Joe Gibson

Joe Gibson was locally famous for falling through the ice and successfully walking home seven miles in seventy below weather. He owned a sawmill on the bank of the Stewart River a few miles upstream from Mayo. He cut his logs at Fraser Falls, some sixty miles farther upstream, and rafted them down in booms each spring. He supplied wood for the timber sets that kept the Elsa mines from collapsing. He introduced himself to Brodie Hicks in the late 1940s and hoped that the new mine manager would continue to buy his products. Hicks was reluctant, as Gibson’s mill had burned twice before, but he made an agreement based on Gibson buying a pump and some hoses. Ten days after the fire-fighting equipment arrived the mill burned again, and Hicks found that the equipment had been stored in the middle of the plant where no could reach it during the fire. United Keno Hill finally bought Joe’s outfit at a fire sale price and started milling their own timbers.¹⁾