VANCOUVER YUKONER'S ASSOCIATION

 

I am always amazed and thrilled when folks talk about their family's involvement with sled dogs. There are a large number of people in British Columbia who have prairie roots (myself included). These people tell family stories of travelling to school as a young child with one or two farm dogs pulling them on a sleigh or of a family member hauling fish from a prairie lake in the middle of winter during the depression, using four or five dogs and a toboggan. You can imgagine how excited I was when long-time aquaintance and Quesnel resident Betsy Van Halderen said that she had a photo of a fellow mushing dogs in Alaska as well as her grandmother's northern scrapbook. I was even more excited when Betsy arranged for me to see these items.


It turns out that the photo was of a mail carrier in Alaska, and the large photo is dated 1917, Valdez Alaska, a beautiful 9 dog team pulling a large basket sled. The inscription on the photo states that it had been given to Betsy's grandfather, Bert Parker. A little research taught me that indeed Valdez was a jumping off point for the delivery of dog team mail to Nome via Fairbanks, after about 1910.


The scrapbook is a real work of love...it is a classic! Bert Parker married Helen Scott in 1918 in Vancouver. Helen had travelled to Dawson City in 1916 (where her mother was living), from Winnipeg. This was the height of WWI and Helen's intention was to visit with her mother before joining the army. She never did go to war, once in Dawson City, Helen began working as a secretary for Joe Boyle, before moving to Vancouver to get married.


Helen Parker's scrapbook covers a period of time from the mid 1920's with the last entry dated 1975....the bulk of the entries focus on the 1930's. This was a time when there were hundreds of Sourdoughs, people who had been part of the Dawson City gold mining scene, now living throughout Alaska, British Columbia and the states of Oregon, Washington and California. Some of these pioners had been in the Klondike as early as the 1870's, some had been part of the 1897/98 Klondike Stampede, many entered the Klondike in the first decade of the 20th century. I had never really thought about just what happened to Klondike pioneers once they left the gold fields, this scrap book tells a big part of the story. Once thing was for certain, they all retained a vital interest in that part of their lives that was spent in the Klondike. It is clear that the friendships that were made in the north became life-long friendships.


Helen Parker became secretary of a group known as the Vancouver Yukoners, a position she filled for many years. This was before the internet, and Betsy talks about her memories of helping her grandmother stuff envelopes and licking stamps as part of the huge task of maintaining correspondence with hundreds of Yukon pioneers. The Vancouver group was one of many similar groups of northern pioneers that existed in cities throughout the Pacific Northwest. On a regular basis these groups would come together at what was known as the International Sourdough Reunion. The 26th such reunion took place in 1957 in Seattle and if this was an annual event, then the first such reunion would have taken place in 1931. There is mention in the scrapbook of a 1974 reunion.


It is hard not to feel some sadness when flipping through the pages of the scrapbook, realizing that now all of these people are gone. One undated newspaper clipping shows two folks looking at a photo of the famous Old Log Church of the Yukon (Whitehorse). Jessie Frances McLennan, the first child baptized in the church is discussing the photo with none other than Leonhard Seppala "noted dog-team driver and winner of numerous northland trophies". In another photo, Seppala is seated with three other fellows and the caption reads "four old-timers who spent their early years in Alaska and the Yukon swap stories at the Alaska-Yukon Pioneers picnic in Woodland Park (Seattle). In addition to Seppala, Dr. Kristian Falkenberg, Andy Nylen and Nathan (Yukon Kid) Kresge are identified.


I have to quote from an ad for the "Moose Meat Banquet and Ball...look what we've planned for your pleasure...Fresh Moose Meat from the Yukon Wilds, "Yukon Candy" (smoked King Salmon strips), Ice Worm Cocktails (right from Taku Glacier), Klonkike Dome-Hill Cranberry Pie! O Boy! and Plenty of Happy Shufflin' in the Big Dance. Admission: Just pinch $1.50 out of the old poke and mush out to our Cabin. We'll be looking' for you!"