Irene Crayford

Irene Alice Caley was born and raised in Dawson City, Yukon. She was the eldest child of Frederick and Dorothy Caley (Skistad). Her sisters and brothers soon followed: Madge Gillespie, Robert (Bobbie) Caley, Doreen Jeffery and Gordon (Gordie) Caley. They are all deceased now, except for Irene.

Irene was fortunate to grow up around her aunt and uncle as well as her grandparents, Nels and Kristen Alice Skistad (nee Erickson). Nels came over from Norway in the late 1890’s to make his fortune in Dawson City. Nels met his future wife in Seattle. She was a seamstress who originated from Sweden. They had three children. Dorothy Skistad, Irene’s mother, was born in the Seattle area in 1907. Two other children followed: Emma and Emily. Nels spent years mining on Sulphur Creek and he eventually purchased a roadhouse near the start of Hunker Road. The “Arlington” was a stopping place on the way to Dawson from the creeks where rooms, food and liquor were available. All of the family enjoyed visiting there over the years that they owned it. Alice (the name she went by) passed away in 1945 after spending several years in the Dawson Hospital because of a stroke. Nels passed away in 1959 in Dawson.

Dorothy married Fred Caley in Dawson in 1927 at the St. Andrews Church. She was a homemaker while the children were young but also helped with the family business. Fred was a very quiet, hardworking and sometimes stern man who was very involved with contributing to the history and wellness of the community of Dawson. He was an honorary member of the Yukon Order of Pioneers. Son Gordie and Irene’s husband,

Will, along with several grandsons are members of the YOOP as well.

Irene was very active, as are most youngsters, participating in many sports and organizations. She was a Brownie and a Girl Guides and later was a leader for many years. In her late teens she and her sister, Madge, operated a little grocery/magazine store. Irene became entrepreneurial at a young age. In 1948 she and her husband Will found some glass panels in the insulation of an old cabin that they were tearing down. She thought they would work well in a greenhouse. She started to wash them only to find they were not glass windowpanes but glass photo negatives from the gold rush days. These historic Hegg glass plate negative photos were saved and are a very important part of Yukon history.

Living in Dawson during Irene’s early years, with the long dark winters, was not easy. There was no transportation in and out of Dawson other than by sternwheeler from June to September, or by stagecoach by the Overland Trail from Whitehorse for the rest of the year. Needless to say the family did not leave Dawson at all. Her father owned a grocery store and he had to order enough stock to last for the winter because of the lack of transport to carry it for many months of the year.

Large barrel-type stoves were used for heating homes and wood or coal were the fuel sources. Many homes did not have running water, flushing toilets, fridges or telephones. Food was kept cool in root cellars. Many people had gardens and greenhouses as fresh produce did not exist until the highway was finally built in the early 50’s. TV did not arrive until the mid 60’s and then it was only for about four hours in the evening.

Irene married William John Crayford on October 14, 1947, in Dawson City in the Anglican Church. They had four children. They bought Klondike Motors in the mid 50’s and operated it as a family business of 20+ years. They supplied gas, oil, tires, propane, wood, some plumbing supplies and did minor mechanical repairs.

They also ran a taxi service, a tour bus, and bussed children back and forth from Bear Creek to school for many years. They also had the Ford and Arctic Cat dealerships for the northern area. Irene was the tour agent for Cordova Airlines. She spent time as a City Councillor and for 12 years worked for the Department of Tourism in the Dawson Information Centre during the summers. Irene and Will owned gold mining claims for many summers. The annual gold panning championships were a regular outing for them, where Irene, on occasion, took home the top hardware. She somehow found time to be active in Women’s hockey and curling in the winters and Women’s fastball in the summers. Irene was a member of the Eastern Star, as well as being a member of the Heritage Board. She did all of this while raising her children and working sometimes 18 hours a day.

She worked hard all of her life: working for her father in the store as a child, operating a little store with her sister as a teenager, making ivory and gold nugget jewellery as a young adult, owning and operating the family business with Will from when the first child (Judy) was five years old until they sold the business in 1976.

Irene and Will were made Honorary Lifetime Members of the Dawson Curling Club. They also had the honour of being Mr. and Mrs. Yukon for the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous in 1985.

She and Will moved to Whitehorse in October of 1989 to be near the two daughters, Judy and Karen, along with their families. They sold their home before leaving, but still had the gold mining claims in the 60 Mile area near the US border. This move to Whitehorse was Irene’s first and only move away from the hometown of Dawson. Will passed away in August, 2006, in Whitehorse General Hospital surrounded by many of their loved ones. He fought a long, yet mostly pain-free battle, with cancer.

Irene loved to travel with her sister Doreen. They went to Malaysia, England, across Canada and several areas in the US. She travelled to Mexico a few times with the family as well as to Hawaii, one trip being their 40th wedding anniversary—a present from their children in l987.

She and her siblings donated hundreds of items to the Dawson City Museum’s collection after the passing of their father, Fred Caley.

Irene remains here in the Yukon, a proud mother of two surviving children, as well as five grandchildren and thirteen great grandchildren. She was a very avid gardener while in Dawson and still is now in Whitehorse and Tagish. She helps with the planting, watering, as well as the harvesting of the gardens and greenhouses in the two communities. Along with this comes blanching and freezing veggies in the fall. Irene loves going to the family recreational properties at Tagish, Gravel and Strickland lakes with the family. She is an integral part of the goings on, whether it is renovations, clearing or burning brush, cooking and having wiener roasts, etc. Her pastimes are baking, knitting and doing cross stitch, needlework, gardening, Sudoku, crossword puzzles and jigsaw puzzles.

Irene is also a very avid reader. She has always been a very active part of all the family events, whether it’s a sporting event, an educational award, birthday, anniversary, or “just because.” She especially loves spending time with her large extended families and has always maintained that FAMILY is most important.

One of the most recent memories was the celebration of her 90th birthday this past January 2018. The family knew that she would not want to have a big community-wide event so it was decided to just have a surprise family gathering inviting those who were in Whitehorse. As a family, they organized a delicious meal, cupcakes for the dessert, punch, a huge card that everyone had to print in describing their favourite memory of her, 90 emergency-type candles that she had to blow out, a collage of older photos of her and a chronological bio of her life. Each of the great-great-grandchildren was asked to produce a specific letter of the alphabet, then provide a black and white photo of themselves holding it. It was framed and read “WE LOVE YOU GRANDMA.” The pictures started with the oldest child ending with the youngest great-grandchild. She also received a group gift of an iPad!! She was really excited to receive FaceTime messages from some of the great-great-grandchildren who were out of town.

Irene Crayford still lives in her own home in the subdivision of Porter Creek, Whitehorse. This is truly a remarkable Yukon Pioneer lady.