Jack Nichols (1901 - 1980)
Jack Nichols was born in Great Ayton, Yorkshire, England in 1901. He joined the Air Force in 1919 and served four years aboard the HMS Pegasus, one of the first aircraft carriers. In 1926, he and his parents and brothers immigrated to Canada to Salt Spring Island. Jack heard about the fabulous wages being paid at Mayo Landing in the Yukon, $5 a day with room and board, and decided to move. He saved money from his job as deliveryman/stock clerk/butcher and also tried promoting boxing with a partner. He made $180 and set off for Whitehorse.1)
The Yukon River was still frozen, and Jack decided to walk to Mayo along the Overland Trail. He crossed the Takhini River at the crossing with a long pole and a lot of fear. He took his time and when at the other side, sat down to rest. It was then that a three-ton truck roared into sight and crossed the river without hesitation. Jack felt the complete cheechako. From 1932 to 1936 or '37, he worked for Klondike Airways with a contract to haul the mail from Whitehorse to Dawson and Mayo on snowmobile and cat train. Any freight they could haul was a bonus for the company.2)
The snowmobiles were Ford V8 trucks with three wheels on each side at the rear covered with Caterpillar tracks. The front wheels were fitted with skis. They ran from Whitehorse to Yukon Crossing where the trail crossed the Yukon River and then the Cat trains took over. The trains were sleds hooked together and pulled by a Caterpillar tractor. They ran regularly from Yukon Crossing to a place called the Junction, near present -day Stewart Crossing. There the loads were divided up and went to either Dawson or Mayo. They travelled at two or three miles per hour even at 60 or 70 below. Potatoes, oranges, lemons, and eggs seldom froze as long as they were well wrapped, and the sleighs kept moving. A large canvas was placed on the sleigh bed and then a lot of mattresses. The eggs were piled on that and wrapped. Jack remembers hauling the freight across the river at Yukon Crossing in a canoe.3)
Jack also worked at Keno Hill for four years and then he quit and tried his hand at prospecting near Mason's Landing with a partner. Mary Nichols, Jack's wife, came to the Yukon in 1945. She was born in Saskatoon in 1913 and grew up in Edmonton. She came north working for the U. S. Army and left the Yukon after her stint, but soon returned to work at the Regina Hotel. She and Jack were married in 1947.4)
Jack and Mary’s first daughter (Pat Lindholm of Seattle) was born when Jack was posted at the customs house at White Pass. When the building burned down, Jack and Mary moved to Skagway where their second daughter, June Larson, was born. Jack Nichols was the customs officer at Carcross from 1951 to 1967. Before that he prospected, mined and ran Saturday night dances in Whitehorse. One summer he acted as manager in the Whitehorse Inn [for Ken Yoshida?].5)
Jack Nichols retired in 1967 at age 66 but he spent the next five or six years as the pump operator at the White Pass pumping station at Carcross until he was forced to retire from that job as well. He then became a Justice of the Peace and community coroner. Mary worked at the Caribou Hotel. They were named Mr. and Mrs. Yukon in 1980.6)