Charles McConnell (1871 - 1946)
Charles McConnell was born in Pisque, PEI. He worked as a fireman in Maine and made a name as a weightlifter. He headed north during the Klondike gold rush and worked as a packer on the Stikine Trail and hauled a sled to Atlin in 1899. He worked on the White Pass Overland Trail construction between Whitehorse and Dawson and dove a Concord stage on the winter road.1)
McConnell recovered gold from Burwash Creek and exhibited his gold at Stoddart’s Whitehorse store in 1905. He settled at Robinson in 1907. A post office was established there in 1908 when a road was completed from Whitehorse.2) McConnell was the postmaster until 1915 when the First World War took most of the miners.3) The post office closed with the loss of population but McConnell stayed on, ranching and operating the roadhouse.4)
The roadhouse at Robinson was built by Louis Markle around 1906 and he left shortly after, selling the building to his wife Catherine Markle. The roadhouse sat on a 320- acre townsite established by William Granger and H.W. Vance. The town was never built but the paperwork hampered McConnell and Markle from homesteading the area. McConnell made improvements to the site and expanded the buildings in 1909 when he acquired a 100-acre homestead about six miles to the west. He and Mrs. Markle operated the roadhouse for seven years to 1915.5)
Mrs. Markle moved to Skagway in 1915 and Charlie married Florence Parvin in Carcross in 1916.6) Miss Parvin was originally from London, England. Before her marriage she was employed as a stenographer for James Powell, later manager of the Howe & Powell mining interests in the Wheaton district.7)
Charlie and Florence hosted visitors and the woodcutters, trappers, big game outfitters, and hunters who passed through the area. In 1921, the McConnells advertised their roadhouse as having great improvements and being, with fresh butter and milk, an ideal place to spend the weekend. Two motor excursions made the trip from Whitehorse in two hours and ten minutes. The Whitehorse newspaper ran more ads for McConnell in the 1920s. He sold milking cows and calves, and in May 1929 he sold rough lumber any size cut to order.8)
McConnell was an athlete and a great runner who entertained friends by juggling a full length of railway tie. He farmed in the area and was active in mining and prospecting. He had a sawmill on the west side of McConnell Lake (not named for him.) He drove cattle up to the high meadows of Mt. Stevens and boarded horses for survey crews.9)
The federal geologists D.D. Cairnes, Cockfield, and Lees left their horses at Robinson for many winters. Hugh Bostock changed the practice in 1932 when he started wintering the crews’ horses at Pelly Farm. In 1940, McConnell was still unhappy about that but transported Hugh’s survey crews and their supplies from Robinson to the Wheaton River bridge in his ancient Ford car. 10) In 1939, McConnell had been in the territory for 41 years and had never been further south than Log Cabin, which he visited in 1919.11)
There is no mention of Florence McConnell in the Whitehorse newspaper after May 1940. McConnell refurbished his sawmill in 1941 and the machinery may have been used at Robinson by the United States Army work camp.12) In 1942 McConnell was described as “an alert and active old gentleman who still drove a 1924 Ford touring car with brass radiator and planetary transmission. To start the car, he jacked up one rear wheel, cranked the engine as there was no self-starter, and away he rolled”.13)
The roadhouse is on a Yukon Government heritage reserve protected by Yukon Historic Sites. Trail access to the site and a parking lot was constructed and signage installed in 1996.14)