Augustus Christiann Maria “Gus” Karpes (1941 – 2021)

Gus Karpes was born in Holland to parents Walter and Anna Maria Karpes. The family came to Canada in 1952, and Gus arrived in the Yukon in the 1960s. He and his first wife, Elizabeth, had two children. He and Irene Pugh were married in 1985 and were in business together for forty-four years. She remembers him as an entrepreneur, adventurer, riverboat captain, artist, woodworker, published author, awesome chef, ferocious reader, businessman, and a fantastic dancer.¹⁾

Gus Karpe wrote many books about the Yukon including Tales from the Lake (1967), and Footsteps On the Livingstone Trail (2009), and many river guides including the Nisutlin (1982), Big Salmon (1998), Teslin (1985), and Upper Yukon (1998) rivers.