Yukon who is who

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Antoine “Tony” Cyr (1871 – 1946)
	
Brothers Tony and Mike Cyr came to the Yukon during the gold rush from Bangor, Maine.((“Antoine Cyr passed away at his home here Wednesday morning.” //The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 12 July 1946.)) They stopped at Whitehorse and worked as pilots at the Whitehorse Rapids and built a cabin at the site of the Whitehorse hydro dam. They stampeded to the Shakwak Valley and prospected on Marshall Creek, named after one of their group. After the Klondike gold rush, Tony ran a wood and water delivery service in Whitehorse.((//Empreinte: La Presence francophone au Yukon.// Tome 2. Whitehorse: Association franco-yukonnaise, 1997: 107-8.)) His first woodlot was on the site of the present Whitehorse airport.(("Canyon City Interpretive Manual", Heritage Branch.)) Firewood arrived in Whitehorse in sixteen-foot lengths on horse-drawn sleighs. Tony Cyr and Buzzsaw Jimmy had sawing rigs for cutting the wood into shorter lengths suitable for stoves.((Yukon Archives, John D. Scott, //A Life in the Yukon.// Unpublished manuscript, 1992: 31.))  
	
Tony bought his first property in Whitehorse in the summer of 1903 and obtained the title in 1908. He bought another lot with his brother Mike in 1904, and he built a house at Strickland Street and 6th Avenue.((//Empreinte: La Presence francophone au Yukon.// Tome 2. Whitehorse: Association franco-yukonnaise, 1997: 107-8.)) 

Tony married Marie Beaudoin in 1918 in Whitehorse. She was a widow Tony with two children Aline and Wilbrod.((//Empreinte: La Presence francophone au Yukon.// Tome 2. Whitehorse: Association franco-yukonnaise, 1997: 107-8.)) In August 1919, He led a crew repairing the Whitehorse-Wheaton road and putting in bridges and culverts.((Helene Dobrowolsky, “Robinson Roadhouse Historic Site” Bibliography of Archival Resources & Site Chronology.” Yukon Historic Sites, January 2020: 16.)) He cleared the first airstrip in Whitehorse in 1920 and the New York to Nome planes landed there.((//Empreinte: La Presence francophone au Yukon.// Tome 2. Whitehorse: Association franco-yukonnaise, 1997: 107-8.)) In 1929, a fund was raised through popular subscription to enlarge and condition the Whitehorse aviation field. It was thought the cost would be between one and two thousand dollars.((//The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 15 February 1929.))

In the 1920s, Tony Cyr was in charge of a government road crew. He and Mike Cyr, W. Ladoure, Jack French, Bob Earle, Geo. Taylor, and Chas. Ennis took tools, equipment and camp gear to Cowley Station to repair old culverts and bridges and put in new ones so motor cars and other vehicles can travel safely and in comfort.((//The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 9 July 1920.)) In July 1924, Cyr’s road crew repaired the hill on the Dawson [Overland] Trail where glacial action had undermined the road. They worked to repair the Trail as far as Takhini. J. E. Peters was repairing the Livingstone Creek wagon road.((//The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 18 July 1924.))
	
In August 1927, Richmond-Yukon Copper Ltd. moved their diamond drill from the Pueblo Mine to the War Eagle, a distance of about six miles, with the help of the caterpillar tractor of P. Burns & Company Limited, the horse force of Tony Cyr, and the Ford truck of W. G. Chantler.((//The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 2 September 1927.))
 	
Mike Cyr died in 1933, and Tony carried on the business until his health decline a few years before his death. Tony left his widow, four sons and three daughters.((“Antoine Cyr passed away at his home here Wednesday morning.” //The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 12 July 1946.))