This brochure was produced with the help of
Mayo residents, past and present. We are anxious to
hear from you if you have additional information or
corrections regarding the information presented
here. Please contact YTG Cultural Sevices Branch at
(867)667-3458.
A history of Mayo is contained in Gold &
Galena, published by the Mayo Historical Society in
1990 and available at the Binet House.
The Binet House in Mayo has displays on the
history and geography of the Mayo area. It is also the
site of the Mayo Area Veteran’s Monument, the
Pioneer Gardens and the trailhead for the Prince of
Wales Trail.
Binet House
Phone: (867) 996-2926
Email: [email protected]
Mayo
A Brief History
28
The town of Mayo is named after Alfred Henry
Mayo, a riverboat captain and prospector who
established himself in the Yukon as a trader by 1875
and operated a post at the mouth of the Stewart
River in 1886. Al Mayo and his First Nations wife,
Margaret, spent many years in the area. Mayo knew
the difficult to navigate Stewart River very well.
Alex Nicol, one of the first to stampede from
Dawson City to the Duncan Creek gold strike, built
a cabin at the confluence of the Mayo and Stewart
rivers even before the townsite was surveyed in
1903. Mayo Landing was a convenient dock for the
river boats bringing supplies to the regional mines.
1
Yukon Archives, Sam Wood Coll. #6252
Louis Bouvette’s discovery of silver on Keno Hill in
1919 started an economic boom for the Mayo area
that lasted almost twenty years. Many public
buildings and warehouses were built during this era.
Bags of silver-lead ore were brought down from the
mines and stockpiled at present-day Galena Park for
shipment on the White Pass & Yukon Route
riverboats. A second silver boom occurred after
World War II and wealth generated from it
supported the Yukon economy for almost thirty
years. Shallow water in the Stewart River caused a
yearly problem for the sternwheelers and after 1950,
when a road was completed from Mayo to
Whitehorse, the ore was transported by truck.
“Mayo Landing” was shortened to Mayo in 1958.
Citizens of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun
lived at the mouth of the Mayo River from 1904 to
1915. When curfews and restrictions on First
Nations citizens became common in the Yukon, a
new village site was chosen downstream and across
the river. Julius Kendi, a First Nation’s Anglican
minister, worked hard to separate his congregation
from the vices of modern civilization. In 1915, logs
were brought to what is now called the Old Village
and a community was built around Kendi’s school
and mission. The Na-Cho Nyäk Dun moved back to
Mayo in 1958 and the school and mission closed.
2
Prince of Wales Trail
Prince Charles opened the Prince of Wales Trail in
2001. The trail follows the dike along the Stewart
River and then turns up the Mayo River to end at the
Silver Trail Highway north of town. Of historical
interest along the trail is a crane used to unload
equipment onto the shore at Galena Park. Inquire at
the Binet House for more information on the Trans
Canada Trail.
27
39) Clifton House
Eddie Kimbel built this house for Joe and
Margaret Clifton in the early 1920s when Joe came
to Mayo to work at the Taylor and Drury store. This
may have been the first house in Mayo with running
water. Ed and Flora Bleiler lived here in the 1940s
just after they started to mine on Highet Creek with
Flora’s father. In 1949, Ed started a trucking business
but he returned to mining in the mid-1950s and the
family has continued to mine successfully on the
Highet Creek property for 100 years. The Bleilers
sold the house to Cliff and Maureen Greig in 1955.
26
1) Binet House
Gene Binet climbed the Chilkoot Pass in 1895. He
lived in several gold rush towns in the Yukon and
Alaska before arriving in the Klondike in late
December 1896. In 1902, Binet heard rumours of
plans for the Mayo Landing townsite and after the
site was surveyed, bought lots for his hotel and
homestead. He had the walls and roof of the log
Binet Bros. Hotel erected before the spring melt in
1903. Binet grew potatoes in commercial quantities,
kept a cow, chickens and several pigs and stocked a
new store addition with local produce. In 1922,
Binet hired a carpenter, John McDonald, to build
this house for his new bride, Jewel. Jewel and their
son lived in California during the winter months
after 1932 and in 1938 Binet retired and moved to
join his family. The Binet House was renovated in
1990 and is open during the summer as a Visitor
Reception Centre and museum.
