Yukon who is who

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Andy Anderson

Andy Ander was a trapper who worked as a cook at the Holbrook mining camp in the 1930s. The Sixtymile dredge was leased to the Holbrook Dredging Co. [In 1938]. Andy Anderson and Elmer Wilson decided to stay in the country and trap after the dredge shut down in the fall. They wanted to get their supplies delivered to Twelve Mile Creek, about sixteen miles away where Andy had a cabin. He had trapped there the previous season. Gordon, Ray Stewart's son, took the tractor and one sleigh and the tractor broke through the ice. Gordon was wet to the chest and started a fire to dry out. Bill Long, who went along for the ride, was fairly dry and he was sent back about ten miles to the Holbrook camp for help getting the tractor out. The others got dry by using diesel oil over boughs to start a fire and standing on the boughs to take off part of their clothing. The temperature was minus 20. Andy Anderson decided to continue on to the cabin and put on some coffee for the rescue party and Elmer later decided to follow him. Gordon did not have much wood available and so he rolled up in his sleeping bag to keep warm. The Holbrook crew arrived about 2 am and pulled the tractor out and decided to take the supplies on to the cabin. Their big tractor broke through and so did the small one and they gave up and headed back to the Holbrook camp with all three tractors.((Don Stewart, //Sourdough Ray.// Coos Bay, Oregon: Gorst Publications, 1983.))

The crew started to Dawson the next day to take the men back to town and Gordon drove his tractor back to Miller Creek. They were not worried about Andy and Elmer because they had the cabin and some food. The next day, a Russian named Harry Sogoff came to the camp and told Gordon that he had found both men frozen. Andy had gotten into the water again and Elmer had also by following his tracks. Andy was found about fifty yards from the cabin sitting against a tree with his arms folded. A half mile further away from the cabin, Sogoff found Elmer leaning against a bank. Gordon phoned the RCMP and then, with Jack Nicholson and Jimmy Payette to help him, took his tractor over the high ground to pick up the bodies. They took them to Glacier Creek where Joe Myers ran a small camp and post office. The Holbrook crew were notified and changed directions to pick up the bodies and take them to Dawson. Andy was their cook and Elmer was a good friend of all of them.((Don Stewart, //Sourdough Ray.// Coos Bay, Oregon: Gorst Publications, 1983.))