Edmund Cumming Senkler
Edmund Senkler practiced law in Nelson, British Columbia before he was appointed Yukon Gold Commissioner in September 1898. Much of his law practice was with the mining industry so he was comfortable with the Yukon position. He travelled down the Yukon River in November by boat to Fort Selkirk, and then had to walk to Dawson on the ice. One of the first things he did in office was to open the registry so existing claims were known to everyone, thereby eliminating encroachment.1)
By an Order in Council, Gold Commissioner Senkler and Aylesworth Bowen Perry, Superintendent of the Dominion Mounted Police, were appointed to the Yukon Council in September 1899.2) In 1899, the Gold Commissioner was so overworked that the government authorized the hiring of an Assistant Gold Commissioner.3)
Edmund Senkler and Emma A. McFarlane were married in 1905, and they left Dawson for Victoria, British Columbia in 1910. When Senkler later moved to Victoria, he was appointed secretary to the British Columbia Law Society. Yukon Archives holds the Edmund C. Senkler fonds of photographs, many of which were taken by professional photographer H.J. Goetzman.4)