Yukon who is who

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Oliphant “Oliver” Rose
	
On 16 May 1903, Eugene Larose, P. W. Harkin, and Lila Wallace were thrown into the water while trying to run the White Horse rapids. The canoe capsized and Harkin and Miss Wallace drowned. The body of Miss Wallace was found on the following morning and Harkin's was found in Indian Bay [Shallow Bay?] in Lake Laberge on June 16. Assistant Surgeon Pare ran the investigation and the decision was accidental death.((North-West Mounted Police Annual Report. Sessional Paper No. 28. 1904: 19.)) Harkin left a widow and two small children. Eugene LaRose changed his name to Rose and settled at Blind Creek on the Pelly River, about 50 miles (80km) below Ross River. He ran a small trading post and prospected and trapped over a wide area but lived a desolate life in small hovels.((Norman E. Kagan, "Pelly Pioneers at Ross River." //Alaska Geographic,// Vol. 25, No.2, 1998:82-3, 94.))	

In July 1905, the Royal North-West Mounted Police (RNWMP) were mounting a patrol on the Pelly River. Trappers and traders were at Fort Selkirk getting supplies for the year. D.C Van Gorder and “Red” Corning were located at Pelly Lakes, James and Neil Macmillan were at Hoole River, and Oliver Rose was on the Pelly River. Oliver Rose, or Olivier Larose, was a prospector who has been working in the hills to the north for several year but, like other prospectors, was not inclined to talk, other than to say he had found mining prospects. He seemed a hard-working man and was well spoken of by the men who knew him. He made the round trip from his cabin to Selkirk, purchased his supplies and sold some furs, and made it back to his cabin in seven days, a distance of 400 miles.((Royal North-West Mounted Police Annual Report. Sessional Paper No. 28. 1906: 63-5.))
	
Charles Sheldon named Rose Mountain and Rose Slough in 1905 after Oliver Rose who lived and operated a small trading post near the foot of the mountain. Rose had been there about two years at that time and had constructed a V-shaped cabin without a window. It was banked with earth from the ridgepole to the ground and was gloomy but very warm in the winter. The slough a half mile below his cabin was named Rose Slough by Sheldon.((Mike Rourke, //Rivers of the Yukon Territory: Pelly River// (revised). Houston, BC: Rivers North Publications, 1995: 24-25.)) In 1908, RNWMP Inspector Horrigan steamed up the Pelly and reached Mr. Rose's camp and trading post where the captain purchased more wood. Rose supplied the men with some fresh vegetables and treated them to fresh strawberries relished very much by crew and passengers.((Royal North-West Mounted Police Annual Report. Sessional Paper No. 28. 1909: 241.))
	
Rose applied for a 160-acre homestead in 1912 (co-signed by Poole Field) which was approved in 1913. Robert Henderson was the Crown Timber and Land Agent of the time, and he wrote that he thought the place was well suitable for agriculture. Mr. Rose has been living there for about ten years and intended to make it his home.((Mike Rourke, //Rivers of the Yukon Territory: Pelly River// (revised). Houston, BC: Rivers North Publications, 1995: 24-25.)) In October 1921, the Pelly River started freezing over and RCMP officer "Chappie" Chapman went 50 miles downriver to visit "old Man Rose." He had a cabin at the mouth of Rose Creek, very near where the Faro mine is today.((Charles Hathaway Chapman, "Memoirs of Sixty North of Sixty." //The Yukoner Magazine,// No. 1, 1996: 17-29.))
	
By 1922, Rose had cleared eleven acres and had two acres under cultivation with 3,000 raspberry bushes. Rose made jam from the berries and sold $150 worth in 1921. Rose had three good buildings and said the homestead had been his home for the past twenty-one years; cultivating the land in the summer and prospecting in his spare time. An indefinite extension was granted in 1925 postponing his surveying of the place as it would cost at least $1,000.((Mike Rourke, //Rivers of the Yukon Territory: Pelly River// (revised). Houston, BC: Rivers North Publications, 1995: 24-25.)) Rose's life deteriorated and he lived in a lean-to type of cabin with a dirt floor and in filthy circumstances when he was deemed insane. Innes-Taylor, with the RNWMP, took him outside to the hospital. There was a rumour that the old man was very rich and had lots of gold buried around his cabin. Many people have dug there but no gold was found.((A. Innes-Taylor, "Schematic study of historic places on the rivers of the Yukon and of places along trails that lead to the Klondike," Yukon Heritage Branch files.))