Cortlandt Perry Mack (~1866 - 1942)
Cortlandt Mack was born in Minnesota, one of four brothers who made their mark in the Yukon: Charles Franklin, Frederick Almon, and Eugene Kirkland Mack. Before he came north, Cort worked in the Minneapolis Gold Reduction Works where he invented a precursor to the Bunsen burner. Cort organized an expedition in 1898 when he heard about the Klondike strike. He bought double-ended sleighs and oxen broken to the yoke, plus food, supplies, and tools. The supplies were supposed to follow the party up on the City of Seattle but the steamer capsized that summer so they loaded everything onto the barge Resolute. They travelled up the pass in February 1898 and one of their party, Mrs. Rudderman, died in an snow slide. The Macks constructed large, stable barges at Bennett to ship themselves and their supplies to Dawson, and they sold the oxen to men returning to Skagway.1)
A number of mineral claims a few miles south-west of Montague were known locally as Mack's Copper because they were originally owned by the Mack brothers. The property was reached by a road leaving the Whitehorse-Dawson Trail about six miles above Montague and following the old Dalton Trail south-westerly along the Hutshi River. The main mass of mineral is in the form of a small hill of almost solid iron ore, about 200 feet wide and from 300 to 400 feet wide. On the south side of the hill, the iron ore carries considerable copper. Geologist D.D. Cairnes visited a prospecting drift there in 1908 that in July was 38 feet long.2) The brothers were living nine miles north of Little Salmon. They were keeping up the necessary assessment work on their claim, hoping to attract more capitol.3) In 1903, the Macks were employed by Mr. J. H. to fish for him in the lakes west of Little Salmon. The Mack Brothers could not hold a commercial license as they were not British subjects.4) Cort Mack died in Carmacks at the age of seventy-six after a lengthy illness.5)