Larry Barr (1938 – 2003)

Larry Barr was raised in the Riverdale area of Southern California by his extended family. He earned a BSc and went to work at the Borax Mine near Death Valley, California. He went on to the nuclear test sites in Henderson, Nevada. Barr went into the gold mining business in 1967 and explored for jade in an area east of Dease Lake. He helped develop the jade properties near Wolverine Lake with Nephro-Jade Canada Ltd. He became more involved with exploration of hard rock, placer gold and base metals with Delphi Resources and then owned Territorial Gold Placers and mined at Dominion, Black Hills, Eureka, Henderson, and Miller creeks in the Klondike goldfields. His company grew when gold prices went up in the early 1980s. He commissioned Jim Robb to paint the buildings, dredges, and boilers on the creeks before they were destroyed by the increased mining activity. A helicopter flew two professional photographers over the things Barr wanted to record and Robb worked from the photographs. Barr had plans to build the Gold Plaza Hotel in downtown Whitehorse where the Law Centre currently sits. Barr had consolidated the lots together for this project, but he had problems with the city bylaws. His Territorial Gold Placers went bankrupt with the depressed gold prices and Barr eventually moved to Vancouver to become involved with other mining companies. Larry Barr is remembered for his dry camps and his generosity to his workers. He always hired good cooks and provided the men with televisions and cartons of cigarettes.¹⁾