After many columns, we finally pinned down its location and some of its history.
“The cabin, still in use and well maintained, is the last of several buildings that were at the South Fork Intake on the Klondike River,” wrote Greg Brunner, of Dawson City.
Greg, I appreciate the letter and the information very much.
Thank you.
PS: I have also added an insert photo of the cabin taken in summer.
Brunner’s letter follows:
Dear Jim:
I have been meaning to write you about your photo of the intake keeper’s cabin on the Klondike River since you first published it on November 3, 2010.
Now, after seeing it again with the incorrect guess as to where it is and who is in the picture, I have been goaded into writing.
The cabin, still in use and well maintained, is the last of several buildings that were at the South Fork Intake on the Klondike River. The intake was the main control gate for the YCGC Ditch and provided water for the North Fork power plant. Water was diverted out of the Klondike at the South Fork Intake and flowed in the Ditch 15 miles to the North Klondike River.
The water was again diverted out of the North Klondike at the North Fork Intake, mile six Dempster Highway. It then flowed another six miles to the North Fork power plant, which is near the Dempster Corner. The North Fork power plant provided power to all YCGC dredging operations, the company town of Bear Creek, and sold excess power to Dawson City. When YCGC ceased operations in 1966 or ‘67 the power plant and the ditch were abandoned.
The man in the photo with the last name Hoffman is, undoubtedly, Fred Hoffman. Fred Hoffman and Frank Rae trapped upriver from the South Fork Intake during the 1940s and early ‘50s. Their main camp was 35 miles upstream at the mouth of Hamilton Creek. With the big load in the toboggan, I assume he is hauling supplies for the next year, during late March or early April, to Hamilton Creek.
Greg Brunner
Dawson City
Anyone with information about this subject, please write Jim Robb: The Colourful Five Per Cent Scrapbook - Can You Identify? c/o the Yukon News, 211 Wood Street, Whitehorse, Yukon, Y1A 2E4, or email through the News website, www.yukon-news.com.