Henry Thibault
Henry Thibault, arrived in the Yukon in 1935, following three of his uncles who climbed the Chilkoot Pass in 1900. The uncles never mined but instead started operating roadhouses and spent the rest of their lives doing that. Henry did mine, worked in the timber business, and drove a cat. Henry’s wife Greta was raised in Vancouver and came to the Yukon in 1941 as a young bride. They lived on Hunker Creek and then moved to Whitehorse in 1943. Henry drove a cat train to Whitehorse and his wife and son flew down.1)
There was no lumber available in Whitehorse, so Henry hewed some building materials out of a stack of poplar logs and used Donnaconna and tar paper to build their first Whitehorse home. They set up a hand-washing laundry business in one half of the building. In 1945, they opened a dry-cleaning business, and in 1954 they built the Shannon Motel named after their daughter.2)