John Stenbraten (1887 - 1999)

John Stenbraten was born in San Francisco in 1887 when his family was visiting from Norway. John lived in Oslo, Norway until he was fourteen when he went to work for his uncle on a North Dakota farm. At age fifteen, John left for a life of travel. He registered claims at Livingstone around 1906 and still had active claims there in the 1940s. He travelled in Alaska and claimed to have crossed the Bering Strait to Russia. He travelled in other parts of the United States and Mexico and spent time in Dawson, Mayo/Keno, Kluane and Atlin. Somewhere along the line he became known as “Stampede John” for his restless behaviour. He walked everywhere and staked lots of claims. In the 1950s he built a small cabin on Atlin Lake and it became the home of him and his wife (married in 1961), Whitehorse high-school teacher Doris McMurphy. Their estate of $374,000 was donated to the Yukon Foundation after Doris' death.¹⁾