Caribou Hotel
Caribou Hotel
Caribou Hotel
Cultural History
Cultural History
The first Caribou Hotel was either the Yukon Hotel or the Vendome Hotel relocated from Bennett. It that was shipped on scows to Carcross by W.A. Anderson in 1901. The Hotel was known as the Anderson Hotel for a time after it was relocated to Carcross. It went up for sale shortly after being re-established and was purchased by Dawson Charlie in 1903.
In May 1903, the hotel was managed by Theodore M. Watson and was still called the Anderson Hotel in the Whitehorse Star (May 23). Watson went on to join his father Charles at the Windy Arm Hotel, Conrad, in 1906. By July 1904, Mrs. E. Ready was managing the hotel. The hotel was renamed the Caribou Hotel by 1905. As of October 1906, R. J. Brittain was leasing the hotel. Following Dawson Charlie's death on January 26, 1908, Edwin W. and Bessie Geraldine Gideon rented it from his estate (starting September 1, 1908).
When the Caribou Hotel burned to the ground on December 24, 1909, the Gideons continued to operate the business from Colonel Conrad's house, located just around the corner on the Lake Bennett waterfront. The Gideons secured financing from Jack Stewart and re-built the hotel in its original location in 1910, using materials salvaged from a two-story building in Conrad. The Gideons operated the hotel together until Mr.Gideon's death in 1925. Mrs. Gideon continued to operate the hotel until her death on October 27th, 1933.
The property was rented by Jack McMurphy from 1939-1940. He managed the hotel, and his family lived in the hotel from 1938-1943. Jack McMurphy met his wife Adele in Carcross where she was teaching school in an old garage on the Lake Bennett waterfront. Adele lived in the same building where she taught until she married Jack McMurphy. At the time he was working on the telegraph line in Telegraph Creek, so he quit his job and walked to Carcross in order to spend more time with her. While in Carcross, Jack had many different jobs, including working on the White Pass and Yukon railroad (WP&YR).
Adele’s father was a purser on the sternwheeler Casca and went on to become the Station Agent in Whitehorse. Adele also worked for WP & YR as station manager for many years. Millie Jones, the daughter of Jack and Adele McMurphy, spent her childhood years from the age of 7 to 11 growing up in the hotel and she had fond memories of sliding down the long stairway banister! Her playroom was on the third floor overlooking the railroad tracks. When Alex and Gladys MacKay ran the hotel in 1948, Millie recalls attending dances at the hotel every second weekend. Following her mother, Millie taught school in Carcross from 1989 –1993 and maintained a residence in the community until her death in 2021.
Dorothy Hopcott moved to Whitehorse from Vancouver in 1955 and purchased the Caribou Hotel in 1959. When Dorothy arrived in the Yukon, Mary Tobacco was operating the bar in the hotel during the summers and working for WP & YR during the winters. When Dorothy took over the hotel, they worked together to manage operations. Dorothy made funeral arrangements for Polly the parrot when he died in 1972. These included a red velvet lined coffin, a large funeral service, burial in the local cemetery, and a reception following the ceremony, at the hotel.
Originally from Hartland, New Brunswick, Don McLellan had been riding freight trains prior to WWII before moving to B.C. to begin his mining career. He was working in Dawson City prior to accepting a position with Canadian Mine Services at Braelorn Mine, BC and then Venus Mine, Yukon in the Southern Lakes district. In 1966, Don moved to Carcross to assist Dorothy with the management of the hotel. He kept busy setting fish nets to catch fresh fish to serve in the restaurant and made breakfast for guests. He was well known in the community as a storyteller and is remembered for sitting in his rocker by the wood stove in the bar telling tales.
Johnny Johns was a daily visitor to the hotel when he wasn’t guiding. He was a renowned big game guide and had clients from all over the world. His clients usually stayed at the hotel. Born in Tagish in 1898, Johns started his own guiding business and received his chief guide’s license at age 19. During the construction of the Alaska Highway, he guided the crews building the road from Carcross to Teslin.
Don and Dorothy lived in the hotel owner’s suite while they operated the hotel year-round. The building was leased to local businessman and politician Archie Lang for one year while they traveled overseas. In 1980 the hotel was sold to Ray Olsen. [29]
Ray Olson ran the hotel with his son Robert Olson who owned the hotel after Ray’s death in 1997. On December 24, 2004, Robert Olson was murdered in the hotel. Mark Lange and Dean Boucher were convicted of second-degree murder on August 31, 2006.
The hotel was bought by Jamie Toole and Anne Morgan in 2006 and they began a complete restoration. At first look, they almost gave up. Any foundation the building may have had was long gone. It was resting on the ground with a single, unsupported beam carrying the weight of the building. There was a ½ m. difference between the level of the front and back of the hotel. In many places, Toole was able to put his hand through the walls and floor. Before they could put a new foundation under the building, it had to be totally gutted to reduce the weight and the back wall, rotted out with water damage, had to be completely rebuilt. The leveling was done slowly as the hotel had adapted to its crookedness and the frame was old and brittle. The restored hotel is now heated geothermally from a well sunk under the building.[30] The bar reopened in 2019 restoration of accommodations is ongoing (spring 2023).
Citations:
29: Historic Sites Nomination Form, researched by Anne Morgan, 2006.
30: John Firth, The Caribou Hotel (Whitehorse: John Firth, 2019), pp. 218-221.
