John Delbert Scott. (1910 – 2004)
John Scott was born in Tacoma, Washington. He and his family moved to Alaska in 1916 and then to the Yukon in 1922.1) He remembered the trip from Nenana, Alaska to Whitehorse on the sternwheeler Seattle III. Whitehorse was a small company town with about 400 residents. The British Yukon Navigation Co. (BYN Co.) was the town's chief employer. Scott went to the University of Washington and received a degree in mining engineering but every summer he returned to Whitehorse to work as a longshoreman for the BYN Co.2)
Scott worked on the construction of the sternwheeler Klondike in 1928.3) That year Scott’s father, John Henderson Scott, died when John Jr. was in his second year of university.4) With increased financial pressures, Scott spent one year working at the Silver King mine in Mayo. A friend on the Yukon lent him the $1,000 to finish his final year. He graduated in 1933, but there were no jobs for mining engineers, or anyone else, so Scott returned to his old job as longshoreman.5)
Around 1933, John Scott and his mother took on the job of running the Pelly Crossing roadhouse for the winter. It paid $60 per month for the two of them, plus their food. At that time there were roadhouses at Braeburn, Carmacks, Yukon Crossing, Pelly Crossing, Stewart Crossing, and Summit Lake. Findley Beaton's place at Minto was available in an emergency. Mom and son rode up to Pelly Crossing on top of the loaded sleigh pulled by a little tracked vehicle. Pelly Crossing Roadhouse was a log two-story and had been deserted all summer. There was no wood cut for the winter. John cut it along the trail so the returning stage could haul it into the roadhouse. The stage brought mail, supplies, and the overnight guests would usually play four-handed crib. The stage crews made a point of staying overnight at Pelly as John's mother was a good cook. On a still night you could hear the stage coming for hours and on other nights there was only a few minutes warning. The Van Bibbers lived a mile upriver and they were the only neighbours.6)
In 1935, Scott returned to the Elsa Mine and in December married Dorothy Phelps. Soon after this, he got his first job as a mining engineer at Elsa where he helped start the Calumet and No Cash mines.7) Scott was admitted to the Association of Professional Engineers of British Columbia in 1941.8) The silver mines shut down in 1941 and Scott went to work for the Alaska/Juneau Gold Mine with his wife and one-year-old son. After five years in Juneau, Scot started with the Phelp's family business, the Yukon Electrical Co.9) By 1945, the Scotts were back in Mayo and John was head of the engineering department and mine superintendent. He joined the Yukon Electrical Company in 1946 and was involved in the company business for the next 50 years.10)
In 1948, the diesel generator that supplied power to Whitehorse was overloaded. John Scott and his brother-in-law, John Phelps, started to look at hydro power. They built a ditch between Fish Lake and Louise Lake. They raised the water level in the ditch in the fall and after the water froze, they lowered the level so the water rushed past under the ice. Willard Phelps backed the project with his life savings. The hydro plant began operations in May 1950. In 1958, Alberta-owned Canadian Utilities Company bought the Yukon Electrical Company.11) Scott left the company in 1959. He was among the first engineers to be admitted to the Association of Professional Engineers of the Yukon Territory in May 1956.12)
John drew up the plans for the MV Schwatka after the creation of Schwatka Lake. The vessel was built in Vancouver in the early 1960s and it had a portable pilot house for hauling purposes. The boat was brought up the coast to Skagway on the Clifford J. Rogers. It was taken under her own power to Haines where it was placed on a tractor-trailer with the pilot house on another truck. Dorothy did the research for the interpreters on the Schwaka tour. Up to 8000 passengers a year have enjoyed the river tour.13)
Scott designed and supervised construction of the MacBride Museum in the 1960s. At age sixty-eight he was busy skating at the Takhini arena, attending historical society functions, or driving out to his cabin at Windy Arm. His wife died in 1978. They bought the family house in 1954. His son Mike became a Whitehorse retail jeweller, and son Bill became a research scientist with the Chevron Oil Co. in California.14)
John Delbert Scott was the 2004 Transportation Pioneer of the Year.15) He was honoured for his design of the MV Schwatka.16) He received a City of Whitehorse heritage award in 1988 for his design and development of MacBride Museum.17)