Arthur R. “Shorty” Auston
Arthur Auston came to the Yukon in 1898 and was a North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) officer stationed at Tagish Post.1) He and his friend Tom Dickson retired from the Force to marry First Nation women. Annie and Arthur Auston settled in Carcross.2)
In July 1920, Charlie Baxter returned from Vancouver with twenty-five head of horses, twelve of which were for Shorty Austen of Carcross, another big game hunters’ guide.3) In 1934 three of the seven very profitable fox and/or mink farms in the Yukon were in Carcross. Shorty Auston was raising mink only. Alfred Dickson and Matthew Watson had mink and fox. The other fox farms belonged to Mrs. Ida R. Back (Carmacks), Tremaine Best (Dawson), Thomas T. Murray (Carmacks) and M.E. Bones (White Horse) [Kluane].4)
Shorty’s son Robert “Bobbie” Auston told geologist Hugh Bostock that Shorty earned his living during the winter by shooting sheep up the Wheaton River. He employed two men with dog teams all winter to take the carcasses to the train at Carcross and the meat was sold in Whitehorse. Bobbie said some winters he shot more than 100 sheep, which Hugh thought was an exaggeration. However, mutton was always available in Whitehorse in the early 1930s.5)