Harry Waldron (1936 - 2010)
Harry Waldron was known as an entertainer in Dawson and for years would recite Robert Service poetry at any occassion. When he worked as a welder on the Dempster Highway he became known as the Keeper of the Arctic Circle. He would go on the tour buses and do a poem or a story. If the buses overnighted at Eagle Plains, he would go in and do something in the evenings. The barmaid suggested he dress in his 1908 tux and sit at the circle to surprise the tourists. The next day he tried it and he brought a bottle of champagne to toast the Arctic Circle. The first bus was approaching with a tour guide that Harry knew when one cloud opened up above Harry and sprinkled him and the Circle with snow. He was the Keeper for nine years, from 1983 to 1992. Harry would welcome people, give them local history and information, tell them stories and give them a poem or two. His season started when the Peel River ferry opened around the first of June until sometime in September. It was volunteer work until the last year when Waldron retired from his road crew. Yukon Tourism then hired him full time and he handed out official “Arctic Circle Crossing” certificates. It started as a joke, but he said it became the best thing that he ever did.1)