Joe Fellers
Joe Fellers came to Dawson in the mid-1960s, met Dawson-born Wendy Hakonson, and they were married in 1968. The Fellers bought out Ivor Norbeck in 1974 and mined one season on Dominion Creek. After that they spent sixteen years mining on Sixtymile River and Big Gold and Glacier creeks. Joe and Wendy mined with their two sons, JJ and Will. In 1990, they moved to Kirkman Creek and have also mined at Ballarat and Thistle creeks. In 2005, Joe and Wendy Fellers received Klondike Placer Miners’ Association’s (KPMA) Miners of the Year Award. Since the beginning of the Yukon Quest sled dog race, the Fellers have contributed four ounces of gold as a prize for the first musher into Dawson City and make other donations to support their community. Wendy served on the KPMA Board of Directors and organized fund-raising efforts including the annual Mining and Dining dinner and auction.1) In 2014, Fell-Hawk Placers won the Robert E. Leckie Award for excellence in environmental stewardship. The family business operated on Ballarat Creek in the Dawson mining district until 2013 and adhered to an extremely high operational standard demonstrated in water conveyance structure, new roads and trails, camp construction and final decommissioning of the site.2)