With the exception of sports figures, Max Fraser contends, Canadian heroes seldom get the respect they deserve. The Whitehorse filmmaker and military history buff wants to help change that, especially when it comes to a larger-than-life former Yukoner, Joseph Whiteside Boyle. “I’m still trying to figure out this character, Joe Boyle, because I’ve never met, …
In the view of Dr. Ken Coates, the North’s response to the challenge presented by World War I was to do the opposite of what people Outside might have expected. “They historically were seen as being very separate from the whole country,” he says, “kind of unique places, off in the wilderness, having problems of …
Joe Boyle came to the Klondike with the first wave of gold-seekers in the early summer of 1897, but soon left with a dream of becoming rich. He was successful in obtaining a large mining concession in the Klondike Valley from the federal government in 1909, and within a decade had gained control of one …
Joe Boyle: The Klondike King Who Became a War Hero Read More »
Canada was part of the British Empire, so when war was declared by Great Britain on August 4, 1914, Canada, too, joined the the conflict. There was a tremendous upswing of patriotic fervour. The vast American influx during of the Klondike gold rush had been largely replaced by a more settled British population, eager to …
Every now and then, a figure emerges out of the shadows of history with so much success and so many adventures that you swear they must be made up. Without the historical record and extensive documentation, we might swear it is impossible for these people to exist. (After all, there’s only so much a person …
Looking Back: The most interesting man in the world Read More »
