northern Resources Conference in Whitehorse. Jean Chretien, Minister of Northern Development, addresses the 500 delegates at the closing banquet.
• April 10, 1969: White Pass announces its upgrading and expansion program totals $22 Million.
• April 10, 1969: The Savoy Hotel and Masonic Lodge at the corner of First Avenue and Lambert Street is torn down. The building was built in 1900.
• April 21, 1969: P.J. Nielsen, wife of Yukon MP Erik Nielsen, "died suddenly" in Ottawa. Carbon monoxide poisoning is given as the cause of death and later sources talk of suicide.

• April 24, 1969: Rolf Hougen, president of the Klondike Broadcasting Company Ltd., announces CKRW - a new Whitehorse radio station for fall 1969. It is the most northerly radio station in Canada. Plans are also made for a new building on Main Street to house the operation. Al Jensen is the first manager.
• April 24, 1969: A new bus service is introduced in Whitehorse. Husky Transit is operated by Gagnon and Heine of Porter Creek.

May

• May 1, 1969: Rolf Hougen and Associates purchase the Whitehorse Motors division of Northern Commercial Company to become the Ford dealer in Whitehorse. Moe Grant, General Manager, and Bob Parent, Parts Manager, will continue with the new company. The dealership is located at Third and Main Street.
• May 1, 1969: Albert Friesen is named President of the White Pass and Yukon Corporation. Frank Brown remains as Chairman.

• May 5, 1969: Eighteen miles of the Alaska Highway, from Mile 909.2 to Mile 928.5, are going to be rebuilt. Among the changes, the familiar traffic circle which has served local motorists faithfully since 1953 will be removed, as will the "Welcome to Whitehorse" sign. The rotary intersection is no longer considered adequate for handling the increased traffic volume anticipated. Read the entire article here.
• May 5, 1969: Bill Brewster, one of the Yukon's best known big game guides, has donated a 2-week guided hunt as the top prize in a raffle to raise $10,000 to build a hockey rink in Haines Junction.
• May 5, 1969: The Yukon's first official road map, now off the press, has been sent to over 3,000 newspapers, periodicals, radio stations and television stations in North America. In addition, over 18,000 copies of the map went to Auto Clubs and Canadian Government Travel Bureau offices in the United States, and another 9,000 have gone to the Bureau in Ottawa.

• May 8, 1969: After 42 years in Whitehorse, and more than 100 in the north, the Northern Commercial Company Limited announced today that it will close its Whitehorse department store as of this Saturday. Read the entire article here.

• May 12, 1969: Federal officials study the economics of a 1,000 mile resource railway to tap the mineral and forest wealth of northern B.C. and the Yukon.
• May 12, 1969: All Yukon residents, 19 years and up, will be asked to answer this question on Monday, June 23: 'Are you in favour of lowering the legal age for the consumption of alcoholic beverages from 21 years to 19 years of age?' Commissioner James Smith announced the date and terms of the plebiscite this morning. It is believed to be the first time in Canada that underage voters will have had an opportunity to express their opinions on a question which directly affected them. There will be no enumeration of voters, and no voters list compiled for the plebiscite, which will be conducted by Federal Returning Officer Harold J. MacDonald of Whitehorse. Instead, each voter will swear an affidavit that they are of the full age of 19 and they were ordinarily residents in the Yukon Territory on March 20, 1969. This was the date on which Yukon Territorial Council approved the idea of the plebiscite being held.
• May 12, 1969: Zoltan Macko was sentenced today to three years in jail for manslaughter in the shooting death of Melmed Dupobac at Arctic Mine on December 10, 1968. Read the entire article here.

• May 15, 1969: At least half of the staff of 21 employees of the Northern Commercial store has been taken on by Hougen's department store, owner Rolf Hougen said. Hougen's recently bought out the NC stock, about $300,000 worth, after the U.S. company closed its Whitehorse store to concentrate more heavily on the NC Cat operation.

• May 26, 1969: Yukon's first musical festival was a big success. Participating were students from Whitehorse Elementary, Takhini, Christ the King Elementary, F.H. Collins and the Beaver Creek school at Mile 1202 on the Alaska Highway.

• May 29, 1969: 330 Whitehorse citizens file a petition asking to develop Fourth Avenue into the city's second major thoroughfare.

