Merl Martin (b. 1917)

Merl Martin was born in Alberta and came to the Yukon at age 12 to homestead with his father. They built a cabin on Grist Lake in the Watson Lake area, and trapped, hunted, fished, and prospected. They brought in six horses but had to shoot them after a very hard winter. The next time they went they took dogs. When he was young, Merl had a 60-mile trap line along the Buffalo River and it took 12 days to cover the distance, going from 10 to 40 miles a day. He hunted for food along the way. He later had traps on Madison Creek. In 1973, he was prospecting north of Ross River. Merl’s wife was a Tlingit woman, Lucy Ellen.¹⁾