Leslie Ethelbert Cook (1908 - 1942)

Les Cook was trained as a pilot in the Canadian Air Force. He was discharged when he was discovered to be colour-blind. Cook came north in 1937 and started flying as a bush pilot for George Simmons at Northern Airways in Carcross.1)

In 1939, Les’ brother, James Cook constructed a trading post at the headwaters of the Ross River, at an outlet to Sheldon Lake. He was going to manage the post and Les was going to fly in supplies when needed. Before he could do any business, James had a fatal accident. Les Cook ran the Mount Sheldon Trading Post after his brother's death and took on a new partner. He sold the post to Taylor and Drury around 1941.2)

In December 1940, Cook was flying in heavy fog banks and had to stay about three hundred feet above the tall timber. His engine stopped and sprayed heavy oil over his windshield, making it difficult to see. Rocks and ice cakes on the beach made it a bad landing site so he made for a creek and landed with a thud. He walked away but his plane was a total loss.3)

During the construction of the Alaska Highway Cook was flying a Noorduyn Norseman for the British Yukon Navigation Company's White Pass Airways out of Whitehorse.4) Colonel William Hoge of the United States Corp of Engineers choose Cook to fly him several times along the proposed route between Fort Nelson and Whitehorse.5) Cook earned the US Army's Legion of Merit for a mercy flight in bad weather with two army surgeons to save a man's life. The weather had deteriorated, and daylight was fading at the Donjek River landing site, so the runway path had to be illuminated by truck headlights.6)

Les Cook's Norseman crashed on Second Ave. in Whitehorse on 4 December 1942. He and two other popular pilots, Don Dickson and Ken McLean were killed in the accident.7) Les was taking the plane for a short flight with his two mechanics aboard when he was forced to land. The plane hit several trees, poles, and telephone wires before bursting into flames upon hitting the ground. Two Army chaplains assisted at the military funeral, the Guard of Honour was formed from army headquarters officers, and the coffins were covered by the American and Canadian flags.8)

1)
R. B. Cameron, Yukon Wings. Frontenac House, 2012: 61.
2)
Mike Rourke, Rivers of the Yukon Territory: Ross River. (revised). Houston, BC: Rivers North Publications, 1995. First published in 1983.
3)
The Whitehorse Star (Whitehorse), 13 December 1940.
4) , 6)
Bruce McAllister and Peter Corley-Smith, Wings Over the Alaska Highway: A Photographic History of Aviation on the Alaska Highway. Boulder, Colorado: Roundup Press. 2001: 36, 124.
5)
Ken Coates, North to Alaska! Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1992: 36.
7)
“Bob Cameron recalls Lambert Street.” Whitehorse Star (Whitehorse), 23 March 2001.
8)
Margaret Crook, Norma L. Felker and Helen Horback, Lost Graves. City of Whitehorse, 1989: 43.