Yukon who is who

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Ernest N. Patty (1894 – 1976)
	
Ernest Patty was born in Le Grande, Oregon and graduated from the University of Washington in 1919 as a mining engineer. In 1922, he joined the first faculty of the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines at Fairbanks, later to become the University of Alaska. In 1925, he was named Dean of the College.((“1953-1960 Ernest Patty.” University of Alaska, 2019 website:  https://www.alaska.edu/uajourney/presidents/1953-1960-ernest-patty/))
	
In the 1920s, Patty was advising the dredging companies operating around Fairbanks. Frank Slaven made a low-grade gold discovery on Coal Creek, Alaska in 1905. He stayed in the region for 30 years and in the 1930s he had a two-story home and roadhouse at the confluence. Ernest Patty reached Coal Creek in 1934, examined Slaven's property, and recommended its purchase. General A. D. McRae, from British Columbia, financed Gold Placers Incorporated; McRae was the president and Patty vice-president.(("Coal Creek: Mining Camp Historic District. A Guide for Management, 1987." Yukon-Charley River National Preserve, Alaska.)) Patty resigned from the college, now a newly-formed university, in 1935 to manage the McRae interests.((“Ernest N. Patty.” Alaska Mining Hall of Fame Foundation, 2019 website: https://alaskamininghalloffame.org/inductees/patty.php))
	
By 1937, dredges were busy on both Coal Creek and Woodchopper Creek in Alaska and had produced over $1 million of gold by the beginning of the Second World War. They started up again after the war and worked into the 1950s. When White Pass & Yukon Route stopped running Yukon River steamers their supply line was cut and the Coal Creek dredge stopped working. Rises in gold prices periodically renewed operations. The claims on Coal Creek were donated to the US National Parks Service after the management plan for the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve was completed in 1985.(("Coal Creek: Mining Camp Historic District. A Guide for Management, 1987." Yukon-Charley River National Preserve, Alaska.))   
	
Patty was associated with McCrae’s interests in Vancouver and involved in small dredging operations on several tributaries along the Yukon and Stewart rivers.((Yukon Archives, “A Life in the Yukon.” John D. Scott’s Unpublished manuscript, 1992: 121.)) In 1947, Clear Creek Placer Corporation had a new dredge on the east fork of Henderson Creek and a camp started at Thistle Creek. Bill O’Neill was Patty’s right-hand man for the company at Henderson. Walter Johnson was the dredge master there.((H.S. Bostock, //Pack Horse Tracks – recollections of a geologists life in British Columbia and the Yukon 1924 – 1954.// Yukon Geoscience Forum, 1990: 238-39.)) Patty was involved in gold mining at Clear, Henderson, and Thistle creeks in the Yukon.((Mike Rourke, //Yukon River: Marsh Lake, Yukon, to Circle, Alaska.// Watson Lake: Rivers North Publications, 1985: 143.)) 
	
Ernest Patty developed the method of letting permafrost, stripped of overburden, thaw in the sun. His “solar thawing” method became a universal practice for dredging companies in the north. Dr. Patty returned to the University of Alaska in 1953 and became its third president. His unique teaching methods inspired a generation of northern mining engineers and geologists. He started an Arctic studies program that drew scientists from around the world, and he also planned Alaska’s first system of community colleges.((“Ernest N. Patty.” Alaska Mining Hall of Fame Foundation, 2019 website: https://alaskamininghalloffame.org/inductees/patty.php))