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.
Frank Slim, Tsenedhäta (1898 - 1973)
	
Frank Slim was born to parents Slim and Ginnie Jim at a village on Marsh Lake. His siblings included Suzy, Lily, Anne, and Willy. Frank grew up speaking Tagish, Southern Tutchone, and Tlingit. He started working as a deckhand on the Yukon River sternwheelers around age sixteen. Realizing the importance of education, he paid someone to teach him how to read and write. He married Agnes (Aggie) Broeren around 1917 and they had children Sophie (Miller), George, Irene (Adamson), Owen, and Virginia (Lindsay).((Archives Society of Alberta, Frank Slim fonds description. 2018 website: https://albertaonrecord.ca/frank-slim-fonds)) 

Frank Slim worked on the //Yukon Rose,// a Taylor and Drury (T&D) supply boat running on the Teslin, Mayo, and Ross rivers, from 1929 through the 1930s.((Archives Society of Alberta, Frank Slim fonds description. 2018 website: https://albertaonrecord.ca/frank-slim-fonds)) In 1929, T&D’s  supply boat, //Yukon Rose,// ran aground on the Teslin River. Bill Taylor and Frank Slim set off from Whitehorse with dog teams. They took ninety kilograms from the boat on each sled and took it to Teslin. They had to break trail at night so the dogs could pull the heavy sleds in the daylight. In Teslin, they arranged to have ten more teams unload the rest of the boat’s cargo.((Michael Gates, “Tales of an early transportation pioneer.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 22 June 2012.)) 

In 1936, Louis Irvine, with pilot Frank Slim, hauled the mail on the Yukon River in the spring and fall on the small riverboat //Shamrock.// this was before the larger boats started for the summer and after they stopped in the fall.((Joyce Yardley, //Yukon Riverboat Days.// Surry B.C.: Hancock House, 1996: 142-150.)) 

Slim qualified as a steamboat captain in 1937, able to pilot boats to a maximum of 1500 T. dead weight. He had to give up his First Nation status to qualify.((Archives Society of Alberta, Frank Slim fonds description. 2018 website: https://albertaonrecord.ca/frank-slim-fonds)) This made his children and grandchildren non-status. The Slims moved to Whitehorse and the children attended Whitehorse elementary instead of a residential school.((Roxanne Livingstone, "Shirley Adamson won't be pushed around," //Yukon News// (Whitehorse). 20 December 2002.))  

In 1940-41, Frank worked freighting supplies and equipment on the Dease and Liard river for the construction of the Watson Lake airport.((Archives Society of Alberta, Frank Slim fonds description. 2018 website: https://albertaonrecord.ca/frank-slim-fonds)) Liard Tom’s youngest daughter, Angela Carlick, remembers meeting Frank Slim and his family in the summer of 1942. They came down from Dease Lake, British Columbia with a sternwheeler and barges carrying a bulldozer and dump trucks. Slim and his two sons, Tony and George, and other workers constructed the barges on the shores of Dease Lake. Slim was one of the captains who steered the sternwheeler and barges loaded with heavy equipment down the narrow, winding Dease River from the lake to Lower Post. The Slims, with two sons and youngest daughter, stayed in one of the bunkhouses beside the Hudson Bay store in Lower Post. The bulldozer came off the barge and government workers started pushing in a road to Watson Lake. The dump trucks were unloaded and followed the bulldozer. Angela and her family followed the bulldozer and watched it push down trees.((Jim Robb, “regarding the late Frank Slim and Liard Tom.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 16 February 2011. 2020 website: https://www.yukon-news.com/news/regarding-the-late-frank-slim-and-liard-tom/))\\

In 1946, the American industrialist Edwin P. Hurd hunted with Mike Nolan who owned a highway lodge at Marsh Lake. The party was guided by John Joe and Frank Slim, both men well known in the southern Yukon. In 1947, Hurd forwarded one thousand dollars to the two guides to outfit themselves for a fall 1947 hunt as a contracting partnership. On hearing about this, officers at Fish and Game wrote an amendment to the Game Ordinance preventing Frank Slim and John Joe from becoming chief guides. The amendment required that a chief guide be equipped with horse and equipment to care for six hunters at a time. John Joe did take Hurd's party hunting but only after Hurd arrived in Whitehorse and persuaded the officials to issue a license. The intention was to limit competition from First Nation independent operators.((Robert G. McCandlass, //Yukon Wildlife: A Social History.// Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1985: 96-97, 160.))\\ 
	
In the off seasons, Slim carried mail, trapped, and placer mined. After the Yukon River sternwheelers stopped running in the 1950s, Slim piloted the passenger ferries on the Pelly and Stewart rivers until the bridges were built. He operated heavy equipment, trapped, and purchased furs. In later years, he was the captain of the //MV Schwatka,// a Whitehorse tourist boat owned and operated by John Scott. He was the pilot of the //SS Keno// on her last trip to Dawson in 1960. Frank Slim died at Macaulay Lodge in 1973. Mount Slim, near Lake LaBerge is named for him.((Archives Society of Alberta, Frank Slim fonds description. 2018 website: https://albertaonrecord.ca/frank-slim-fonds)) Frank Slim was posthumously inducted into the Yukon Transportation Hall of Fame as a transportation pioneer in 1997.