Gordon Irwin “Cam” Cameron (1900 – 1996)
Cam Cameron was born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. He joined the army to fight in the First World War in 1916 and when his unit was demobilized in 1919, he joined the Royal North-West Mounted Police in Regina.1) In 1925, he was sent from Vancouver, as a young Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) constable, to investigate alleged bootlegging and prostitution in Elsa and Keno. He worked undercover at Treadwell Yukon from 9 to 29 June and then broke cover to lay charges. A number of people appeared in court at Keno on 8 July in front of Justice C.D. MacCaulay. George Black was the defence lawyer in all cases and there were a number of appeals. Cameron was transferred to Dawson in August. He met his future wife, Martha Ballentine, in Dawson and they were engaged in 1927. Cameron was assigned to the Yukon’s first search for an aircraft in November 1927. The Queen of the Yukon was reported overdue on a flight from Whitehorse to Mayo. Cameron left Mayo with a team of four horses and crossed the newly frozen Stewart River to follow the winter trail. Early in the afternoon he met pilot Andy Cruikshank and passenger A. McGinness walking out.2)
G.I. Cameron had to leave the police force to marry. He and Martha left the Yukon for a period of two or three years and when they returned, he was posted as an RCMP officer at Fort Selkirk.3) He and Martha lived in the community in the 1930s and ‘40s. Cameron had to perform many other related duties including dentist, doctor, giving last rites, and officiating at burial services. He arrived at the scene after the sternwheeler Klondike lost steering power near Eagle Rock Bluff. Passengers were spread along the river on both sides and freight was floating in the water. The Klondike was abandoned on a sandbar. For years after that he found sacks of rock-hard flour along the riverbank. It was usable if chipped up and mixed with water.4) Cam retired from the Force in 1970. In 1972, he became the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Yukon Legislative Assembly and retired from that position in 1990.5)