3
2) RCMP Commanding Officer’s
Residence
This house was built for the commanding officer
of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment
in 1922. The building came to be known as Sgt.
Dempster’s house as he commanded the Mayo
detachment from 1922 to 1932. In 1937, the
Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire
(IODE) purchased the building and converted it to a
meeting hall and library. Other organizations rented
it for teas and bake sales as it had a kitchen and
could seat about 50 people at card tables. In 195354, the building became a temporary classroom for
grades four to six after the school burned. The
building was eventually sold and moved to its
present location where Ed McCrae added the metal
Quanset hut and used it as a store. Sgt. Dempster
would never recognize his house today.
37) Mabel McIntyre’s Cabin.
Dick Gillespie
moved from the
Gold
Commissioner’s
office in Dawson
City in 1921 to
become the first
Mining Recorder in Mayo. Sam Blackmore built this
log cabin for Gillespie and it was used as the Mining
Recorder’s office until 1933. In that year, Blackmore
built a frame addition for the office and moved into
the cabin himself. Mabel McIntyre inherited it upon
his death in 1946. Mabel was the Mayo postmistress
from 1942 until her retirement in 1972. The Village
of Mayo is restoring this cabin.
38) Matheny House
3) Taylor & Drury Warehouse
Isaac Taylor
and William
Drury met each
other during
the stampede
to the Klondike
in 1898. They
started a
trading business in Atlin but soon moved to Bennett
and, after the railway was completed, Whitehorse.
From the main store in Whitehorse, the Taylor &
Drury chain of stores and trading posts spread over
the Yukon. A store and warehouses were built in
1921 to supply Mayo and the surrounding mining
camps.
4
Thomas Collins built this house in the 1920s and
for many years, it was the only house in Mayo with
hardwood floors. Charlie Matheny, a miner in the
Fortymile District in 1909, purchased it sometime
before 1923. Louis Brown lived here in the 1940s
with Effie, his first wife. He came from Edmonton in
the 1920s and worked for YCGC as a teamster.
Brown was a successful prospector and he and his
second wife, Dolores, operated a big game outfitting
business that employed many of the best First
Nation guides from the area. Dorothy Allan and her
family lived in the house in the 1960s. Mrs. Allan
worked as a secretary at the Mayo Hospital for
seventeen years.
25
35) Van Bibber House
Yukon born Pat
Van Bibber came to
Mayo as the road
foreman in the
employ of United
Keno Hill Mines. In
1957, the Yukon
Government took
over maintenance of the Mayo Road and Van Bibber
was the YTG road foreman until his retirement in
1987. He moved this house from Bear Creek, near
Dawson City, after the Yukon Consolidated Gold
Corp. (YCGC) closed in the mid-1960s. The family
rented the Binet House and lived there during the
winter of 1969 while Pat was cleaning up the
property for his new house.
36) Burian House
This house
was built in
the early
1960s by
“Renny”
Burian and
his son
Harvey, of
squared 6” x 6” timber cut near Stewart Crossing
and milled at Harry and John Ewing’s sawmill. It was
originally heated by a converted gasoline drum
wood-furnace. The garage was built using lumber
from the abandoned steam pipe boxes at Elsa. Renny
came into the Yukon in 1936 and operated several
wood camps, along the upper Stewart River,
supplying wood to the sternwheelers. He later
owned a garage in Mayo and worked for United
Keno Hill Mines as a mechanic. Renny married Mary
Yoshida in 1943 and they moved to Whitehorse in
1977. Emery and Eileen Shilleto bought the house
and added the front porch.
24
4) Andison House
This house is built out of two sections of
bunkhouse from the hydro dam project that
occurred in 1950. These sections were moved to
town, put together, and became the home of George
and Christina Andison. John Klassen bought the
house and sold it to Toby Anderson, a Resource
Management officer and a pack rat in the best Yukon
tradition. Anderson worked in Elsa in 1950 but soon
bought a truck to haul wood. He was the fire boss
for the area until he retired in the 1980s and sold the
house to Beverly Blanchard.
