Yukon who is who

Lachlan “Lockie” Taylor Burwash (1874-1940)

Lachlin Burwash was born in Cobourg, Ontario. His father, Nathanial Burwash, was Dean of Theology at Cobourg’s Victoria University and later became president of the college. Lachlin graduated from the School of Practical Sciences at the University of Toronto with a degree in mining engineering.¹⁾

Burwash came to the Yukon in 1897.²⁾ Burwash was an assistant to the Gold Commissioner in Dawson during the gold rush. He brought in a staff of twenty and was accompanied by his wife who was deemed ostentation for having two teapots – one for coffee and one for tea.³⁾ He was appointed mining recorder at Stewart City on the Yukon River in 1900.⁴⁾ When gold was discovered in the Kluane district in 1903, Burwash and mining inspector Percy Reid spent months in the Kluane gold fields where they set up a mining recorders’ office.⁵⁾

Burwash and twenty-two other civil servants lost their jobs in June 1905. This was a cost-saving measure; the territory government hoped to save about seventy-five thousand dollars yearly through the cutbacks. The work of the mining recorders was to be taken over by the police.⁶⁾ It could be that he lost his position because he had been appointed by the defeated Congdon administration. In any case, his dismissal appears to have been overturned and he took a leave of absence later in the year to visit Ontario and marry a distant cousin. By 1907, Lauchlan was the assistant gold commissioner and was stationed in the Whitehorse district. His area included the Kluane goldfields and the more recent staking activity in the Carcross and Wheaten River areas.⁷⁾

In 1908, Burwash was the mining recorder in Whitehorse when reports of good mining prospects were coming from the White River area. The boundary survey party had been working in the district during the summer, and they reported that rich copper deposits were on the Canadian side of the line. Some men did representational work and several claims were staked. They anticipated a rush if a contemplated wagon road was built by the government. Burwash left Whitehorse about the middle of September to locate the trail proposed from Kluane to the head waters of the White and then proposed to go overland to the head of Swede Creek. He gave up on the latter part of the journey and went down the White River in a boat to Dawson as the work was too arduous to undertake so late in the year.⁸⁾ Burwash was posted back to Dawson in 1910. He resigned his post in 1912 and left the Yukon for good in September.⁹⁾

During the First World War, Major Burwash served with the Canadian Field Artillery before signing up the with Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force at the age of 41. Between 1925 and 1930, Burwash was commissioned to make three trips to the Canadian Arctic to prepare an analysis of the mineral resources and to determine, if possible, the fate of Franklin’s Expedition. Burwash was the first person to take aerial photographs of the magnetic north pole. His travels resulted in official reports and articles in popular magazines.¹⁰⁾

Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories was established during an oil boom in the 1920s. Major Lockie Burwash arrived as the head of an administrative body to handle the affairs of the territory.¹¹⁾ In 1934, gold deposits were discovered in Yellowknife by Lockie Burwash, an employee of Bear Exploration and Radium Co.¹²⁾

Burwash Point near Yellowknife is named after Major Lockie Burwash, famous Arctic explorer, in 1930's.¹³⁾ Burwash Landing and Burwash Creek in the Yukon are named for him. One of the foremost authorities on the arctic, Lachlin Taylor Burwash died of pneumonia at his home near Cobourg, Ontario.¹⁴⁾