Yukon who is who

Katherine Ryan (1869 - 1932)

Katherine Ryan was born in Johnville, New Brunswick. She travelled to Seattle where she became a nurse in the Sisters of Nahomish Hospital.¹⁾ In 1898, she joined the Klondike gold rush. She was one of the rare women who walked into the north over the difficult Stikine Trail.²⁾ Ryan’s association with the Mounted Police may have started early, when she offered to cook for them if they would carry her supplies.³⁾ By 1900, she was living in Whitehorse, had opened a restaurant, and was invested in some local mines.⁴⁾

A Canadian law passed in February 1900 required a woman special officer be hired to assist members of the NWMP with women prisoners. Kate Ryan was hired in February 1900 as the first woman special attached to the Whitehorse detachment. She earned two dollars a day and worked part time as a prison matron.⁵⁾

In 1914, Norman D. Macaulay did some improvements to his Whitehorse hotel including more electric lights, a card room and an up-to-date toilet. Ryan was in charge of the lodging department of the hotel.⁶⁾ In 1917, McFadden & Co. were working the Whitehorse area Empress of India copper mine owned by Kate Ryan.⁷⁾ Ryan also acted as a gold inspector, searching women passengers leaving the territory if they were suspected of smuggling gold to avoid paying the gold export tax. Ryan did this job until 1919 when she left the territory and settled in Stewart, British Columbia. An RCMP honour guard attended her funeral.⁸⁾