5) “Spot Cash” Breaden’s Cabin
Jim “Spot Cash” Breaden built this cabin in 1929
and the family lived there for many years. Breaden
and Ernie Somerton were drivers, from 1923 to
1928, of the Model T Ford winter stagecoach from
Whitehorse to Dawson City. “The Spot Cash Kid”
earned his name when he was running a jitney taxi
out of Dawson City. He demanded money up front
after not being able to collect his fare one too many
times. Breaden worked as a mechanic during his
years in Mayo.
5
6) Ministry of Transport Office
This house was the old Ministry of Transport
Office, built in 1956. It was originally located on
Second Ave. between Congdon and Centre streets.
Alan McDiarmid purchased the office building and
subsequently sold it to Barry and Marcia Macdonald.
The MacDonalds moved the building to its present
location and rehabilitated it as a residence.
7) Revival Hall
33) George Besner’s “New” House
George Besner used material from the old Mayo
hospital to build this house in the late 1950s. The
stone fireplace was constructed with quartz rocks
hauled from the Klondike area. George arrived in
Mayo when he was 15 and two years later was
working for Treadwell Yukon. Over the years he was
a mucker, driller, timberman and a hoist operator in
the mines. The house has changed hands a number
of times over the years. Earl Graham lived there for a
short time and the Coopers were married in the
house.
34) Jurovich House
The Revival Hall was the scene of many powerful
religious meetings in the mid-1960s. It became a
meeting hall and, in the 1970s, briefly served as a
school for First Nation children.
6
Danny Jurovich owned the grocery store in Mayo
for many years. He moved this house from Bear
Creek, near Dawson City, when Yukon Consolidated
Gold Corp. closed in the 1960s.
23
31) Karkotka House
Mike Karkotka was originally from Poland and he
came to the area to work at Elsa. He was primarily a
miner but was known as a good barber and a not-so
successful gambler. Karkotka built this house with
wood he salvaged from Elsa. He started out with a
little “shack”. Mike and Ida Peter, Lucy Peter’s
daughter, lived here for many years and the house
expanded as the children arrived.
32) John Olin House
8) Treadwell Yukon’s Warehouse
The Treadwell Yukon mining company was
formed in 1921 and closed in 1941 after the death of
the General Superintendent, Livingstone Wernecke.
This structure was built and owned by Treadwell
Yukon and used as a storehouse. It was sold in1949
and became the Yukon Government Highway
Maintenance garage during the 1950s.
9) Taylor & Drury Store
John Olin built this house south of the site of the
old hospital near the Mayo River. Olin was a
woodcutter and he met his wife, Ellen (Jermie)
Germaine, when she was visiting the Mervyns. The
Jermies were originally from Fort Good Hope in the
Northwest Territories and moved to Lansing and the
Rakla River area where they trapped. Ellen was a
polio victim and was the first person to use the iron
lung now on display at the Binet House.
22
Two of Isaac Taylor’s sons were involved with
Taylor & Drury’s Mayo store. Charlie Taylor took
over from his older brother Bill in 1932. Charlie met
and married Betty Maclennan in 1936 and they
remained in Mayo until 1942, when Charlie was
called back to the Whitehorse operation. Earl
Graham’s family bought the T & D store in 1970.
7
10) N. C. Co Warehouse
29) Hoyne House
This building
was owned by P.
Burns & Co. in
the 1920s. Pat
Burns was a
Calgary
businessman
who capitalized
on the Klondike Gold Rush by driving cattle to the
Yukon. P. Burns & Co and the Pacific Cold Storage
Co., formerly the Alaska Meat Company, were two of
the major players in the Yukon meat business from
1900. The building was taken over by The Northern
Commercial Co. Ltd., established in Mayo in 1921,
and they operated a general store until 1969 when
the business was sold to Dan Jurovich.
Martin “Joe” Hoyne, a
local prospector, built
this log cabin in 1922
and lived here for around
20 years. The original
flattened gas cans, used
as roofing material, are
still in place. Phoebe and
George Reynolds bought the cabin in the 1940s.
