Jack F. Meloy (1894 - 1973)
Jack Meloy was born in Yakima, Washington and ran away from home when he was twelve years old.1) He was in Chisana, Alaska in 1918 and later became an important resident of McCarthy.2) Jack met his future wife Hazel in McCarthy, Alaska.3)
Around 1913, Jack was running horse pack trains to the mining camps on the White and Tanana rivers.4) He and his partner, Auston Trim cut a trail up the Donjek Valley. They picked up the mail in Dawson and took it into Alaska by pack horse.5) Jack and Hazel were married at Fort Selkirk in 1927.6)
In 1930, the Meloys moved to Coffee Creek from their placer mine on Rude Creek. For about five years, Mrs. Meloy ran a small store for Taylor & Drury.7) They ran the post office and traded for furs at Wellesely Lake.8) Simon [Charley?] Isaac remembers unloading steamboats in Dawson for $1.50 per day in the 1930s. Between 1931 and 1936 he unloaded Jack Meloy's wood rafts at the mouth of the Klondike River. Meloy cut cord wood at Coffee Creek and would put twenty cords on a raft at a time and haul about 200 cords a year to Dawson. Simon got twenty-five cents an hour to unload those rafts. It was hard work and the best paying job around at the time. You had to stand in the cold river.9) The Meloys left Coffee Creek after being flooded out several times.10)
Geologist Hugh Bostock examined tungsten and antimony prospects on Canadian Creek in 1941. Jack Meloy had convinced Alfie Allen that his claims were rich by taking him around to all the good spots. Allen formed a company of his friends and optioned Meloy’s ground. Bostock determined there was a narrow strip of rich ground extending down a pup into the creek where a considerable amount of mining had been done. Alfie and his backers, including Bill Bacon, abandoned Canadian Creek after the 1941 mining season.11)
The Meloys moved to Kirkman Creek in 1948 and lived there for sixteen years before they moved to Dawson.12) They had a ranch with hay meadows, a garden and horses. He trapped, cut wood for the steamers, prospected and did some placer mining. The steamers did not like to stop there are there were sandbars near the landing and if the Meloys wanted them to stop they put up a white flag. Once when Jack was away Mrs. Meloy put up a flag, but Captain Campbell was in a hurry and did not stop the steamer Casca. There are three differing stories on why Mrs. Maloy shot at the boat.13)
The Meloys moved to Dawson after the sternwheelers stopped running the Yukon River in the 1950s. They were active in community affairs. In 1971, the Yukon Order of Pioneers chose them to be Mr. and Mrs. Yukon for the Sourdough Rendezvous Festival held in Whitehorse. Jack Meloy died while on a hunt between Kirkman and Thistle creeks.14) A creek in the Dawson Range is named for Jack Meloy.