Ed Kunze (b. 1900)
Ed Kunze was born on Bonanza Creek in 1900, the year his family moved north from California. They lived near the Ogilvie Bridge over the Klondike River before moving into Dawson. Ed was the eldest child of three and they all went to school in the town. Ed worked as a taxi driver to the surrounding creeks before he was employed at the 12 Mile Powerhouse and the North Fork Powerhouse on the Klondike River. He went to Mayo in 1925 to work for Treadwell Yukon as a diesel powerhouse operator and later as a mechanic in the machine shop. When he left Treadwell Yukon, he placer mined in the Stewart River gravel bars with Ed Barker, Norman Wightman, and Frank Gillespie and then went back to Dawson. Ed Kunze and his brother Bonner returned to Mayo in 1945 and took over the power generating plant and distribution system from Lou Titus and Alex Nicol. The Northern Canada Power Commission (NCPC) eventually bought the Kunze brothers out, and Ed worked for NCPC until 1966 when he retired.1)
In 1952, Hugo Seaholm, and Bonner and Ed Kunze formed a partnership to manage the Takhini Hotsprings near Whitehorse. Before it was improved, a log pool for swimmers was fed by a six-inch pipe 400 feet from the spring. The log foundations of the pool were used to construct a building when a new pool was built. Bonner Kunze was the manager on site. Seaholm and the Kunzes sold the hot springs to Harry Gordon-Cooper around 1956.2)
Ed Kunze and Molly and John Donald showed films at the Wareham Hall in Mayo. Ed also drove the minibus between Mayo and Stewart Crossing and between Mayo and Elsa. He quit this job in 1968. That year he married Betty Podger, the nurse in charge of the Mayo Hospital and they moved to Vancouver, British Columbia and then Australia.3)