Mike McDougall
Mike McDougall was raised in Kamloops, British Columbia. He worked as a Japanese motorcycle mechanic and became a service manager at a Kamloops motorcycle dealership between 1978 and 1980, and then worked for Yamaha Motors as a marketing coordinator from 1980 to 1982. McDougal joined his father and stepmother at a family placer mine in the Sixtymile district from 1978 to 1995. His experience as a mechanic came in handy in keeping the vintage equipment working. During that time he started a family mining operation in the Klondike.1) He was elected to the Board of the Klondike Placer Miners Association (KPMA) in 1999.2) That year Mike and his wife Kim were named Mr. and Mrs. Miner by the KPMA. McDougal returned to Kamloops in 1999 and was president of Kamloops Yamaha until September 2003 when the Yukon called him back.3)
In December 2002, the federal government had thrown out several years of consultation and did away with the Yukon Placer Authorization instead of going ahead with the revisions. McDougall was asked by Stewart Schmidt to stay and help but he had to return to his business. On his return to Kamloops, he received an offer of interest on his business and so, during the fires around Kamloops, he also received an offer on his house. By the time the fall AGM for the KPMA arrived Mike was back in the Klondike. Tara Christie had been volunteering and lobbying the government. Mike became president again and Tara was hired to lobby full time.4)
Mike McDougall became the Sixty Mile project manager for Schmidt Mining for three seasons from 2003 to 2006, working twenty-four hours, seven days a week for months at a time. For nine months from 2006 to 2007, McDougall was site manager for the United Keno Hill Mine while it was under exploration by Alexco.5) McDougall remains an active placer miner on the operation he started with his family in 1988.6)