Jack W. Baker
Jack Baker trapped in the Mackenzie Delta for eight years. He left the Arctic in 1936 and went to Fort Liard where he took over a small trading post for Northern Traders Ltd. The company had about ten posts along the Mackenzie in opposition to the Hudson's Bay Co.1)
A small plane landed in 1938 and the pilot, Grant McConachie, asked to stay the night. McConachie was interested in a small radio that Jack had built and was impressed that he had taught himself Morse Code. McConachie asked him to go to Watson Lake and open a station for radio and weather reports. The Northern Traders sold out in 1939, and Baker returned home to Winnipeg in the fall of 1938. He didn't like the city and contacted McConachie to see if the job was still open. It was, so he hitched a ride on the mail plane to Fort Nelson, borrowed a dog team to get his things at Fort Liard, and was landed in Watson Lake in February 1939 by pilot Phil Oakes.2)
Jack Baker, Frank Watson, and Vic Johnson met the first plane landing at the new air strip at Watson Lake. They had cut a lot of building logs and had the station almost finished. The company had sent in radio equipment, a short-wave transmitter and receiver, batteries and a gas generator. The Dominion Weather Service had sent in weather equipment. Frank Watson died soon after and Vic only stayed until the other buildings were completed before leaving to go prospecting. Baker sent his weather observations to the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals wireless station at Fort Simpson or Whitehorse.3)
Baker was the radio operator at Watson Lake for Yukon Southern Air Transport from 1939 to 1942, before the Alaska Highway was built. United Air Transport became Yukon Southern Air Transport and McConachie had some new twin engine aircraft, so Baker needed help. Gordon Stock arrived in late summer to do the outside chores such as cutting wood and tending planes. When Stock came down with an infection behind his eye, Baker had to perform the operation with the doctor from Fort Simpson advising over the radio. Stock left for the hospital at Fort St. John when the next plane landed. In 1942 McConachie formed Canadian Pacific Air Lines with Yukon Southern as the nucleus. Baker was promoted to Chief Dispatcher on northern lines based at Whitehorse. By this time the government was building airports, including one at Watson Lake, and installing its own radio and weather stations.4) Baker was making $250 a month. The Americans were building an air force base at the Whitehorse airfield, now the Erik Nielson International Airport, and were busy putting up buildings on the plateau above the escarpment. They needed help, and they offered Jack $500 a month just to pound nails.5)