June

• June 2, 1969: Northern Affairs Minister Jean Chretien announces the construction of an airport in Old Crow in 1974/75.

• June 5, 1969: Commissioner James Smith announces that low cost housing will terminate in 1969.

• June 9, 1969: The new-formed Rotary Club of Whitehorse was admitted to Rotary International on April 22nd, and held their charter celebration Saturday evening at The Associates Club.

• June 14, 1969: "Fires Ravage The Yukon - Faro Gone, Maybe Pelly. Record high temperatures and tinder-dry forests are turning the Yukon into a blasting inferno as forest fires sweep uncontrolled through at least 20 individual areas of the territory." Read the entire article here.

• June 16, 1969: On Friday night [June 13], a fire started two and a half miles northwest of Faro, started, it was reported, by lightning. It descended on Faro, racing through the town and there was no saving it. Fifty buildings in various stages of construction were levelled.

• June 19, 1969: Charles Taylor of Taylor and Drury Ltd. today announced plans for expansion of his department store with the purchase of the former Northern Commercial store next door on First Avenue, It coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Taylor and Drury firm. Northern Commercial closed last month after 40 years in Whitehorse.
• June 19, 1969: Fires that threatened Porter Creek and Crestview last Friday and Saturday were still smoldering and posed a very real danger up to today. This crsis has made clear that evacuation plans need to be developed for Yukon communities.
• June 19, 1969: Construction crews should be back at work in Faro tomorrow, one week after the townsite was wiped out by forest fires. The first of a 25-trailer complex will arrive in Faro today and the rest will be coming fast.

• June 23, 1969: B.C. premier Bennett announces that B.C. won't build a Yukon railway until the Yukon becomes part of B.C.

• June 23, 1969: A territory-wide plebiscite on lowering the drinking age got only 23% of the Yukon's 10,000 eligible voters out, but it was approved for the age to be lowered. The new mining camp of Faro was firmly in favor, with a 95 to 26 count.

July

• July 6, 1969: "A convicted user talks about Marijuana." Read the entire article here.

• July 7, 1969: Mount Logan is climbed for the first time from the northeast ridge on June 19.

• July 17, 1969: End of an era - tourism icon Bud Fisher resigns.

• July 28, 1969: Taylor and Drury's garage on First Avenue burned to the ground early Saturday morning. Damage is estimated at $280,000. The company announced plans to rebuild.
• July 28, 1969: Hougen's Limited will open the first store at the new Yukon settlement of Faro this fall. The townsite is being prepared now as residential area for employees of the Anvil Mine. The first branch to be opened by Hougen's, the store will include groceries and general wares in temporary quarters of about 5,000 square feet.
• July 28, 1969: A staking rush in the vicinity of the Casino silver mine has resulted in between 250 and 300 claims being recorded. About 150 were staked by agents of Casino, which just received financing for large-scale development.

August

• August 7, 1969: About 450 students were seeking work in the Yukon this summer. Manpower placed 150 of them, an equal amount found work on their own and the remainder moved on. Thirty students were brought in directly from outside by Manpower to fill the service positions along the Alaska Highway for the tourist season. There was a surplus of young men, but a shortage of young women.

• August 21, 1969: For the first time in Yukon history, French is taught at the elementary school level.

• August 28, 1969: Venus Mines has arranged financing to do further work on the mine near Carcross and plans to build a 300 ton per day mill.
• August 28, 1969: Fabian Salois wins the Dawson city mayorality elections.
• August 28, 1969: Whitehorse City Council approves the proposal to develop north Whiskey Flats into a public park - Rotary Park.

September

• September 2, 1969: The Airport Chalet officially opens as Whitehorse's newest hotel accomodation.

• September 8, 1969: The contract for construction of the Faro Junior Secondary School was awarded Friday to General Enterprises Ltd. of Whitehorse who tendered a bid of $725,245. Completion date for the school is set for June 5, 1970. Yukon Construction Co, Limited of Edmonton was the low bidder on the Dawson Nursing station at $315,647. Completion date is June 12, 1970.

• September 11, 1969: The first load of Anvil concentrates is hauled to Whitehorse, beginning a giant new contract for White Pass and Yukon Route.

