Louis (Lewis) Napoleon Markle
Louis Markle, from Seattle, was in Whitehorse in 1902/03 where he ran the Royal restaurant. In May 1904, he and partner B.F. Hainer staked some claims on Bullion Creek in the Kluane Mining District and Markle immediately put half of his interest in three claims up for sale. Back in Whitehorse, he purchased Louis Bell’s water delivery business in July. He sold the water and scavenger business to William Johnson in July 1905 and told the local newspaper that he was undecided about what he would do next. In February 1906, he bought a lot in Conrad and was planning to build a restaurant. In July, he applied for a hotel licence for a planned hotel at Robinson, and he started buying building material for that project in August. He probably used the money he received from selling an interest in the hotel to Frank Demontier. The money may not have taken him very far, for in November Markle was working in the restaurant business in Skagway. While Markle was struggling, his wife was doing well. In August 1907, she took over the Dominion Hotel in Whitehorse and was charging a high price for room and board. In November she purchased her husband’s roadhouse at Robinson and announced plans to upgrade the facility.1)
In 1908, Markle was successfully engaged in the transfer and express business at Fairbanks. In 1910, he was running a restaurant in Iditarod, but then he was broke but still hustling by November. The Fairbanks Times announced that Louis Markle was broke in Iditarod in October 1915 but was planning a comeback by bringing ten tons of vegetables into the camp. He married his sister-in-law in 1916. They met for the first time when she arrived in Anchorage. He was employed by the Alaskan Engineering commission at the time.2)