William S. “Bill” Hare (1900 - 1983)
William Hare was born in Simons Town, South Africa and was drawn to the Yukon by Jack London's books. He arrived in Whitehorse in 1922 and travelled down the Yukon River to Dawson. Not finding work there, he went to Mayo.1) He worked at the Binet Bros. Store. In 1923, he started hauling groceries up to the Keno Hill mine. In 1925, he started as a mill operator at Wernecke Camp for Treadwell Yukon.2) Bill and Nora Ross married in 1926. Nora was the daughter of Jack Ross of Minto Lake.3)
Bill was an accomplished photographer and for a while was the Kodak agent in Mayo. He produced a souvenir folder of photographic views of Mayo and Keno in 1924.4) The Bill Hare fonds at Yukon Archives includes 802 photographs circa 1923-1937, 5 film reels and five audio sound recordings as commentary for his films.5)
Bill and Nora lived at Elsa in the 1930s.6) In 1942, geologist Hugh Bostock hired three experienced prospectors, Joe Winters, Henry LeBlanc, and Bill Hare. They were looking for deposits of tinstone and scheelite in the Mayo mining region.7)
The family moved to Dawson at the start of WWII and the children finished high school there. Bill and Nora retired to Salmon Arm, British Columbia.8)