Martha Collins, nee Burian (1916 – 2016)

Martha Collins was born in Brightview, Alberta to Freida and Amandus Burian, the fifth oldest and first girl of ten siblings.¹⁾ She arrived at Stewart Island on the Yukon River in 1936 to join her brothers who operated wood camps on the Stewart River. In 1937. Martha and brother Rudy bought the Stewart City Roadhouse from Billy Bamford, a former purser on the sternwheeler Casca. Martha did the cooking.²⁾ A different story is that the roadhouse was sold to them by the Woodburn family who continued to live on Stewart Island.³⁾

The Roadhouse became an established stop for the British Yukon Navigation (BYN) sternwheelers on their way down to Dawson. Martha met Phillip “Phil” Collins at Stewart Island and they were married in Dawson in 1938. Rudy sold his interest in the roadhouse to Martha and the Collins took over the roadhouse operation. In the winter Phil ran a trapline for two weeks at a time and Martha had a day line. He cut wood in the summer for the steamboats and Martha cooked at the Roadhouse.⁴⁾ Their daughter was two when the family moved to Dawson and Penny remembers a flood in 1944.⁵⁾ Martha was cleaning houses and cooking at the hotels while Phil freighted on the river and worked with Ed Whitehouse to operate the Yukon River ferry at Dawson for two summer seasons.⁶⁾

In 1947, the family moved again to the old Hullenbach Roadhouse on the Klondike River and Phil ran a trapline. By this time, the family was four girls and one boy. Martha ran a short day trapline and was an excellent cook for trappers and travellers in the area. In 1949, the family moved to Coquitlam, British Columbia and rented a farm in the Fraser Valley. Phil went to work at the Fraser Mills but returned north after less than a year. Martha and the children stayed another six months before moving north. They settled in Whiskey Flats and then in the “Y” at the south end of Second Avenue in Whitehorse. Phil worked building the army houses at Camp Takhini.⁷⁾ They worked at many places along the Alaska Highway. Martha cooked at new highway lodges: the Watson Lake Hotel, Christie’s JacnMac’s at Lower Post, and Fireside, among others.⁸⁾

In 1957, Phil and Martha moved to Dawson Creek, British Columbia with the younger children. Phil worked at the Safeway store, Martha got a job as a cook, and they cleared 160 acres of land. In 1967 or 1968, they moved back to Dawson and Phil went mining and had a trapline on the Sixtymile River. He also worked at the Dawson jail. Martha was a housekeeper at one of the local bars.⁹⁾ Phil and Martha retired in Whitehorse for ten years and then moved to Keremeos, British Columbia.¹⁰⁾ After Phil died in 1998, Martha would come north in the summers and worked for Walter and Cami Yaremcio at their placer mine. In 2004, she moved to Marsh Lake to live with her daughter and husband, Don and Penny Sipple. Martha described her life as travelling the rivers and trails, finding work where it was to be found, and where there was no work they made do. “It’s a big country and it’s always a good year for berries.” Martha spent her last years at Macaulay Lodge after having an aorta valve implant at age ninety-four. At her 100th birthday, she was escorted to the party by the Whitehorse RCMP Commanding Officer in recognition of her countless hours in service to the Police.¹¹⁾

Martha and Phil raised six children: Freda MacMillan (Richard), Penny Sippel (Don), Toni Wykoff (Ron), Otelia Collins (Darren), and Phillip Jr. Phil Collins Jr. died fighting a forest fire on the Pelly River.¹²⁾ Martha was a charter member of the Yukon Order of Pioneers (YOOP), Ladies Auxiliary, and a member of the Beta Sigma Phi Yukon Masters Chapter.¹³⁾