Phoebe ran the Red Cross Centre from her home in
Mayo. She had been decorated for her contribution
to nursing during WWII. The Anglican Deaconess
Dr. Hilda Hellaby lived here briefly while she was
teaching in the Old Village, and she routinely walked
the two miles back and forth to the school. The
cabin was renovated in the 1970s and the interior
canvas-covered partitions were removed. A porch
and a loft were added and electricity installed.
11) Royal Bank Building
Gene Binet
contracted James
Mervyn to
construct this
building in 1937
with rough lumber
from local
sawmills and
imported doors and windows. It was immediately
rented to the Bank of Montreal. The bank office, in
the front part on the main floor, had an L-shaped
counter and a desk each for the teller and the
manager. There was also a separate vault on the
main floor. The basement held a furnace to heat the
office and the living quarters on the main and
second floor. During the grand opening the manager,
A. T. Hall, and accountant, C. W. Harrison, handed
out cigars for the men and chocolates for the lady
customers. There was no bank in Mayo in 1945 but
the Royal Bank took over the building in 1947 for
three or four years before the branch moved to Elsa.
8
30) Anglican Rectory
This house was
built in the 1920s
and was originally
the Anglican
Church Rectory. It
was located next
to the Anglican
Church until Harry Ewing moved it to the present
location in 1976. Ewing came to the Yukon with the
Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Corps. of Signals
and he retired with a high rank. Harry was posted in
Dawson City where he met his first wife, Elizabeth
Grant, a niece of Robert Henderson who was famous
for his role in discovering gold in the Klondike.
Harry was posted to the south but the family
returned to the Yukon in 1942 and he ran the
weather station until 1947. It was Harry who
registered Mayo’s lowest temperature reading of
-62Cº (-80Fº) in 1947.
21
27) Old School/Masonic Hall
Before
this
building
was
constructed,
the Mayo
Landing
school was
in a cabin
rented from Frank Cantin. Cantin built this building
as a school in 1941 and there were students here
until 1959. Mrs. Alice Carthum taught the first class.
In the 1960s, the building became a Masonic
Temple for the many Freemasons who worked in
the mines. The Mayo Chapter of the Masonic Lodge
closed with the mine.
28) McCoomb House
12) Legion Building
Alex Nicol started to construct this building to
rent to the Bank of Montreal in 1936-37. It was
unoccupied and unfinished until around 1950,
when the Yukon Government rented it as a liquor
store. In later years, the Canadian Legion held their
meetings here as there were many veterans living in
the area. The cribbage board sign dates from the
building’s use as a store, run by Thordis Djukastein,
and it has also been used as a classroom and library.
Sawdust boxes around the bottom of the building
helped to keep the floor warm and these boxes are
covered with flattened kerosene cans, handy when
building materials were expensive and hard to come
by. Both features are common Yukon practices.
13) May Fairclough’s House
Bill and Florence McCoomb arrived in the Yukon
in 1946, the second trip north for Bill. He built a
paddlewheel house boat and they prospected the
Teslin, Little Salmon and Stewart rivers. In 1948
they leased claims on Ledge Creek, near Mayo, and
were quite successful at finding gold. They moved
into town in 1951 and lived in a log house near the
road. Mr. and Mrs. McCoomb were long-time
custodians at the Mayo School. After Bill McCoomb’s
death, Earl Graham built this house for Florence at
the back of her log house which was then torn
down. Florence McCoomb outlived her husband by
almost 20 years and she continued to live here until
her death in 1989.
20
This house was originally built for Isabel Kimbel.
May Fairclough, the daughter of Ira and Eliza Van
Bibber, retired to live here in 1969. May and George
Fairclough owned and operated Pelly Farm from
1927 to 1940. George also operated a freight boat on
the Pelly River and was also in the wood cutting
business.
9
14) St. Mark’s with St. Mary’s
Anglican Church
25) Letourneau House
Gideon
Letourneau was
working as a
carpenter when he
built this house for
his family in the
1920s. Among the
many families that
lived here were:
Evelyn and Gordon
Lee, Chuck and
Florence Beaumont, Ed and Jean Kunze and the
Grahams. Vicki Graham operated the Canadian
National Telephone and Telegraph switchboard.
