Caroline “Ma” Erickson

Caroline Erickson was originally from Minnesota and was of Swedish descent. She came to the Yukon with an opera troupe during the gold rush. When the troupe dissolved, she found a job cooking, first in a restaurant and then at the Commissioner’s Residence. She became a fine chef. Ma Erickson ran a restaurant in Keno and was the only woman living in town when Brodie Hicks knew her between 1947 and 1953. At that time, she was not living with her husband Axel. She was sixty-five and the youngest of all the residents but suffering from arthritis. There was no local need for a full-on restaurant, but Ma would put on a meal in her front parlour and Hicks would have her cater for visiting mine officials. She served alcohol illegally and had a brisk off-sale business.¹⁾