Yukon who is who

Frank Watson (d. 1939)

Frank Watson was born in Yorkshire, England. He started for the Klondike in early 1897 from Edmonton, Alberta and arrived on the Upper Liard River in the spring of 1898. He married a Kaska woman, Adela Stone, and they had four children: Arnow, Edna, Bob, and Alice.¹⁾ Bob was born at Lower Post in 1923 and raised in Watson Lake.²⁾

The family started trapping in the area of what is now called Watson Lake in 1910.³⁾ The Kaska call the lake Tasdagiluge or Lu Chu, meaning Big Whitefish Lake.⁴⁾ In 1925, Anton Money and Amos Godfrey met Frank Watson and his family who were living on the Frances River about sixteen kilometres above Middle Canyon. Watson trapped down the Frances and the Liard rivers as far as Watson Lake, at the head of the canyon about twenty-four kilometres above Lower Post.⁵⁾

Around 1939, Watson worked with Jack Baker to make an early attempt at an airport for Grant McConachie's Yukon Southern Air Transport Co. at the lake.⁶⁾ The area became very busy and Watson and his family moved to nearby Windid Lake.⁷⁾ Frank died of measles shortly after.⁸⁾

Watson Lake (town and lake) is named for Frank Watson.

¹⁾ , ⁴⁾ , ⁷⁾

“The Town of Watson Lake.” The Yukoner Magazine, Issue No. 12, July 1999: 11.

²⁾

Elders Documentation Project, CYFN Cultural Education Society Library.

³⁾ , ⁸⁾

Yukon Anniversaries Commission. 1992 Elders Interviews: Bob Watson. Yukon Archives YAC collection.

⁵⁾

Anton Money with Ben East, This was the North. Toronto: General Publishing Co., 1975: 93-94.

⁶⁾

Bruce McAllister and Peter Corley-Smith, Wings Over the Alaska Highway: A Photographic History of Aviation on the Alaska Highway. Boulder, Colorado: Roundup Press, 2001: 103.