James Patrick Kirk (b. 1918)
Jim Kirk was working at a Hudson’s Bay Company Co. (HBC) store in Winnipeg when he was transferred to the fur trade department and posted to Fort Selkirk. He arrived in February 1939 and worked as an apprentice clerk under John Forrest.1) That winter, Kirk was sent to Stewart Island, at the mouth of the Stewart River, to help with freight for a new Yukon post. The community was a small group of white trappers and prospectors, plus a crew of seasonal dock workers. It was the transfer point for freight heading up the Stewart and for silver ore shipped from the Mayo mine. Kirk stayed at Stewart for the next five months and never got back to Fort Selkirk to say goodbye to all the good friends he got to know there. The HBC had just built a new dwelling at Stewart Island. quite an improvement over the old log building at Selkirk.2)
The new store, finished in the fall of 1941, replaced the small log cabin that had been the store, post office and living quarters. An old Model-T Ford truck came with the property and it was used for moving freight. “Paddy” Houston was the post manager at Stewart Island. He and his wife had a baby daughter and part of Kirk’s duties was to help with the laundry. They moved into the new store in late October and the old log building became a warehouse.3)
There was no landing strip at Stewart and so there was no mail after the last boat until freezeup and the monthly dog team service from Dawson began. After freeze up, they ran a wire across the ice to connect to the telegraph line and shortly after, received word that the first dog team was on the way with mail. The next day, Kirk received orders from the District Office to proceed to Whitehorse to help with the Christmas rush.4)
The ice was too rough for a plane to land so Kirk travelled to Dawson with the mail courier after scribbling another change of address to family and friends. Walter Delynn was the mail carrier and he was headed right back to Dawson. After loading freight and mail, he only had room for one bag and a sleeping bag for Kirk. He left his belongings behind to be shipped to Whitehorse whenever transport was available. They started about seven in the morning and travelled until well after dark. They arrived at the home of a retired rancher and found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. Kirk and Delynn fed his dogs and carried on reaching a wood chopper’s empty cabin about eight p.m. They stayed the next night in an empty telegraph cabin after about thirty miles of travel.5)
In Dawson, Kirk checked in at the Westminster Hotel and Delynn took the dogs to their stable on the outskirts of town. They reported the death of the rancher to the RCMP who were not surprised. The police knew the man had been in ill health and had tried to get him to move to town for the winter. Kirk was able to get a flight to Whitehorse that left a couple of days later.6) Kirk remained in Whitehorse until June 1941 when he left the Yukon to join the RCAF. He was living on Denman Island in 1989 when he returned to the Yukon for a visit. The Jim Kirk fonds at the Yukon Archives contains photographs and records collected by Kirk during his time in the Yukon: Yukon photos 1939-1941 – Fort Selkirk, Stewart River, and Whitehorse.7)