Yukon who is who

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Edward Elgin Kimbel (1893-1970)
	
Ed Kimbel was born in Dubuque, Iowa, to parents Richard Adam and Frances Myrtle Mayr Kimbel.((“Edward Elgin Kimbel (1893 – 1970).” //ExploreNorth,// 2022 website: https://www.explorenorth.com/library/bios/kimbel-ed.html)) Kembel was the son of a Mississippi riverboat man and was raised on the river. In his younger days, he was a boxer and won an impressive number of championship bouts. He learned carpentry and the boat-building trade before moving to Alaska in 1917 and Mayo in 1918.(("Obituary: Ed Kimbel." //Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 22 October 1970.)) In 1920, Ed and his brother Carl Kimbel built a dredge for the Highet Dredging Company. Eddie, Carl, and half-brother Dick operated the Kimbel Bros. Sawmill in Mayo.((//Mayo Walking Tour,// Government of Yukon, 2018: 12.)) 
	
Sometime in the 1920s, a boxing match was held in Keno between Ed Kimbel and an American man named Jones, who was boasting about his prize fighting skills. Excitement raged across the Mayo-Keno area as bets were laid and alcohol consumed. As the boxers started to fight with every bit of energy they had, at least seven fights erupted in the audience. Kimbel won over Jones in just a few rounds but the fights outside the ring continued on into the afternoon. Free-lance reporter Don Sawatsky comments that it was a fine day for Keno with Kimbel fondly remembering that he sparked probably the biggest donnybrook in Yukon history.((Don Sawatsky, “Pugilists square off at turn of the century.” //The Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 16 May 1997.)) 

Kimbel was famous throughout the north for his handcrafted riverboats. He drove the first truck from Whitehorse to Mayo in 1928 and took in the first tractor.(("Obituary: Ed Kimbel." //Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 22 October 1970.)) 
	
Ed Kimbel married the widow Lou Hartnell and brother Carl married the widow Wlodga Kondrowski. The women operated a restaurant in Mayo in the 1930s. Wlodga and Lou bought a building at Centre Street and Second Avenue in Mayo and operated a cafe until the flood of 1936.((Jim Robb, The Colourful Five per Cent scrapbook. "Who ran the cafe? The answers are served up." //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 2 March 2011.))
	
Ed’s line of work had many hazards. In March 1940, Kimbel and his crew were operating a wood camp thirty miles up the Stewart River. They were on their way up the river with a cat and caboose when the caboose tipped over and Jimmy Lang received a cut on his forehead.((//The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 15 March 1940.)) In July 1940, Ed and four men arrived in Dawson with a large raft containing 100,000 feet of first-class lumber. The trip from Kimbel’s woodcamp was made in forty hours.((Flo Wyard, “’40: glacier’s movement expands inlet.” //The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 21 April 1997.))

In early January 1950, Ed Kimbel and Fred Harper were crossing the Stewart River, taking a truckload of hay from Kimbel’s ranch to his sawmill. Trucks had been using the river road for six weeks but when the temperature hit 70 below the river developed an air bubble. Kimbel’s truck drove into the air hole and fifteen feet of water. The cab was submerged and Kembel smashed his way out and swam to shore. Hart got to the top of the hay load and Kembel rescued him with a rope. They were soaking wet in a strong wind at -40 degrees but made it the four miles to the mill. They were rushed to the Mayo hospital with severe frost bite to their face, hands, and feet.((A.A. Gillespie, “Two ‘Miracles’ Save Men in 40-Below Northland Saga.” //The Vancouver Daily Province// (Vancouver), 9 January 1950 in “Edward Elgin Kimbel (1893 – 1970).” //ExploreNorth,// 2022 website: https://www.explorenorth.com/library/bios/kimbel-ed.html))  
	
Lou Hartnell Kimbel died in 1950.(("Obituary: Ed Kimbel." //Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 22 October 1970.)) Ed sold his sawmill to United Keno Hill Mines Ltd. in the 1950s.((//Mayo Walking Tour,// Government of Yukon, 2018: 12.))