Gordon Yardley (b. 1917)
Gordon Yardley was born in Estavan, Saskatchewan and grew up in Radville, 80 miles away. In 1934, the family moved west to Langley, British Columbia where Gordon's father opened a hardware store. Gordon got a part-time job in the mill and helped his father in the store. In 1934 he drove truck for an outfit in Saskatchewan. He rode the boxcars to Calgary with 1400 men travelling east to protest the lack of jobs. This turned into the Regina Riot, but Gordon missed it. In 1937 he was offered a job on the SS Tutshi, based in Carcross. He worked on the sternwheeler for five summers before moving to Whitehorse for another job. The White Pass officials had their cars rigged to travel on the rails from Whitehorse but the sternwheeler crew didn't know how to maintain the track cars so Gordon offered to do the work between sailings. He met Joyce Richards, his future wife, in 1941 on the train from Skagway to Whitehorse. Gordon was on his way to Whitehorse to take a job as a mechanic for Pan American Airlines. Gordon was twenty-four and Joyce was fifteen and they were married the next year.1)
Gordon received his basic training for the Canadian Army, which was compulsory in the 1940s for national preparedness, in Vernon before starting the job at Pan American. The job was considered essential and he never had to go and fight. At the end of March 1943, Gordon put in a contract to install telephone poles from Skagway to Whitehorse. He gave up his job at Pan American and he and Joyce moved to Carcross. In October 1943, Yardley was part of a rescue effort to save military men in a Flying Fortress that crashed into Lake Bennett. 2)
In 1943 Gordon was reconstructing a house from Bennett City at Carcross when he saw a plane crash into the lake. Gordon and some neighbours ran to the rescue of the crew of a US Flying Fortress. The plane was on a test run and someone forgot to hook up the de-icers. Gordon's rescue boat was followed by the RCMP's and they saved six of the seventeen crew members.3) The US Air Force sent him a letter thanking him for his part in saving the lives of the men who survived.4)
After the telephone contract, Gordon started hauling firewood into town. He also starting hauling fuel oil and liquor from Whitehorse for the local hotels. One trip took a day. The Yardleys bought the ten-Mile Ranch in 1946 and rented their home in Carcross to the Nelson family from Atlin. The Yardleys’ second child was born in May 1947. They had driven over the muddy road to Whitehorse three days ahead of time. Gordon purchased a commercial fishing license and started to fish for the Tutshi. He used four-inch gill nets. He caught a lot of trout with the largest being from 35 to 40 pounds. The Tutshi came by the Ten Mile Ranch at the same time every day but the water was too shallow to dock so Gordon would go out to meet them in the lake with 150 to 200 pounds of fish. Lake trout was a speciality of the Tutshi dining room.5)
The Yardleys’ daughter Norma took her first two grades of school by correspondence. In 1950, their second son was on the way and they moved back into Carcross for Norma's third year of school. They decided to build another house in Carcross as the Nelsons were not sure when they wanted to move back to Atlin. In 1950, the US Army camp built during the construction of the steel bridge across the Teslin River were up for bid as Canadian War Assets. Gordon and Joyce bought a small building 12 x 14 for $25. It had been used as a screened-in cooler, but it was large enough to convert into a cottage by adding another room and a porch. They moved it onto the lot across the street from their rented house in Carcross. Gordon supplemented their income by buying and hauling packhorses from Fort St. John for an outfitter in Telegraph Creek, British Columbia. Before long, the renters moved back to Atlin and the Yardley's moved back into their house. They excavated under the house to put in a well, the first one to be built in Carcross. The Yardley's third child, Ted, was born in August 1950. Joyce and Doris Peterson ran a short-lived grocery store in competition with Matthew Watson. In the fall of 1950, George Simmons, who had sold all of his planes and was trucking freight and mail to Atlin, asked Gordon if he wanted to do the run two days a week. In the 1950s, Gordon's most profitable work came from a contract with White Pass to supply railroad ties for their creosoting plant. He set up a mill twelve miles from Carcross on the Tagish Road.6)
The Yardleys bought the lodge at Dezadeash and managed it for eight years. They tried trapping but just ended up living on the trapline because they didn't like killing the animals. They sold the line and moved to Whitehorse where Gordon and son Kirk went into the contracting business. In 1978, the Yardleys started placer mining, first at Atlin and then in Dawson. At 76, Gordon was retired but still helping out at the claim. The Yardleys moved to Vancouver in 1987 but continued to visit the Yukon in the summers.7)