Walter Isreal

Walter Isreal came to the Yukon from Mt. Lehman, British Columbia around 1936. The boat dropped him off at Merrit Island and Happy Lepage's wood camp. He loved the life and the country and stayed.¹⁾ For a number of years Isreal worked at a wood camp for Afe Brown near Merrice Creek, a tributary of the Yukon River. Brown disappeared on a prospecting trip in the summer of 1944.²⁾ Isreal took over the business and married Leta, Brown’s widow.³⁾ Isreal had wood camps up and down the river. Walter and Leta lived at Merrice Creek until 1947. When the river boats stopped running, the Isreals moved to Carmacks and built and operated the Carmacks Hotel until Walter’s retirement.⁴⁾ They sold the business in the early 1980s and bought a home in Sydney, British Columbia where they spent the winters. Summers were spent near Dawson on Hunker Creek.((Leta Isreal Obituary. Yukon News (Whitehorse), 2 July 1999.)