Douglas Thomas
Douglas Thomas arrived in the Yukon in 1968 and worked on the installation of the third turbine at the Whitehorse Dam. He received his journeyman’s ticket in the Yukon and started Moon Construction. In 1978, he bought the Ben-Elle Motel, built in 1965 by Stan and May Bendera. Moon Construction had a pit near Ear Lake and shifting gravel gave Thomas the urge to mine so he started placer mining at Barlow Creek. In 1983, he renamed the motel the Gold Rush Inn and two years later he purchased the adjacent vacant land parcel on Fifth Avenue. He added on the first of two major additions and brought in the Best Western franchise. Thomas owned the Stratford Hotel between 1990 and 2004, and the Bonanza Inn between 1994 and 2003. He sold the Gold Rush Inn to Northern Vision Development in 2006.1)