John Horace “Jack” Hayden
Jack Hayden drove a stage in Colorado, was a cowboy in Texas, joined the Klondike stampede, and moved on to Alaska. He ended up in the Kluane district almost broke and started trapping.1) He had a reputation as a mountain man and he did some outfitting and guiding.2) Hayden brought his seasons furs into Whitehorse in 1924 and was pleased with the prices he received which ran up into four figures. He said that trappers could do better selling their furs in Whitehorse than by shipping them out. He bought his year's supplies and returned to Kluane.3) John Hayden and Anne Boss, daughter of Johnny Ned, married in 1925.4) One of Hayden’s sons was ill with appendicitis in the winter of 1934 and the trip to Whitehorse was a seven-day trip by dogsled over an unbroken trail.5)
In October 1934, Morley Bones sold his homestead and fox farm on Kluane Lake to Jack Hayden.6) Hayden moved his family from their previous location at the north end of Kluane Lake, near the outlet into the Kluane River, and took over Morley Bones' house at Silver City.7) The Haydens were living at Silver City when the US Army came through to build the Alaska Highway.8) In 1942, Hayden had a wind turbine that he used for pumping water and generating electricity.9)
Hayden lost almost his whole family to tuberculosis and a drowning at Whitehorse. He became an abusive husband, and his wife shot him. Everyone in the area came to her defence.10)