Dick Stevenson (1929 – 2010)
Dick Stevenson was born in Lakeville, New Brunswick and left home at age eighteen. He worked on a ranch in Alberta and at a hard rock mine, and always ended up in a logging camp at least once a year. He arrived in Whitehorse in May 1956 and worked for construction companies before becoming a truck driver for White Pass Freight Company.1)
Stevenson inherited $19,000 in 1960 and built a fishing camp on Aishihik Lake but lost it within three years because he didn’t advertise and had no customers. He worked with the game department as a predator control officer poisoning wolves for five winters and as a camp ground attendant in the summers. In 1967, he was hired by the Department of Fisheries and went to Dawson as a federal Fisheries Guardian monitoring the commercial fishermen on the Yukon River.2)
In 1968, a man running river tours left Dawson and Stevenson fixed up his twenty-four-foot riverboat to take six passengers. He named his boat the Gussie Lamour. It was a success, so he bought a forty-foot riverboat and put on a false pilot house and paddlewheel. The Klondike Kate ran with a forty-horse outboard motor and Stevenson operated that as a tour boat for two years. He then bought a forty-foot barge and converted it to a forty-passenger tour boat called the Yukon Lou. He built a large dining hall, kitchen, storage house, smoke house, blacksmith shop, and a small cabin, and started experimenting with smoking and BBQing salmon. The business was ready to go in 1978 when he realized he was too easy-going to run the island crew of three staff and sold the business. The new owner bought it on the condition that Stevenson stayed on. He remained as Captain Dick, running the boat for seven years and doing publicity stunts to advertise. He held the first nude beauty contest north of 60 and was in a thirty-minute documentary that showed across Europe. By this time, he was also selling the Sourtoe Cocktail.3)
Captain Stevenson bought a cabin outside of Dawson and found a pickle jar holding a dried out human toe. After a conversation in the bar with a few reporters, he invented the cocktail which was originally the toe in a beer glass of champagne. He thought maybe ten or twelve people would try it but it gave the Klondike great publicity after the stunt appeared in major newspapers around the world.4)
After retirement, Stevenson moved into Macauley Lodge in Whitehorse and could be seen around town in his motorized scooter. After his death, his toes were dried out and taken to Dawson. The Sourtoe Cocktail can now be had at the Downtown Hotel in Dawson where participants get a shot of whiskey holding a dried toe. [Not one of Dick’s toes, they’re long gone.] After touching the toe with your lips, you get a certificate to prove that you did it. By November 2019, more than 90,000 people had kissed the toe.5) A giant ceramic toe above the bar was made to hold Captain Dick’s ashes. The sculpture was created by Lyn Sofrab and the stand was made and donated by a friend.6)