Thomas Alexander Dickson (1865 - 1952)
Tom Dickson was born in Ontario to a large family of Scottish descent.1) Tom and brothers Adam and George were lumbering in Keene, Ontario before they joined the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) in 1888.2) He and two brothers were stationed at Tagish Lake. Both brothers were drowned in a boating accident.3) In 1898, Thomas helped build Tagish Post and the Carcross Detachment. In 1900, Dickson arrested George O’Brien, one of Yukon’s most famous murderers. He left the NWMP in 1900 in order to marry.4) Dickson married Louise George, a Tlingit First Nation woman from Haines, Alaska.5) Louise's uncle, Skookum Jim Mason, employed Dickson as a bodyguard to protect his gold. Dickson ran a fish camp on Tagish Lake with his brothers. Tom and Louise settled at Kluane Lake where they raised thirteen children.6)
Dickson started working as a big game guide in 1902, taking hunters out for 60-day pack trips. He became known as one of the first big game guides in the Yukon.7) In 1916, Dickson was the game warden at Kluane Lake and had his homestead on Dickson Creek, named for him.8) Dickson used to guide for the Jacquots at Burwash Landing. The Dickson's had a fox ranch at the foot of the lake and ran hunting parties out of there. The Jacquot's trading post was about 6 miles from there. Ruth's father lost an eye while guiding for the Jacquots and could not guide for the highway. He lost sight in the other eye about a year later.9) Dickson retired in 1949 due to ill health, and he died in Whitehorse four years later. Tom and Louise’s children include Babe (Southwick), Grace (Chambers), Sue (Van Bibber), Ruth (Jacquot), Kluane (Hash), Buck, Richard, Belle (Desrosiers), and Ethel (Baufield).10) Five of the Dickson children, three of them women, operated outfitting concessions in the Yukon: Ruth owned areas #11 and #12; Sue owned area #16; Bobby owned areas #2, #3, and #4; Belle owned areas #14 and #15; and Buck and Richard owned area #10.11)