Yukon who is who

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.
Camden Smith
	
Camden Smith came to Whitehorse from Olney, Illinois in 1900 at the age of eleven with his widowed mother, brother, and sister.((Arthur E. Knutson, //Sternwheels on the Yukon.// Snohomish, Washington: Knutson Enterprises, Inc., 1979: 50.))
	
In March 1921, Cam drove the White Pass caterpillar [tracked vehicle] to Lower LaBerge with D. O'Connor and R. H. Fitch as crew. They took thirty tons of freight down for the sternwheeler to pick up at the start of navigation. The trail was in good shape after the caterpillar cleared the snow. Isaac Taylor and family drove to Lake Laberge and a number of cars went as far as the Takhini roadhouse.((//The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 25 March 1921.))
	
In April 1921, Cam used the Winton tracked vehicle to haul the crews of the sternwheelers up the lake on sleds. The sleighs broke through the ice as they neared the lake and all the passengers were soaked and badly frightened.((//The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 29 April 1921.)) 
In October 1924, Smith took the mail down river in the launch //Loon// while the river was closing to navigation. The sternwheeler //Dawson// took the //Loon// in tow coming back to Whitehorse. They encountered rough weather on Lake LaBerge and the //Loon// broke loose with Cam aboard. A lifeboat set out and found Can covered in ice and seated atop the launch. Cam was rescued and the //Loon// required some repairs.((//The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 17 October 1924.))

In July 1925, Cam Smith’s twelve passenger car arrived in Dawson on the sternwheeler //Whitehorse.// Within an hour of its arrival, it was in use touring tourists around.((//The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 10 July 1925.))
Cam Smith made history in Whitehorse and on the rivers by his ingenious use of anything mechanical. He developed the lamp black trick for thawing a trail across Lake Laberge by accident. He parked his Model T hybrid automobile on the lake ice during the course of transporting freight and passengers the length of the lake and noticed that when the truck dripped oil on the lake the ice became slushy even when it was frozen hard before. He equipped one of his trucks with spray equipment and used a mixture of lamp black and oil in a forty-foot-wide channel on the ice and it worked. In a few days, the ice was weakened to a point that the boats could go through much earlier.((Arthur E. Knutson, //Sternwheels on the Yukon.// Snohomish, Washington: Knutson Enterprises, Inc. 1979: 50.)) The practice was adopted by British Yukon Navigation in 1928 and continued for nearly twenty years. In late spring, a truck drove down the down the middle of Lake Laberge spraying a blend of lamp black, old crankcase oil, and diesel oil. In the early 1990s, researchers with the environmental protection branch of Environment Canada found deposits of black sludge at the bottom of the lake. They were investigating the cause of diseased livers in burbot caught in the north end of the lake.((Your Yukon Environment Canada, “River getting cultural perspective.” //The Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 23 July 1999.))
	
Cam Smith was an entertainer and the pilot of the riverboat //Loon// in 1941.((Gus Karpes, //Exploring the Upper Yukon River.// Whitehorse: Kugh Enterprises, 1995: 86.)) He wrote the words and music for //The Squaws Along the Yukon,// copyrighted in 1936. [The racial slur used in the title of the song was common in the 1940s but is no longer acceptable.] //Time Magazine// (31 August 1942) and //Billboard// (1944) reported on its popularity with servicemen during the Second World War. The sheet music was published in 1944. It was first recorded by Texas Jim Lewis and His Lone Star Cowboys in February 1944 and released in September 1949. Other releases include: Hank Thompson and His Brazos Valley Boys (July 1958), Mac Beattie & The Ottawa Valley Melodiers (1969), and Johnny Bond (May 1971).((“The Squaws Along the Yukon.” SecondHandSongs, 2019 website: https://secondhandsongs.com/work/158388/all))