Isabelle “Belle” Desrosiers, nee Dickson

Belle Dickson was the daughter of Thomas and Louise Dickson of the Kluane Lake region. She married Curly Desrosiers who came into the Yukon in 1942 to work on the Alaska Highway construction. Together they ran an outfitting business located at Shallow Bay just north of Whitehorse. After Curly died, Belle continued to run the family’s outfitting business. She was highly admired and respected throughout the Yukon, still going strong and climbing mountains into her sixties.1) Belle Derosiers was the first woman to operate a big game hunting business in the Yukon.2)

1)
Erik Nielsen, The House is Not a Home, Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1989: 74.
2)
Dempster Highway Interpretive Strategy, Vol. 1: Background Report. YTG Dept. of Tourism and Dempster Highway Corridor Technical Study Team, 1989: 55-56.