Arthur “Art” John (1911 – 2014)
	
Art John was born in Livingstone, a gold rush town located 96 km northeast of Whitehorse.((Jane Gaffin, “An Award Winning Prospector, Art John was a Mentor to Many.” Yukon Prospector’s Association, 2018 website: https://yukonprospectors.ca/arthur_john.pdf)) His mother was Mary John and his father was Bob Hobin who joined the Canadian Army for service in the First World War. Hobin never returned from the war and Art John was raised by his step-father Long-Haired John. His mother died in a dog team accident when he was a young boy and his grandmother helped to raise him.((Pat Moore, editor, //Kaska Narratives.// Kaska Tribal Council, 1999: 395.)) An influenza epidemic swept through the area and John was orphaned about age ten and he went to live in Ross River with his grandmother. He spent years trapping and hunting around Ross River and helped the American Army survey the Canol Road in the 1940s.((Jane Gaffin, “An Award Winning Prospector, Art John was a Mentor to Many.” Yukon Prospector’s Association, 2018 website: https://yukonprospectors.ca/arthur_john.pdf))

Art John began prospecting in 1949.  John worked for two summers in Telegraph Creek and in the Fortymile River area looking for asbestos deposits, and then worked with Al Kulan’s Star Syndicate. He was with Al Kulan's group that prospected the Vangorda Creek lead-zinc deposit in 1969. The work resulted in the development of the Faro mine. When Pete Risby taught basic prospecting courses in Yukon communities, he hired John to act as an assistant instructor and interpreter of geological terms. Allen Carlos and Art John were prospecting partners in the 1960s employed by many exploration companies and they remained friends through John’s life. In the mid-1970s, John found the Godlin Lake properties which were optioned by Welcome North. He was inducted into the Prospector’s Hall of Fame in 1989. In 2001, Robert Etzel and his mentor Arthur John received the Spud Huestis Award for excellence in prospecting and mineral exploration. The men were selected for their years of dedication and their contributions to grassroots prospecting in the Yukon. Art John has been credited with the discovery of many mineral deposits including tungsten and hard rock gold. He was still prospecting and making property deals when he was into his 90s.((Jane Gaffin, “An Award Winning Prospector, Art John was a Mentor to Many.” Yukon Prospector’s Association, 2018 website: https://yukonprospectors.ca/arthur_john.pdf)) \\
	
Art and Alice John celebrated their 80-year wedding anniversary in 2013 when it was believed they were the longest-wed couple in Canada. John was survived by his wife, four children, and thirty-eight grandchildren.((Sam Riches, “Yukon loses one of its eldest elders.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 30 May 2014.))