26) Christ the King Church
St. Mary’s Anglican Church was built in 1922 and
Reverend F. H. Buck conducted the first service on
October 15 of that year. The church was constructed
soon after some important silver strikes were made
in the area and has been continuously occupied
since that date. During the 1936 flood, the church
was one of the few buildings to remain above the
high water mark. When St. Mark’s parishioners
moved from the Old Village to Mayo, the church
changed its name to reflect the new combined
congregation. A stained glass window is dedicated to
Rev. G.W.N. Wareham and Richard Martin, a Tetlit
Gwich’in Deacon who served the Mayo region for
many years.
10
This building was
originally constructed
in 1902 at Grand
Forks, near Dawson
City, to serve as St.
Patrick’s Church. In
1922 it was dismantled,
transported by barge
up the Yukon and
Stewart rivers to Mayo,
and rebuilt at its
present site. Although
Bishop Bonoz
celebrated the first mass in the newly reconstructed
building in 1923 it wasn’t until the early 30’s that
Father Monet became the first resident priest. From
1948, when Father Henk Huijbers came to Mayo,
until 1992, with the exception of a few years when
he served in other parishes, Father Huijbers and
others renovated the structure to its present beauty
and attached a spacious and comfortable residence.
Sister Angela Shea became the Parish Administrator
and Pastoral Worker in 1992.
19
23) Jean Boyle House
15) Besner House
Frank Cantin built the original portion of this
house in the 1950s, reusing logs from another
building. Frank and his cousins Joe, Phileas and
Louis Cantin were successful miners at the
confluence of Dublin Gulch and Haggart Creek. The
book keeper and the clerk for WP&YR stayed here
before Jean Boyle, who lived in the house for many
years. Jean came north to Keno to visit her uncle,
Louis Bouvette. She lived in Mayo almost
continuously from the 1930s, until 1980 when she
moved to Whitehorse. Dan Sabo owned the house
after Jean, and he built the addition on one side.
Veteran tinsmith Guy S. Churchward and his sonin-law George Besner built this house for George and
his family in 1928. Guy Churchward operated the
first tin shop in Dawson City in 1898 and moved to
Mayo in 1921. The standing seam roof was
commonly used in Dawson in the early 1900s.
Besner added an addition on the side of the house
for Churchward who lived there in the 1950s.
16) Alex Nicol’s Outbuildings
24) Old High School
This frame
structure has
been sold
and moved
many times.
It was built
by Sam
Blackmore in
1933, and
was originally located next to Mabel McIntyre’s
cabin. It was used as a Mining Recorder’s Office from
1933-1942. In 1948, it was moved to 6th Ave, rented
as a high school classroom and indoor plumbing
was installed. Ruth Batty was the principal of the
school and her sister, Margaret, taught the juniors.
The classroom became an annex to Ruth’s Novelty
shop and is now used as a storage shed.
18
Alex Nicol came over the Chilkoot Pass in 1898
when he was 18 years old. He was one of the first
prospectors to stampede to Duncan Creek, in the
Mayo area, in 1902. He staked a claim and built a
cabin but did not have much success finding gold.
Nicol was a pioneer of Mayo Landing, building the
first house on the townsite in 1903. From 19101915, he freighted mining supplies to the creeks and
in 1913 hauled ore from the Silver King mine. In
1922, Nicol and the Cantin Brothers ran a freighting
company in Mayo. Nicol was one of the early stakers
in the Keno Hill discovery, and bought and sold
various claims on Keno Hill until his death in 1965.
11
17) Churchward’s Tinshop
Guy Churchward bought the old Broadway Hotel
in Klondike City, near Dawson City, and shipped the
lumber to Mayo for Churchward’s Tinshop in 192122. The shed roof is covered with the original metal
roofing constructed by Churchward. The
Churchward family lived upstairs in an apartment
until the 1950s. Bert Klippert bought the shop to use
as a garage and then, in the 1970s, sold it to Bob
Adair who ran a garage and tire shop.
12
Yukon Archives, William S. Hare Coll. Vol. 1. #6689
21) Fisher House
Bud Fisher
arrived in
Mayo with his
family in 1930.
