Yukon who is who

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Yoneda Okada (d. 1928)
	
Yoneda Okada was a Japanese miner on Hunker and Last Chance creeks. He obtained title to Straight's Second Hand Store in Dawson, complete with stock, in October 1918. He also had an interest in a mill on Harper and First Avenue.((Victoria Faulkner, "Historic Buildings." National Historic Site Division, National Parks Branch.))
	
The Van Bibber children came down to Dawson from Mica Creek on the Pelly River to go to school. The older boys worked for Okada at his sawmill next to the Yukon Hotel. They learned how to fire the steam boiler that ran the mill and planer, how to cant onto the carriage, tail the saw and strip and pile lumber. The boys were paid twenty-five cents an hour until they learned their jobs and then they received fifty cents. In the spring, Okada got a government contract to make two pulleys that ran on the high line across the river. He machined a pulley out of wood, cut it in half and then sand casted a bronze pulley. The boys gathered junk pieces of bronze from Okada's second-hand stores. They melted it in a forge with one boy operating the big bellows. When the bronze was melted, Okada skimmed it and one of the boys poured it into a two-inch hole in the mould with a steady hand and a continuous pour. When the bronze cooled, Okada machined it, cut the centre out and pressed in a roller bearing. The pulley was 10" - 12" in diameter.((Kathleen Thorpe, "Dan Van Bibber."  //In Their Honor,//  Ye Sa To Communications Society, Whitehorse, 1989: 20-25.))
	
In April 1921, Okada was building a stream-driven riverboat on the street at Third Avenue and Harper Street. He planned to operate it on the Stewart River.((“New Boats to ply on the Stewart River.” //Dawson Daily News// (Dawson), 25 April 1921.)) David Fothering was also building a boat in Dawson. People in Dawson were excited by the silver strikes in the Mayo district. The Whitehorse newspaper commented that quite a number of fair-sized gas boats will be operated by Dawson people.((//The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 20 May 1921.)) 
	Okada obtained title to the Miner's Rest Hotel in Dawson in December 1925, but he did not operate it as a hotel. He sold the Straight’s Second Hand store to Charles I. Tennant in April 1931.((Victoria Faulkner, "Historic Buildings." National Historic Site Division, National Parks Branch.)) 
Yuka Okada died an accidental death and is buried in the Dawson Hillside Public Cemetery.((Ed and Star Jones, “Asians in Yukon, 1900-2010.” Santa Fe, New Mexico, June 2010.))