Yukon who is who

Wilfred McKinnon (1904 - 1976)

Wilf McKinnon was born at Louisburg, Nova Scotia. He started prospecting when he was twenty-two, first in the east and then around Flin Flon, Manitoba. He joined Hudson Bay Mining and Smelter in 1938 where he worked for wages plus a ten percent interest in anything he found that was worthy of development. He prospected for five seasons in northern Manitoba and into the Barrenlands of the NWT searching for gold and base metals. He found the O’Brien gold deposit plus a base metal deposit at Padi Post that was too small to mine in that remote area.

McKinnon was part of a crew that flew into the Yukon in 1943 and he spent most of the next thirty years prospecting in the Teslin area. By 1952, Hudson Bay had an office in Whitehorse and was drilling a lead-zinc-copper property near Swift River. They flew their prospectors out to remote areas by helicopter and they sometimes had to walk home. In 1952, McKinnon found Hudson Bay’s 9-million-ton lead-zinc-silver Tom deposit. It is located about thirteen km southeast of MacMillan Pass on the North Canol Road. The deposit may have been named for Tom Creighton, Hudson Bay’s exploration manager. Three other prospectors were on site for the discovery: Arthur “Slim” Lindsey, Les Saville, and Mel Monson. The deposit was shelved as mineral inventory for the future.¹⁾

In 1953, McKinnon quit Hudson’s Bay and then formed an exploration company with Bill Walstrom, a retired ore sampler from Hudson Bay, and Tom Creighton, founder of Hudson Bay’s Flin Flon mine and McKinnon’s previous boss for twelve years. McKinnon is remembered for skill in the bust and his ability to enjoy temperatures that others found way too cold. His friends joked that he could afford to have a sparkly personality because he was worth several million and never married.²⁾