Thor M. "Ted" Skonseng (d. 1973)
	
Ted Skonseng came from Norway to visit his uncle in Canada and started studies at the University of British Columbia. He left school to work in the Vancouver Island logging camps in the late 1920s and early ‘30s. He moved to the Yukon in 1935 and logged and trapped along the Stewart River.((Dr. Aaro E. Aho, “Veteran Prospector Ted Skonseng Made a Legend.” //Whitehorse Star// Whitehorse), 5 June 1974. Yukon Prospectors’ Association pdf in 2020 website: yukonprospectors.ca . ted_skonseng)) 

In 1936, Skonseng had a trap line on the upper Stewart River above Fraser Falls. He was flooded out in that year’s high water. He trapped in the Hess River area, going over Fraser Falls with boats, rigging and supplies, and coming down on rafts with his furs. One year he partnered with Runer West, a Swede-Finn, who was having mental health issues. They went 150 miles up the Hess River and during the winter West would wake up screaming and attacking Skonseng. West would hold a rifle on Skonseng for long periods of time, even as he pulled their toboggan. They returned to Mayo and parted company, and Skonseng refused West’s offer to return to the Hess as partners the next winter.((Aaro E. Aho, //Hills of Silver.// Harbour Publishing, 2006: 181, 302-303.)) 
	
Skonseng was tough enough to go into the bush alone. He trapped and logged mainly along the Stewart River and sometimes slept under spruce trees at minus sixty degrees temperatures. He based himself in Mayo and worked there as a carpenter and miner.((Dr. Aaro E. Aho, “Veteran Prospector Ted Skonseng Made a Legend.” //Whitehorse Star// Whitehorse), 5 June 1974. Yukon Prospectors’ Association pdf in 2020 website: yukonprospectors.ca . ted_skonseng)) In the 1950s, Skonseng worked as a carpenter for United Keno Hill.((Linda E.T. MacDonald and Lynette R. Bleiler, //Gold & Galena.// Mayo Historical Society, 1990: 453.)) 
	
Skonseng’s interest shifted to prospecting in the late 1950s and he participated in the Anvil Mine discovery among others.((Dr. Aaro E. Aho, “Veteran Prospector Skonseng Made a Legend.” //Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 5 June 1974.)) He often prospected and worked for Dr. Aaro Aho’s company in areas including Mayo, Anvil, Ross River, Hess and Dawson ranges, as well as the Atacama Desert of Chile and in southern British Columbia.((Aaro E. Aho, //Hills of Silver.// Harbour Publishing, 2006: 302.)) 
	
In 1972, Skonseng and Robert Etzel found high-grade silver-lead veins on the Plata property near Rouge River about 110 miles north of Faro. In his last season, he did a reconnaissance between Mayo and Dawson and worked with Frenchy Lavoie on the Plata property to stack up thousands of dollars’ worth of high-grade ore. He trenched by hand and using dynamite. Ted Skonseng is remembered as a tough frontiersmen and storey-teller who imparted his work ethic, intangible philosophies, and bush experience to many others.((Dr. Aaro E. Aho, “Veteran Prospector Skonseng Made a Legend.” //Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 5 June 1974.))
	
Skonseng Mountain is located near the NWT border on the Coal River map sheet.