Yukon who is who

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John K. Thom

John K. Thom had a trap line at Swan Lake near Johnston Town where the family spent most of their time. It was at the south end of Teslin Lake. The family was living off the land before construction of the Alaska Highway. People came into Teslin about April to trade furs and then went back out to hunt beaver. They knew about the Second World War from the radio, and because sugar and bullets were rationed. People started moving away from Johnston Town as the highway came through.((Rob Ingram interview with Matthew Thom, 19 September 1991. Yukon Archives, SR 131-8.))

John Thom worked at Whitehorse cutting the airport runway before the Alaska Highway was built. Isaac Taylor recommended him as a guide for the highway and Joe Clement, an RCMP officer and an army sergeant, came to get him while he was out hunting. They left a message for him to move to Morley Bay. The family moved there, to the main camp. John was gone all summer until the fall, and they did the trip on foot from Teslin to Contact Creek. David Johnson had a horse and he was hired. Frank Morris was the cook and George Morris acted as his assistant, but he only went as far as Watson Lake and quit. John's father had contacts with the Kaska people and that is how he knew the country to Contact Creek. It was hard going past Rancheria because there is no mountains to go by. Johnny Johns guided from Carcross to Johnson's Crossing and Jake Jackson, from Brook's Brook, guided from Johnson's Crossing to Teslin. There were no army surveyors with them, and the bulldozers were following behind as they blazed trees. Near Alaska Highway Mile 749 there is a creek named after John Thom.((Rob Ingram interview with Matthew Thom, 19 September 1991. Yukon Archives, SR 131-8.)) 

After the highway was finished the family moved to Teslin and John did survey work with the government. He worked on the boundary line from Teslin to Swift River. Many of the Teslin men worked on the boundary cutting line. John and Moses Jackson were the first to buy a truck after the road was in. They seldom went to Whitehorse because it was a seven-hour trip. Many First Nation people worked on highway maintenance. John worked there until he retired at about age seventy-five.((Rob Ingram interview with Matthew Thom, 19 September 1991. Yukon Archives, SR 131-8.))