Yukon who is who

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Fred W. Taylor
	
Fred Taylor left school after grade ten during the 1930s depression and at one point worked at the Bralorne gold mine in British Columbia. In 1936, hearing there were jobs in the north, he travelled by freighter to Skagway, took the train to Carcross, and then walked to Mayo. He crossed the major rivers before the ice cleared and so was ahead of the men who waited for the ferries to go in. He worked hauling supplies for trappers and loading the barges with ore concentrate. He stayed in the country after the summer, and was hired at the Keno mine to run some steam equipment. In 1937, he became partners with Ted Bleiler, on lower Dublin Gulch, and bought the mine later that year.((Michael Gates, //Dublin Gulch: A History of the Eagle Gold Mine.// Lost Moose, 2020: 19-20.))
	
Prior to this, the Dublin Gulch ground had been surface mined but Taylor dug an eight-metre shaft to bedrock and drifted in two directions. In 1938, he hired two men to work an open cut on the property and he built a derrick to hoist out the heavy boulders. He went to Vancouver during the winter of 1939-40 where he met and married his wife Ann.((Michael Gates, “History Hunter: The Dublin Gulch Story: Part Two.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 23 May 2019.))

Scheelite, a tungsten ore, was in demand during the Second World War. In 1942, the federal government built a road over the McQuesten River and constructed a road to Haggart Creek and Dublin Gulch. Taylor extracted 700 ounces of gold and $4,000 worth of tungsten that year.((Michael Gates, “History Hunter: The Dublin Gulch Story: Part Two.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 23 May 2019.))

In the fall of 1942, Taylor enlisted to serve in the army and was away for four years. He leased his property to Ole Lunde and another miner. About 1947, he was able to buy new D-7 bulldozer. He mined the creek until 1949 and again in 1953 and his sons worked at the mine when they were old enough.((Michael Gates, “History Hunter: The Dublin Gulch Story: Part Two.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 23 May 2019.)) In 1955 he sold the upper part of his claim to Cliff Grieg.((Linda E.T. MacDonald and Lynette R. Bleiler, //Gold & Galena.// Mayo Historical Society, 1990: 460.))
	
In the winter of 1963, Fred Taylor and Cliff Grieg were hauling mine timbers for United Keno Hill (UKH) at Elsa with Taylor’s D-7 and HD sleighs. They had to climb up Corkery Creek and bring the loads down to the haul road for the UKH trucks to supply their camp. They spent the nights in a thrown-together shack with a small sheet metal heater. The one who got cold first got up and fed the stove. They were ready to go back to Mayo when they were persuaded to go to Elsa where the bosses wanted wood from the McQuesten Valley and water from Flat Creek. There were 200 or more employees, and they were out of wood and there was talk of burning furniture. UKH gave them two men to help, and they set off into the cold in an unheated cab. They were a few more days getting all the stoves and water buckets full in Elsa.((Jim Robb, "The Colourful Five per Cent: Fred Taylor talks about cold weather." //Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 30 September 2005.))
	
Fred Taylor quit mining his Dublin Gulch property after the 1970 season. He sold the property to Ron Holway and Darrell Duensing and closed the deal with a handshake.((Michael Gates, “History Hunter: The Dublin Gulch Story: Part Two.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 23 May 2019.))