Edward Harmon Barker (1884 – 1961)
Ed Barker was a dredge master in the Klondike goldfields in 1907 and in the Mayo mining district on Highet Creek for the Titus Dredge Company in 1921. He was master mechanic for Treadwell Yukon at Wernecke Camp from about 1923 to 1931. He bar mined on the Stewart River in 1932 and staked some ground below Dublin Gulch. He worked that ground with Kit Watters and they cleaned up $5,000.1)
Gold was revalued to $35 an ounce in 1934. Barker and Fred Taylor started prospecting at Haggart Creek and Dublin Gulch, panning the creeks and examining old workings. They decided mining was worthwhile at the new price and Baker staked much of Haggart Creek below Dublin Gulch, and Taylor staked on the Gulch. Hugh Bostock first visited them in 1938 when Taylor was putting in a long bedrock drain to carry off the tailings. To get started, Barker borrowed heavily from the Mayo Bank of Montreal managed by Mr. Hall. Barker had virtually no capitol or property to start with and needed the loan to pay wages and buy a bulldozer, frontend loader, dragline and steel sluice boxes. The loans were paid off at the end of each season and Barker operated this way for two or three successive years. In 1941, both Barker and Taylor had successful working and owned most of the claims.2)
In the late 1930s, Barker and partner Irvin Ray bought a D-4 Cat and formed the Haggart Mining Company. By 1940, Barker had 22 claims and twelve miles of prospecting leases along Haggart Creek. The partners closed down the operation about 1946. In 1952, Barker bought the Chateau Mayo Hotel from Jim Mervyn. He continued to prospect and held some 100 hardrock claims. From 1959 he leased his placer claims to the Waddco Placers group and when they moved to Dawson in 1959, Barker mined for a season next to his cabin on Haggart Creek.3) Waddco had reportedly recovered $400,000 in gold from the property.4)
When Whitehorse got busy after the Second World War, Barker and Irvin Ray pooled their resources and bought seven acres in the north end of Whitehorse.5) In 1948, Ed had a business buying trucks, bulldozers and any other equipment he could repair and refitting them to sell at a good profit. His interest in the Whitehorse property was to establish a combined camping-motel-shopping centre.6) The final complex, Tourist Services, was owned by Jack Elliot, Ed Barker, Irvin Ray, and Wardie Forrest. The partners wanted to run an auto court, but Jim Smith convinced them that that would be seasonal, while a grocery would be busy year-round. The store generated money from day one and became a big operation. In 1954, Bruce Sung, who had leased the Tourist Services restaurant and operated as Columbia Caterers, bought out the partners and kept Smith as the general manager.7)