Yukon who is who

Artie Calvin Zimmerlee

Artie Zimmerlee was born in Wisconsin to Mary and James David Zimmerlee.¹⁾ In 1919, Zimmerlee was partners with William Schofield and Alex Coward in taking over Harold Pitts old buildings at Fort Selkirk. They established a supply base for hunting, trapping and trading. Coward left the partnership but the other two carried on with the Schofield & Zimmerlee store.²⁾ A permit to run another store at Russell Creek, on the Macmillan River, was issued to the partners in 1938. The same permit was issued to Artie Zimmerlee in 1939 and 1941.³⁾ Zimerlee took on the trading there while Schofield looked after the store at Selkirk. ⁴⁾ Nevil Armstrong, who mined and hunted at Russell Creek, visited the place where Zimmerlee and his partner Cord had established a trading post with several large cabins about half a mile below the original Armstrong Landing. In June 1920, Zimmerlee had a fine garden and greenhouse at the new landing.⁵⁾

The Hudson’s Bay Company bought out the Scofield and Zimmerlee business and put J. Forrest in charge of the store.⁶⁾ Artie Zimmerlee married Liz [Lily from relative Rosalie Brown] Horsfall and they had three children Edith, Jody and Meda. The family likely spent winters at Russel Post and summers at their residence at Fort Selkirk. Zimmerlee kept the Russel Creek property after the Schofield and Zimmerlee buildings and land at Fort Selkirk was sold to the Hudson’s Bay Co. He operated it for another year and then sold it to a man named Erickson and the family moved south in 1939.⁷⁾

A Hudson's Bay Co. report in 1940 described Fort Selkirk and the town’s businesses. Woodcutting was the main industry with the majority of wood being used by White Pass & Yukon Route boats, and a fair quantity being shipped to Dawson. About seventy-five percent of the local trade was derived from wood cutting and the store sold mostly groceries because of it. Sales broke down to five percent to Indigenous trappers, twenty percent to white trappers, and the remainder to woodcutters. Sales from woodcutting were about $12,000.00 of which sixty-two percent (thirty percent of total sales) came from two men: Blanchard, of Ft. Selkirk, and [the recently deceased John] Sipkus of Dawson. Blanchard had the WP&YR contract for all wood cut in the vicinity and he sub-let to various local men. The principle and most valuable furs were lynx, marten and beaver, in that order. In 1939, thirty-three percent of the total collection came from Zimmerlee's outpost in the Macmillan River area and his outpost produced about forty percent of all the fur produced in the region. Zimmerlee quit his Russell Creek outpost and sold it to a man named Erickson. The outposts up the Macmillan handled all the fur trading for the Fort Selkirk Indigenous trappers. Sixteen of the twenty-seven Indigenous trappers at Fort Selkirk called the Macmillan area their home, and they traded their furs to the two posts located there. Zimmerlee's competition was a couple of trader trappers, Lankin and Larson, located at the junction of Moose and Macmillan rivers. Larsen and Lankin were outfitted for years by Schofield and Zimmerlee at Selkirk but later became independent competitors. The Taylor and Drury store was well stocked and well run but did not appear to enjoy the good will of the people.⁸⁾