Michael Gates
Michael Gates worked for Parks Canada in the Yukon for thirty years as the Curator of Collections and Cultural Resource Manager in both Dawson and Whitehorse. He was trained by the Canadian Conservation Institute and was one of the first to bring professional conservation expertise to the Yukon. Michael was instrumental in salvaging the cultural resources that were damaged during the Dawson flood in 1979. He developed a collections management project that converted warehouses in Dawson and nearby Bear Creek into storage facilities. He was involved in the preservation and presentation of dozens of Dawson buildings, as well as the SS Keno, Dredge No. 4, and cultural resources on the Chilkoot Trail and SS Klondike National Historic Sites. He worked with the Dawson City Museum on the Dawson Film Find to recover rare nitrate movies found in an urban landfill. He and Valerie Thorp developed a long-lasting economical and effective system for controlling relative humidity in storage facilities. Michael was the project manager for the restoration of the Commissioner's Residence - a major eight-year project. Michael was able to give a personal tour to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien at the 1996 grand opening of the building.1)
Michael has researched all aspects of Yukon history. Gates and his family moved to Whitehorse in 1998 and he worked with the Kluane First Nation on the Healing Broken Connections project. He became an advocate for recognizing and preserving the intangible resources of language, stories, and cultural landscapes. He has completed several important books on Yukon history and his personal experiences in the field, and also writes a regular column, “History Hunter,” in the Yukon News. Michael Gates has spent numerous volunteer hours working with organizations restoring historic Dawson buildings and is very generous with his time answering questions related to Yukon history.2)
Michael received the 2007 Yukon Historical and Museums Association (YHMA) Lifetime Achievement in Heritage Award. He is the author of six and counting books about Yukon history and in 2020 became the Yukon’s first Story Laureate.3)