Sid van der Meer (b. 1937)
Sid van der Meer was born in Friesland, Netherlands and grew up in a house built in 1491 on the family farm. He remembers the Second World War tanks churning up the fields. His family moved to Canada when he was sixteen. Sid came north in 1961 and found a job at the Mountain View Lodge at mile 1128 on the Alaska Highway. He worked there for three years before the owners moved south and sold him the property ‘for a song.’ He had a lodge, gift shop, auto repairs, a tow truck, and four cabins to rent. In 1972, he also offered a free museum and free camping. He and his wife had three children and the road trip to the school at Destruction Bay convinced him to move to Alberta for a brief time. He soon returned and settled in Beaver Creek to build his home and the Borderland Museum out of recycled material. Windows were out of the abandoned Westmark Hotel, old highway signposts became awning supports, and all sorts of objects, precious and otherwise, became museum exihibits. A collection of rare documents is displayed in his house, and his classic restored automobiles surround his house. Sid van der Meer is along-time Yukon government employee at the Bever Creek Visitors Information Centre.1)
Sid van der Meer received a Yukon Historical and Museums Association History Maker Award in 2016.2)