Yukon who is who

Arthur Eldon Anderson (1912 - 1996)

Art Anderson was born at Forty Mile to parents Mary (Charles) Phillips and Pete Anderson. Mary died in childbirth, and Art was raised by his father who taught him to trap and run a dog team. He and his father left Forty Mile in 1933 to farm in the Clinton Creek valley.¹⁾

When Art was 23, he and his father were at the far end of the trapline, near the Alaska Dome, looking for trees to build a line cabin. They returned home along the Clinton Creek valley and saw a green coloured outcrop that Pete recognised as asbestos. There was no use for asbestos in the early days, but after the war Yukon Consolidated Gold Corp approached Art for information about the location. It was not until Fred Caley told Art that another company was coming in to search and stake that Art agreed to stake the deposit. Fred grubstaked him. Art and a friend [George Walters] walked in and staked two claims on the deposit. Fred was impressed with the samples and asked his son, Bob, to meet them at the claim. Bob snowshoed in down the Fortymile from Alaska, and they staked a total of eight claims on the property. On their return to Dawson, they contacted Alec Berry at Conwest's Whitehorse office. The first exploration work was done that summer and trenching continued for three to four summers. Art and George came in and set up the first camp for the geologists and worked with picks and shovels during the early exploration.²⁾ Art received financial compensation for the find, and also took full-time salaried employment for the exploration stages. He acquired a team of big black horses that he used to travel on the Yukon River. On one of these trips, he met Mary Eva Simon of Moosehide. They were married in 1947 and raised three children.³⁾

During the 10-year lifespan of the Clinton Creek Asbestos Mine, Arthur Elton Anderson was renowned as the No. 1 employee on the company's payroll. The mine, which exhausted its reserves and closed in 1977, was at the relevant time Canada's most northerly open-pit operation. Company officials always brought attention to Art Anderson, whom they lauded as a legend within his own time.⁴⁾

Art Anderson was a font of information for Clinton Creek Historical Society that formed in the 1970s to protect the Forty Mile historic site. His cabin was the largest main cabin. When the cabin burned, the fire spread through the dry uncut grass to the next best cabin and burned it to the foundation. It also scorched the one next to it – a cabin built by Art Anderson’s father.⁵⁾

Over the years Art worked at a variety of jobs including on the ferries at the Stewart and Pelly rivers, woodcutting, and fishing. He worked for Clinton Creek Asbestos’ exploration division until he got too old to walk home. In 1972, he transferred to townsite maintenance for the community of 500 people. The community was located where Art and his father once farmed.⁶⁾

Art Anderson was inducted into the Yukon Prospectors’ Association Hall of Fame in 2005.