Patrick William Van Bibber (1922 – 2016)

Pat Van Bibber was born in the Pelly Crossing area, the eighth child of parents Ira and Eliza Jackson Van Bibber. He met Ada Blanchard from Hell’s Gate, on the Yukon River near Fort Selkirk, and they were married in 1949. He worked on ferries at Stewart and Carmacks before the bridges were built.¹⁾ The Yukon government took over maintenance of the Mayo Road in 1957, and Pat Van Bibber continued to work as the road foreman until he retired in 1987.²⁾

Dawson born Geraldine Kelly met Pat Van Bibber in Dawson, and he followed her when she went out to Calgary to attend Mount Royal College. She left college and they were married. They moved to Mayo where Pat worked for United Keno Hill Mines. After a year they moved to Elsa and Geraldine started working at the mine office. Four years later they moved to Whitehorse where Pat worked for Canadian National Telecommunications (Northwestel) and Geraldine worked for the Yukon Government in the Finance Department. Pat was elected Chief of the Selkirk First Nation in the late 1980s, and he commuted from Pelly Crossing to Whitehorse and the family. The Van Bibbers started Minto Resorts on the Yukon River in 1987. Geraldine worked for the government in the winter and ran the resort in the summers. Holland-America tours stopped for lunch and by 1999 the Van Bibbers were serving over 17,000 passengers per season. After twelve years Pat did not seek election as chief, and they sold the resort in 1999. But after five years away they leased the business and operated it again. Pat ran the business for four years while Geraldine was Yukon’s Commissioner.³⁾