Ebenezer Smith Strait (1860 - 1911)
	
Ebenezer Strait was born in Lexington, Kentucky. He was in business in Troy, New York before coming to the Klondike in 1898. In 1901, he joined the Dawson Aerie No. 50 of the Order of Eagles. He was in the general merchandise and second-hand business and had extensive private interests, holding stock in most of the locally organized businesses. He was the largest shareholder and president of the Dawson Trading Company.((“E. S. Strait is called to last long rest.” //The Dawson Daily News// (Dawson), 22 December 1911.))	
	
Strait also invested in Yukon mines and brought in as much as $50,000 from private funds. He invested most his profit in quartz and placer mines and was a strong believer in the future of Yukon hard-rock mining. The Yukon had few supporters of hard-rock mining development and his death, due to kidney and lung problems, was a serious loss to local miners and prospectors. He wound up his business affairs in the fall of 1910 and left for Arizona where he died. He told his friends that he was optimistic but prepared for the worst. His wife and two daughters were living in Troy, New York.((“E. S. Strait is called to last long rest.” //The Dawson Daily News// (Dawson), 22 December 1911.))
	
Strait’s Auction House, built by Strait in 1901, was the most photographed building in Dawson for many years. A painted sign advertised “groceries, guns, ammunition, hardware, tobacco, furniture, crockery, clothing and tents.” Yukon artist Jim Robb completed two paintings of the building. The first was done in 1961 and the second in 2007.((Jim Robb, “Straits Auction House Dawson City.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 9 November 2011.)) The building was unsafe and scheduled for demolition in 1971. Dawson artist Albert Fuhre raised six hundred dollars in donations to buy it and donate it to the Klondike Visitors Association (KVA). The KVA stabilized the building in 1998 and it remains as a photogenic example of an authentic gold rush structure.((“KVA Past, Present and Future. 2020, Dawson City pdf: dawsoncity.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01.))
((This bio was edited in June 2020 by Kathy Jones-Gates.))