The Mabel McIntyre House was the first Mining Recorder's Office constructed in Mayo. Built in 1921, as the production of gold in the Klondike was declining, it heralded the onset of a mining boom that would make the Mayo Mining District the chief economic engine in the Yukon. The Mining Recorder's Office represented the federal government's broad and prominent administrative role in the community. The Mining Recorder's duties ranged from the agent enforcing mining regulations to Marriage Commissioner, Justice of the Peace and Juvenile Court Magistrate.

The building's rustic frontier style was characteristic of early, regional Mining Recorder's Offices in the Yukon. It was an integral part of the rapid development of the commercial district of the community and is the oldest building still located on its original site on Centre Street.

The building was later the residence of Mabel McIntyre, a member of the First Nation of Na Cho Nyak Dun, who lived here from 1946 until 1981. Mabel was a noteworthy and respected community member, serving as postmistress for 30 years.

Source: Heritage Resources Unit file 3630 30 02 02

Character Defining Elements

-The siting on the lot and its orientation towards Centre Street

-The cabin's simple rectangular plan, its modest size and rustic saddle-notched log construction

-Architectural elements such as the roof, shed attachment, door and window openings, historic sashes and trim

-The lack of modern amenities and rough interior finishing

Description of Boundaries

Block 6, South half of Lots 29 & 30, Plan 12544 Mayo Town site.

Historical Sources Location

Yukon Historic Sites Inventory

Gold and Galena: A History of the Mayo District. Mayo Historical Society. Mayo, Yukon, 1990.

Heritage Resources Unit file #3630 30 02 02.

Cultural History

Before the establishment of the Mining Recorder’s Office in the Mayo area, miners were forced to either work the claim without staking it or had to make their way to Dawson to record it there.

The first Mining Recorder’s Office in the area was established on Clear Creek (circa 86km west of Mayo) in 1901. The next year, with increased prospecting and mining activity in the region, offices were opened at Gordon Landing (above Mayo on the Stewart River) and at Minto Bridge (on the Mayo River 14km North of Mayo). It was decided that a town should be established in the area to accommodate the growing population and, in 1903, Raoul Rinfret, Joseph Edward Beliveau and John Dease Bell surveyed the Mayo townsite. The site was close to the workings at Duncan Creek and at a point on the Stewart River where steamboats could dock.

The Minto Bridge office was moved to Mayo Landing in 1914, but was not named the Mayo Landing Mining Recorder's Office until 1918. When Louis Bouvette made a rich silver discovery on Keno Hill in 1919, the office had been shut down and his recorded claim was taken by J.E. Ferrell, who owned a store in Mayo and doubled as Mining Recorder. The ensuing stampede to Keno Hill made it necessary to reinstate the Mining Recorder's Office and, in 1920, the district became known as the Mayo Mining District. The town was called Mayo Landing until the name was officially shortened to Mayo in 1958.

Sam Blackmore built the extant office building in 1921. It was the first purpose built Mining Recorder's office in Mayo and was used for this purpose until 1933, when the office moved to another building. Richard L. "Dick" Gillespie was the first Mining Recorder in the Mayo area.[34]

Samuel Blackmore began prospecting in the area in 1902 and was a teamster through the 1920s. Grant Huffman, Mark Evans, Sam Blackmore and Louie Bouvette owned adjacent claims on the Silver King (the first operating silver mine in the Mayo district) in 1913.34 The men helped each other out and were friendly. Huffman's claim was called the "Mable".

Grant Huffman and his wife Emma Jimmy had a daughter, Mable (McIntyre), born in Mayo in 1912. She and her brother Albert were sent to the Mooseheart School in Chicago. They returned to Mayo in the mid-1920s and lived on their father’s homestead at the foot of Mayo Canyon. She was married to Gordon McIntyre from 1937 to 1954 and kept his last name after they divorced.[36]

As her father and Sam Blackmore were friends, it is very likely Blackmore knew Mable from birth and, having no family of his own, bequeathed the cabin to Mable.[37]

In 1948, Mable McIntyre rented her cabin out for use as the high school.37 The building was also used as an annex to Ruth’s Novelty Shop at one time.

Mable worked at the Kino and Binet Hotels and was appointed Postmaster in 1942 and held the job for 30 years.38 She lived in the cabin from 1946 until 1981. She died while on holiday in Vancouver in 1986.[40]

Citations:

34: Linda E.T. MacDonald and Lynette R. Bleiler, Gold and Galena: A History of the Mayo District. Mayo Historical Society. Mayo, Yukon. 1990: pp 56, 57, 379

35: Dr. Aaro Aho, Hills of Silver (Whitehorse: Lost Moose Publishing, 2006), p. 71.

36: Personal communication, Angus McIntryre to Rob Ingram, 22 March 2023..

37: Mayo Historical Society, Gold and Galena (Mayo: Mayo Historical Society, 1990), p. 344.

38: Ibid. p. 135.

39: Ibid. p. 204.

40: Ibid. p. 420.

Documentation Location

Heritage Resources Unit file #3630 30 02 02

Building Style

This is a single story structure of horizontal log construction with saddle-notched corners and a low pitched gable roof clad with ribbed sheet metal. The frame addition off of the north wall has a shed style roof clad with corrugated metal and flush eaves, the walls are of horizontal planks of random width. The building was built at grade and there is minimal or no foundation. A root cellar is in the main portion of the cabin. The interior has a partition of dimensional lumber and the floor framing is a mixture of log and dimensional lumber. The roofing has changed over the years, however the existing roof still has the original sod roof below.