Irwin R. Armstrong (1908 - 2000)

The Armstrong clan arrived in Ontario from Scotland in the mid-1830s. Irwin Armstrong was born near Eramosa, Ontario. He was the oldest of five children and had to leave school to work on the farm. He married Laura Lindsay in 1931 and they had eight children. The marriage ended in 1940 and Irwin moved west. He arrived in the Yukon in the early 1950s and worked at the United Keno Hill Mine's timber camp. In the mid-1960s, he met Maria Farkas and built a garage in her back yard, where he continued to live when he was in town. Irwin Armstrong became known for his long grey hair and beard. Until 1998 when the farm was sold, he worked on Don Branigan's Crag Lake farm. He was intensely interested in local politics and had unusual solutions to civic and social problems. He once mistakenly punched a man he thought was government leader Chris Pearson. He thought communal living and work camps would solve some problems and wanted to erect a giant dance hall and a dome over Whitehorse. He worked in camps cutting cord wood for the British Yukon Navigation Co. and would allow no mixing of the sexes. He used discipline and prayer to rehabilitate his young co-workers. Armstrong ran for mayor of Whitehorse in 1977 and 1980 but was not successful. His favourite election ploy was the hex. He wrote impassioned letters to elected officials and newspaper editors. In 1999 he moved to the seniors’ apartments on Alexander Street. Armstrong's ashes were spread on the Crag Lake farm.¹⁾