Charles Franklin Boutillier
Franklin Boutillier came to the Yukon from the Maritimes-New Hampshire area in the early 1900s. His wife, Maude Graves, and their children Hazel, Helen, Donald (b.1900) and Harold (b. 1902) joined him several years later. In 1903, Franklin was prospecting in the Christmas Creek area, southwest of Kluane Lake, and Boutiller Summit is named for him.1) The Boutillier family moved from the Kluane area to a wood camp on Lake Laberge where they put out wood for the White Pass boats.2)
C. F. Boutillier and J. H. Langley applied for separate 400' waterfront leases just above the telegraph office at Lower Laberge. Boutillier also applied for a 300' lease on the other side of the river. Langley pulled his steamer up to the site in the winter of 1911-12 and he had plans to build barges and store freight. Boutillier also constructed ways and had the sternwheelers Evelyn and Delta pulled up during the same winter. These private leases were given up the next year.3) The ways continued in use. The sternwheelers Washburn and Delta operated between Tanana and Dikeman during the 1914 season. The Washburn was then put on the ways at Lower Laberge, with the barge Shay, for the winter. (Yukon Archives, Cor 722 (1914) WP&YR. RGI, II-I)) The Delta, Reliance, and Washburn were among the boats that commonly wintered at Lake Laberge. (Yukon Archives, Yukon River Oral History Project, 81/32, tape 6, Johnny Hoggan interview.)
Son Jack and daughter Margie (Art Fry) were born in the Yukon. In 1914, when Margie was two years old, the family floated down the Yukon River to Dawson. They lived downtown before moving to a large home on the hill behind Dawson, near the cemeteries.4) The Boutillier family mined on Bonanza Creek.5)