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ORIGINS OF THE POSTAL SERVICE
IN THE YUKON
In 1897, a federal government
order-in-council appointed Major James Morrow Walsh the Administrator of the Provisional District of Yukon. He was responsible for general supervision and control over the mail service and was in charge of the first three post offices in the Yukon. By the end of the year, each had its own postmaster: Inspector Frank Harper in Dawson, Inspector D'Arcy E. Strickland at Tagish Lake and Inspector Wm. H. Scarth at Fort Cudahy.13
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Receiving Mail at Tagish Lake Post Office,
Yukon, 1898
© Public domain
National Library and National Archives
of Canada, C-000667
The Tagish Lake post office opened on September 1, 1897. D'Arcy E. Strickland served as postmaster until it closed on September 30, 1901. The mail was sorted as soon as it was received, sometimes outdoors.
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The NWMP were tasked with establishing a monthly service from Dyea to Dawson. They transported mail whenever possible, but rations often took priority.
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Arrangements were made for a regular mail service by dog sled between the Coast and Dawson during the winter of 1897-8, but the danger of starvation along the trail and at Dawson necessitated the application of all transport facilities to the pushing forward of supplies over the ice, hence the detention of so large a portion of the mail matter at Big and Little Salmon Posts until the opening of navigation.14
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