Dan and Valerie Drummond

Dan Drummond came to the Yukon in 1974 and, after a few months in Whitehorse, started working for Forestry in Dawson.¹⁾ Dan and Val Drummond met in Dawson in 1974 when Dan sat at a blackjack table where Val was working. They met again later in the fall when Val was working at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.²⁾ Dan started work as a game guardian with the Yukon Game Branch in 1975.³⁾

Dan and Val were married in 1976 and lived in Dawson until 1980 when they moved to Whitehorse. In 1986, they moved to Haines Junction and hockey became a family focus. Dan played until a hip replacement forced him to quit. Val started playing at the age of forty, and continued to play into her seventies. They organized an old-timers league, helped with minor hockey and resurrected women’s hockey. They started an annual homecoming hockey tournament in the 1990s during Christmas. The regular program was suspended during the holidays and students briefly in town were eager to play. Dan is known for his years as a scout leader. The couple brought Skate with Santa to Haines Junction, an event that has been running for over thirty years. They started the Halloween bonfire and a number of other events. They were given a Government of Yukon Community Leadership Award in 2011. They were named Mr. and Mrs. Yukon in 2020 for their more than forty years of volunteer work in Yukon communities.⁴⁾

Dan wrote two stories about his experiences in wildlife management, and they can be found in Manfred Hoefs, ed., Of Man and Beast. AMBOCA Ecological Services, 2004: 247-249 and 253-257.