• September 22, 1969: A volunteer project which would normally cost about $13,500 was given the city's blessing at Saturday morning's special council meeting. The Whitehorse Rotary Club, planning its park in the soon-to-be-cleared north Whiskey Flats section beside Robert Campbell bridge to Riverdale, has organized a work party for next Sunday which will move 10,000 cubic yards of gravel to level off the low areas in the Flats.

• September 29, 1969: It is announced that Father Mouchet's TEST ski program will be extended.

October

• October 2, 1969: The Whitehorse Rotary Club ran a full-page ad thanking all the people and businesses who had helped on the Earth Moving Project on September 26th, when 10,000 cubic yards of gravel were moved to Rotary Park to level off the low areas.

• October 6, 1969: Earth tremors shake Carcross on October 3 and October 5. Locals are convinced that the tremors are caused by the one megaton explosion under Amchitka Island in the Alaskan Aleutians.
• October 6, 1969: Jean Chretien announces plans to repeal the Indian Act, which would enable Indians to acquire title and control of lands with full and equal participation for the Indian people in cultural, social, economic and political life of Canada.

• October 14, 1969: The new Tourists Services Motor Hotel in Whitehorse will officially open on October 15. Read the full-page article here.

  

• October 16, 1969: Fire destroys the White Pass & Yukon Route railway roundhouse and shops in Skagway on October 15.
• October 16, 1969: A new bridge for Carcross between Lake Bennett and Nares Lake is announced for 1970.

• October 27, 1969: Canadian National Telecommunications moves its Alaska Highway-Yukon District headquarter from Dawson Creek, B.C. to Whitehorse.

• October 30, 1969: There has been slush ice in the Yukon all week, but with the temperatures registering zero for the past two days, the ice is now running bank to bank. The "George Black" ferry has been hauled up on the bank and beached for the winter, with the old small ferry "Campbell" still in the water. With a small boat Dick Stevenson has been taking passengers across. Asbestos fibre from the Clinton Mine is being handled by the Skyline.

November

• November 13, 1969: During his visit in the Yukon, Northern Affairs Minister Jean Chretien presents plaque to Victoria Faulkner and Mrs. Tom Retallack for their generous contribution to the preservation and enrichment of Canada's historical heritage.
• November 13, 1969: Breathalyzers are for the first time used in the Yukon.

• November 20, 1969: The House of Commons dedicates an entire day - November 21 - to debate constitutional reform for the Yukon Territory.
• November 20, 1969: The new Whitehorse Motors facilities on Fourth Avenue, between Black and Wheeler Streets officially opened on November 21. The Whitehorse Star issued a special edition.

• November 27, 1969: Not only did Rolf Hougen open the néw premises of Whitehorse Motors last week, and his new CKRW, and move WHTV into the new Howeve Building on Second, but the local businessman made it a hat trick by opening the store at Faro townsite all in the same week. Dave Steele is the manager out at the Anvil branch and reports a brisk trade of hi-fi sound equipment and motor toboggans out there already.

December

• December 1, 1969: Mayor A.J. Wybrew is declared elected by acclamation since no other candidates were nominated.
• December 1, 1969: Northern Affairs Minister Jean Chretien again rejects provincial status for the territories, on November 28th.

• December 4, 1969: The Delicatessen Center (aka The Deli) at 203 Hanson opens on December 10th.

• December 8, 1969: The first concentrate from Anvil's lead-zine-silver mine was poured into the hold of the freighter "Helindas" at Skagway this weekend, for shipment to Mitsui Mining and Smelting Company at Yokohama and Miike in Japan. Ore is now being received at a rate of 500 tons per day.

• December 11, 1969: Jim Murdoch is appointed the manager for the 1970 Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous Festival.
• December 11, 1969: Watson Lake residents vote on December 8 against the incorporation of Watson Lake as a village.

• December 15, 1969: Four Yukoners who have lived the required 20 years in the territory become members of the Yukon Order of Pioneers: Barry O'Neill, Massa Sakata, Al Prince, and John Backe.
• December 15, 1969: Four Yukon artists are featured in an exhibition and sale being held at the Whitehorse Public Library; they are Ted Harrison, Erika Nowlan, Alice Patnode, and Bill Sinclair.

• December 22, 1969: Taylor and Drury Motors become Taylor Chevrolet Oldsmobile Ltd.

• December 29, 1969: Deaconess Hilda Hellaby celebrates 50 years of service.

Continue to January 1970