Emile “Emil” Joseph Forrest (1889 - 1960)

Emil Forrest's father, Paul Sr., was working at Grassvalley, California when he heard of the Klondike gold rush and he travelled north out of San Francisco. Mrs. [Lea Moreau] Forrest was at Three Rivers, Quebec with children Emil, Evelyne, Paul, and Albert. Paul Sr. visited the family in 1898/99 and returned to the Yukon with Paul in the spring of 1899. The rest of family joined them in July 1901 when Emil was 12.((Yukon Archives Photo Finding Aid.)) One day, Paul Sr. went to the bank and then disappeared, leaving his wife and three sons.((Yann Herry, //La Francophane: une richesse nordique / Northern Portraits.// L’Association franco-yukonaise, 2004: 19.)) Emil went to school in Dawson and had a paper route that he completed even in very cold weather.((MacBride Museum, “Transportation pioneer passed away before historic voyage.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 24 February 2010. 2020 website: https://www.yukon-news.com/news/transportation-pioneer-passed-away-before-historic-voyage/)) 

In 1910, Emil Forrest was an assistant pilot on a motor launch charting the Yukon River channels between Circle and Fort Yukon, Alaska. From 1914 to 1922, Forrest carried mail from Dawson to the mouth of the Yukon. After 1922, he did some prospecting in the Mayo and Carmacks area and had considerable mining interests in the Mayo region.((Yukon Archives biographical sketch, 2011 web site: http://yukon.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/45/AUTHORITY_WEB/HEADING/Forrest,~20Emil,~201889-1960?JUMP)) He also had interests in the Laforma Gold Mine in the Carmack region.((MacBride Museum, "Transportation pioneer passed away before historic voyage." //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 24 February 2010. 2020 website: https://www.yukon-news.com/news/transportation-pioneer-passed-away-before-historic-voyage/)) 

Emil Forrest and Cam Smith brought the first cat train of supplies from Whitehorse to Mayo in 1923. Each tractor could haul four sleighs. The trip from Whitehorse took seven to eight days in the 1930s and there was no scheduled road service.((Linda E.T. MacDonald and Lynette R. Bleiler, //Gold & Galena.// Mayo Historical Society, 1990: 188-9.)) Forrest was employed in Mayo as an airplane mechanic from 1929 to 1937.((Yukon Archives biographical sketch, 2011 web site: http://yukon.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/45/AUTHORITY_WEB/HEADING/Forrest,~20Emil,~201889-1960?JUMP))

In January 1942, Forrest and W.J. Langham, with a Yukon backer, were mining the Reforma group of mines on Mount Freegold. They had a crew of five and planned to fill the bins with ore that winter, and to run an extensive operation for the summer with a Fordson to run a compressor. Happy LePage was to handle freighting between Whitehorse and Freegold.((//The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 19 December 1941.))

In the summer of 1941, Forrest was an engineer aboard the riverboat //Neecheah// and later was the captain of the //Loon.// The //Loon,// a British Yukon Navigation (BYN) motor launch, was used to take soundings on the river ahead of the Yukon River sternwheeler fleet. When the //Loon// was pulled off the river in 1947, Forrest stayed on with White Pass & Yukon Route as a night watchman.((Yukon Archives, biographical sketch, 2011 web site: http://yukon.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/45/AUTHORITY_WEB/HEADING/Forrest,~20Emil,~201889-1960?JUMP)) Forrest suffered a heart attack and died on 24 August 1960 while helping to launch the //SS Keno// for her last trip to Dawson. He is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Whitehorse.((MacBride Museum, "Transportation pioneer passed away before historic voyage." //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 24 February 2010. 2020 website: https://www.yukon-news.com/news/transportation-pioneer-passed-away-before-historic-voyage/))

Forrest was an enthusiastic amateur photographer, and there is a collection of 655 of his photos, as well as films, scrapbooks and other material, at the Yukon Archives. The photos date from 1898 to 1960 and portray rare images of communities, sternwheelers, mines, roadhouses, and people throughout the Yukon and Alaska.