Bert Law (1914 – 1998)
Bert Law was born in Hamilton, Ontario and moved to California in 1934 during the Great Depression. He served in the United States military and became an American citizen. He was working in Berkeley when he met his wife, Ellen.1) His sold his service station to travel north in 1948. He and his wife Ellen and their three children travelled in an ex-military vehicle that Law had converted into a camper. They bought an abandoned military camp at Mile 843 on the Alaska Highway and developed it into a highway lodge.2)
Law met Al Kulan in the late 1940s and invited him and his wife and child to stay at Law's Silver Dollar Lodge near Johnson's Crossing. Kulan made it his base of operations for prospecting and made Law a full partner in whatever he found. They developed a five-year plan that included Ross River Kaska prospectors. Law grubstaked the plan that at one time meant supporting Kulan and up to ten Kaska families. He supplied groceries so the men were free to prospect, and they showed Kulan mineralized outcrops they had known about for years. Kulan and Law staked discovery claims over a visible mineral outcrop that became the Vangorda mine’s focal point, about seven miles up from the mouth of the creek. A court case took two years to straighten out the interests in the property rights. In the end, Law was left with a $25,000 house and an additional $15,000 that was spent during the waiting period. He abandoned prospecting and the Silver Dollar Lodge and move to Ross River in 1955. He bought the trading post from T&D and expedited supplies downriver to Vangorda Camp.3)
The Laws moved to Whitehorse in 1954 where Bert worked at different jobs and opened Yukon Reality real estate office. He got involved in local politics and became a Whitehorse City Councillor [1980 - 1988]. The Bert Law Park is on a small island [Temptation Island] in the Yukon River beside the Robert Service Campground in Whitehorse. The park was initially connected to the shore by a Baily bridge built as an exercise by the Canadian military in 1986. Law urged the development of the park as an area within city boundaries left in his natural state for all to enjoy. Bert resigned as a City councillor in July 1988 and he and Ellen Law moved to Nanaimo, British Columbia.4)