Emer D. “Sam” Lankins (1894 - 1941)
Sam Lankins was born in Nebraska and lived in Fairbury, California. His parents were Mary Elizabeth Pursell and Homer Joel Lankins.1) Lankins kept a diary recording how, from 1921 to 1923, he was working at different jobs around Lethbridge, Crows Nest Pass, and Jasper. He and a partner went to Winefred Lake, north of Edmonton, built a cabin and trapped for two winters. Then they took their dog team and boat and went up by Great Slave Lake and on to Fort Smith and Fort Fitzgerald, trapping for one winter.2)
Reverend L.G. Chappell knew Lankins when Chappell was stationed at Fort Selkirk in 1939. They met when Lankins was in town waiting for supplies. At that time Lankins was partnered with Ed Larsen and they had a trading post at Moose Creek where they spent eight months of the year. Sam handled the bookkeeping and the inside work while Ed looked after the dogs and the outside work. They both made periodic trips over their trap line. They built a summer cabin at Fort Selkirk and were a part of the social life of the community.3)
A 1939 Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) report on the economics of the area said that woodcutting was the main business at Fort Selkirk. Trapping was next with the most valuable furs being lynx, marten, and beaver, in that order. In 1939, 33% of the total collection came from Zimmerlee's outpost in the Macmillan River area. That area produced about 40% of all the fur produced in the region. Zimmerlee sold his outpost in 1939 to a man named Erickson who was outfitted by the HBC at Fort Selkirk. The outposts up the Macmillan cut off the only band of real First Nation trappers in the Selkirk area. Of the total of twenty-seven native trappers at Fort Selkirk, sixteen belong to the Macmillan area, restrict their activity to that area, and trade between the two posts there. Zimmerlee's competition was the trader trappers, Lankin and Larson. They were located at the junction of the Moose and Macmillan rivers. These men were outfitted for years by Schofield and Zimmerlee at Selkirk but later became independent and competitors.4)
In 1941, Lankin took ill while he and Larsen were at Moose Creek and Larsen brought him to Fort Selkirk by dog team where he waited for the weekly plane to take him to Whitehorse. By the time he arrived at the Whitehorse hospital he was very ill with a heart condition complicated by a bad case of pleurisy. He was alone as Larsen, not realizing how sick he was, stayed at the store to tend the wood stove. Lankin died in the hospital and Larsen returned to Moose Creek for the winter, but Chappell doubted that he would be able to keep up the post by himself.5)