Roner West

Roner West was a mining engineer who emigrated from Scandinavia in the early 1900s. His prospecting trips led him deep into the Yukon bush where isolation had a detrimental effect on his mind.¹⁾

West was in the Keno area in the early 1920s and locals complained of him stealing supplies from caches. He was paranoid and spent more and more time in the bush. Ted Skonseng, a well-known prospector from Ross River, spent a winter trapping north of Niddery Lake. He and West got into a scuffle and West kept Skonseng tied up at night and made him pull a sleigh to Mayo at gun point. West freed him near the community and Skonseng had to spend a few days in the hospital.²⁾

Tom Connolly and Jack Dewhurst met West on the Stewart River, and they reported his position to the police. West escaped from them without his shoes and he froze his feet before recapture. Over the next ten years, West would show up at wilderness camps to trade furs for supplies. Travellers who came across West's empty camp would leave supplies for him. Bill Drury Sr. and three companions met West when they were freighting supplies to their stores via the South Canol Road. He was near Rose River and in bad shape. They had killed a moose and gave him most of it for helping them get their vehicle unstuck. The next spring, Tom and Jean Connolly found him in a cabin beside the intersection of the South Macmillan Road and the North Canol Road. They chatted and accepted his offer of a boat to cross the river where the bridge had washed out. This was the last time he was seen.³⁾

West Lake in the Rogue Mountains is named for Roner West.⁴⁾