Bud’s business,
Fisher Service
Company,
acquired
transportation
and service contracts on the Mayo, Keno and Galena
Hill roads. He delivered most of the timber used in
the mines and had a fleet of 18 vehicles. Fisher built
this house in 1931 with help from Hugh Monohan
and lumber from Kimbel’s sawmill. It was built in
three stages. Oliver Hutton acquired the property in
1963 and he sold it to Con and Ina-Mae Klippert.
22) Rose Zeniuk’s House
Sam Mason-Wood came to the Yukon in the
1920s and drove a cat for T.C. Richards mail, freight
and passenger business. He met Rose Turgeon, who
was born and raised in Mayo, on one of his trips.
Rose and Sam were married in Mayo and raised a
family of three. Sam Mason-Wood was a Mining
Recorder, Liquor Vendor, Territorial Agent, Justice of
the Peace and Coroner. After Sam died, Rose married
Bill Zenuik. Rose was one of the first members of the
Mayo Curling Club and actively participated in the
IODE. The house has been extensively renovated.
17
19) Kimbel House
Eddie Kimbel and
his brother Carl
came to Mayo in
1920 to build a
dredge at Highet
Creek for the
Highet Dredging
Co. Eddie was a
skilled boat builder
and carpenter. Eddie, Carl and half-brother Dick
operated the Kimbel Bros. Sawmill in Mayo in the
1920s and Eddie managed the mill until the 1950s
when he sold it to United Keno Hill Mines Ltd.
Maisie and Raydor “Raider” Morberg lived in the
house for a time. Raider came from Saskatchewan
during the 1930s to work in the Kimbel Bros.
Sawmill and married a local girl, Maisie Profeit.
20) Swede Hanson Residence
Peter
“Swede”
Hanson
came to
the Mayo
region in
1946.
Hanson
had been in England during the war and wanted to
make enough money to return but instead stayed in
the Yukon for 40 years. The money was good, but
the Yukon won over travel. When Swede started
work at Calumet, a local mine, miners were making
$1.20 an hour and were charged $1.25 a day for
food. The jobs Swede held over the years included
work at Kimbel’s sawmill, deckhand on the steamer
Keno, managing a local inn, Town Foreman, bus
driver, politician and prospector.
16
18) Old RCMP Residence/Lockup
Jim Mervyn stampeded to Dawson too late to
stake a good claim and, although he staked a claim
in the Mayo region in 1902, it was not rich ground.
He became a successful trapper instead and bought
Lansing Post in 1912. He married Julia, originally
from Fort Good Hope in the NWT, and they had
eleven children. Lansing was flooded in 1936 and
the family moved to this house in Mayo so that the
children could go to school. After the Mervyns
moved out, Corporal Ivor Mast and his family lived
here from 1945 to 1949 and Mast’s wife, Martha,
bought the house from the Mervyns and rented it to
the RCMP as a residence, office and lockup. The jail
was a small room off the kitchen. Ivor added a porch
and a separate door into the office.
13
Mayo Historical Buildings
1 Binet House
11 Royal Bank Building
2 RCMP Commanding
Officer’s Residence
12 Legion Building
3 Taylor & Drury
Warehouse
4 Andison House
5 “Spot Cash” Breaden’s
Cabin
6 Minister of Transport
Office
7 Revival Hall
13 May Fairclough’s House
14 St. Mark’s with St. Mary’s
Anglican Church
15 Besner House
16 Alex Nicol’s Outbuildings
17 Churchward’s Tinshop
18 Old RCMP Residence/
Lockup
8 Treadwell Yukon’s
Warehouse
19 Kimbel House
9 Taylor & Drury Store
21 Fisher House
10 N.C. Co Warehouse
20 Swede Hanson Residence
22 Rose Zeniuk’s House
23 Jean Boyle House
24 Old High School
25 Letourneau House
26 Christ the King Church
27 Old School/Masonic Hall
28 McCoomb House
29 Hoyne House
30 Anglican Rectory
31 Karkotka House
32 John Olin House
33 George Besner’s “New”
House
34 Jurovich House
35 Van Bibber House
36 Burian House
37 Mable McIntyre’s Cabin
38 Matheny House
39 Clifton House
14
15