Yukon who is who

Bruce Patnode (1947 - 2007)

Bruce Patnode was born in Dawson Creek, British Columbia to parents Alice and Larry Patnode. He was six years old when his family came to Whitehorse in 1953. His father came ahead from Alberta to take an army job. Bruce loved geology from a young age. His father possessed an enthusiasm for finding mineral prospects and promoting properties and father and son went on field trips together. Bruce was radio operator in a remote three-person camp for Southwest Potash Corporation (Amax) when the tungsten deposit was discovered at MacTung in 1962. He worked on survey crews throughout the Yukon including the Keno district and the Whitehorse Copperbelt. As an employee of White, Hosford and Impey he was one of the first surveyors working at the early Faro mining camp in 1965 and later surveyed for the New York-based Parsons Construction company building the Anvil mill in 1968. He was a White Pass truck driver who hauled lead-zinc-silver concentrate to the railhead at Whitehorse and he hauled asbestos from Clinton Creek and silver concentrates from Elsa. In 1974, he drove from Cassiar, British Columbia to Whitehorse. Between May 1972 and July 1973, he also did a stint for Ray Russell Transport, the Whitehorse-based company that hauled Hudson Bay Mining's nickel concentrate from the Wellgreen Nickel Mine near Burwash to a port facility in Haines, Alaska. He crewed on diamond-drill rigs, operated heavy equipment and supervised geochemical and geophysical field programs in Canada and abroad.¹⁾

At the same time, Bruce was studying geology and eventually set up his own mineral exploration company. He returned to college to finish a business degree with majors in finance and marketing and went to work in the mid-1980s with the Yukon Department of Economic Development. By 1986, Patnode was the president of the Yukon Prospector's Association and was in management duties at the association's satellite remote sensing facility initially housed on Industrial Road. The cutting-edge technology could discern geological features on earth to assist mineral exploration. Patnode served seven years as a director of the Yukon Chamber of Mines.²⁾

Around 1898, Bruce started pursuing art more seriously, and helped produce the RCMP commemorative mural at the Whitehorse detachment. His work can also be seen at the Kluane Museum, the Yukon Museum of Natural History near Carcross, and at the Teslin Museum. He and Chuck Buchanan produced the Skagway to Dawson diorama inside the Yukon Transportation Museum, and he and several others created the exterior mural. He was the designer and project organizer for the Yukon Prospectors’ Association bronze prospector, a tribute to Yukon prospectors. It was installed at Main Street and Third Avenue through government and private means. Patnode stepped down from the Association presidency in 1992. He moved to Parksville, British Columbia but never missed an opportunity to promote the Yukon.³⁾