Delorme Donaldson Cairnes (1897 – 1917)
D.D. Cairnes graduated from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He was the Geological Survey’s Yukon specialist from 1905 until his death by accidental drowning in a lake near Ottawa at age thirty-seven. His explorations were extremely important in understanding Yukon geology. Between 1906 and 1910 he investigated Yukon gold, copper and coal deposits.1) In 1906, he visited the Tantalus, Tantalus Butte and Five Finger coal mines. In 1907, he mapped the coal-bearing areas near Carmacks, and visited the lode-bearing areas near Williams and Merrice (Merritt) creeks. He continued this work in 1908 and 1909, and published the reports in 1910. In 1914, he examined the gold placers on Nansen and Victoria creeks near Carmacks.2)
Between 1912 and 1914, Cairnes led an expedition that mapped a five-mile length of the Yukon/Alaska border. This was a joint project with the United States Geological Survey. Their determination of major structural and rock formations is still used. The line from Mount St. Elias to the Arctic Ocean is a cross-section of the entire northern Cordillera. D.D. Cairnes provided the first regular description of this very confused part of the Yukon Plateau and the southern flanks of the Brooks Range. A 9,200 foot/2,800 metre peak in the Kluane Range was named in his honour in the 1920s. Mount Cairnes can be seen south of the Alaska Highway between Haines Junction and Destruction Bay. In the 1960s, a second Mount Cairnes was named. It is 6,200 feet / 1,979 metres and is between Cairnes Creek and Black Mike Creek in the Ogilvie Mountains and can be seen from the Dempster Highway.3)