Margaret Schaeffer
Margaret Schaeffer and her husband Alex operated a roadhouse on the Pelly River at the original river crossing.1) Mrs. Schaffer ran the log roadhouse below the Pelly Farm. When that route was abandoned, she moved to the new crossing below Mica Creek [the current Pelly Crossing]. The first old log building was still extant in 1933.2)
In 1911, trapper and guide Ira Van Bibber and his wife Eliza established a homestead near the current community of Pelly Crossing at Mica Creek. A new government road was under construction by 1912 and was completed by 1915. The Van Bibbers operated their roadhouse here until 1921 when the lease was turned over to the Schaeffers.3)
Ma Schaeffer was a large good-hearted woman of little formal education. She would wake the passengers in the morning with “Hurry up and come alive! I've got to have that sheet you're sleeping on for a tablecloth.”4) Alex was the telegraph operator at Isaac Creek in 1919. There was no telegraph office at Coffee Creek at that time.5)
Alex Shaeffer died in the 1920s.6) He died on a trip downriver to Fort Selkirk to get mail late in the fall.7)
In the spring of 1930, the Pelly Crossing Roadhouse was known as Schaffer's roadhouse and was operated by Schaffer’s widow. She was a big capable woman who managed the place alone after her husband died. She cooked wonderful meals, kept a clean and warm hostelry, hunted most of her own moose and caribou meat, cursed like a dog musher, and was known and respected by everyone in the region. The winter stage between Whitehorse and Dawson was a big tractor that pulled two or three sleds behind it. One of these was loaded with mail and for $150 you could sit on the mail sacks and ride the “stage”. It was a cold business and there was no other form of transportation except dogsled. Every night the stage stopped at a roadhouse, running the stage and loads into the barn while the travellers found accommodation inside. Schaffer's was about the half-way point, where the winter road crossed the Pelly.8)
Mrs. Schaeffer married Cy Detroz of Coffee Creek [in the 1930s]. Bostock mentions Margaret Detroz in 1932 when he passed a big log raft with saw logs destined for Dawson. She had on a luxurious fur coat and sat in a rocking chair near the front.9) The Detroz farm was plagued with spring floods and one time Cy and Margaret had to escape to the roof of a building. They had a vegetable garden, raised hay, and had a few cattle, including a bull. The Pelly Farm had cattle, but no bull and they arranged one time to borrow the Detroz' bull. It had to be transported by steamer and the crew had a hard time loading it on the gangplank of the Casca. The ship was loaded with tourists who were all out watching.10)