Yukon who is who

Edward Morris Jones (b. 1943) and Star Wanda Romer Jones (b. 1936)

Ed Jones grew up in New York state. He obtained a BA in psychology at Rutgers University in 1957, an MA in education from New York University in 1963, and PhD in education administration in 2000. Star Jones studied English at Michigan State University and graduated in 1957. The couple married in Suffern, New York in 1959.¹⁾ Ed and Star came to Dawson in the fall of 1962. In early 1963 they owned and were living on Sisters’ Island, purchased from the Sisters of St. Ann who left the Yukon soon after the sale. The island is three miles downriver from Dawson, across the Yukon River from Moosehide. In the summer of 1964, the Jones’ operated boat tours down to the island and to a fish wheel they had set up on the channel between the island and the shore. They had a museum set up in the barn and sold locally made items in a gift shop. They sold the tour business after several years, but they continued to live on the 42-acre island in the summers. They spent their first winter in Dawson in 1965 and became interested in Joe Ladue. They visited his relatives and the places he lived in the United States, and spent many years researching his life.²⁾
During the off season, Ed worked as a public-school teacher in Dawson (1965-1966) and in Whitehorse (1966-1967). He managed education initiatives in several American states from 1967 to 1972 and worked on education initiatives in the New Mexico State Department from 1972 to 1992. In Dawson, the Jones’ founded the Dawson Junior Historical Society in 1965, established a summer visitors centre in the Commissioner’s Residence for two summers, and created a Dawson City Deaths and Burials database. They arranged for the erection of commemorative plaques for Joseph Ladue, Jack McQuesten, and Fred Caley. They worked for many years on projects to clean and restore the cemetery markers in Dawson’s eight cemeteries. In 1998, the Jones’ donated their substantial collection of Klondike books, documents, research material and ephemera to the Dawson Museum so the museum could establish the Klondike History Library.³⁾

¹⁾ , ³⁾

Ed and Star Jones Klondike collection, Dawson City Museum, 2021 website: http://www.dawsonmuseum.ca/archives/fonds-descriptions/?id=17.

²⁾

Ed and Star Jones, All That Glitters: The Life and Times of Joe Ladue Founder of Dawson City, Wolfe Creek Books, 2005: 11-13.