Dorothy Mae (McFarlane) Mackintosh

Dorothy McFarlane was born in 1885 in Wisconsin.  She had two sisters. Dorothy went to New York City to attend Columbia University where she attained three degrees, including her PhD in Nutrition. One of the places where she taught was Texas Tech University where she was a professor in the homemaking department.

George Mackintosh was born in 1877 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the third eldest of a family of fourteen children. His first occupation was that of a butcher and then he joined the NWMP and requested to be sent to the Yukon. He arrived in the Yukon in 1900 and was sent to Five Fingers post. He completed his two years and then took his discharge but remained in the area for the next 20-25 years, fishing and gold mining.

 He travelled to California in 1930 where his mother and brothers were living and resumed his occupation as a butcher. At this time, he was married to a woman named Dorothy May McFarlane. Dorothy left the life of high academia at 50 years of age for the wilds of the Yukon.

When they arrived back in the Yukon, George bought the building at Bear Creek. The name was changed to Mackintosh Trading Post and after George died it was changed again to Macintosh Lodge. George and Dorothy worked hard to make improvements to the lodge.

The couple went back to California several times. It was thought they went to visit family but it was also possibly for medical purposes because George had cancer. He died at the age of 62 in 1939.

George had told Dorothy prior to his death that a road was going to be built to Alaska and that it would go by their trading post. In 1940, Dorothy returned to the Yukon to see what she could do. She drove from Whitehorse to Bear Creek by dogsled.

She resumed her life at her trading post, running the roadhouse, gardening and trading furs. She would market her vegetables in Whitehorse once or twice a year.

When the highway was built the Mackintosh Trading Post at Bear Creek was at Mile 1022. The roadhouse was a favorite stop on the new road because of the good food and available housing for workers on the road.

1942 was a transitional year for Dorothy Mackintosh. The new highway marked a beginning of a change in emphasis from furs and garden produce to tourists. It also brought reporters and writers who discovered Dorothy and were enthralled by the independent single woman living alone in such a place. 

In 1943, Dorothy began plans for a new house and had two old barns taken down. The house was mostly built by her and First Nations helpers in 1944 and competed in 1945. It had running water and a bathtub!

In the following years, Dorothy continued to focus on growing produce in her large garden for the meals she prepared at the lodge, and also to focus on the accommodations she provided for tourists and for locals. She sawed her own wood as well and hunted moose. In 1948, visitors recorded that she had a lovely garden and served trout for breakfast.

To get to Whitehorse for supplies, Dorothy had to cross the Takhini River on a self-operated ferry that she found very difficult to use. She had to tie the ferry tight enough to then be able to drive her truck through the mud on to the ferry.

She took a stand against workers cutting trees on her land for sawmilling and forced them to go elsewhere. Also, sawdust was deposited about 20 kilometers east of Bear Creek. The workers had built a privy over the creek. She complained and the authorities rectified that situation.

Another incident that someone related took place in 1952 when there were black bears in the yard.  Some tourists were trying to get up close to photograph them. Dorothy told them the bears were dangerous and to go back inside. Then she proceeded to shoo the bears away with a broom.

When Dorothy was asked about being lonesome in such isolation she replied that she had not thought about it. She said that she had never needed a great deal of companionship and enjoyed having time to herself.

In 1952, the title to the Mackintosh homestead property was finally granted, sixteen years after George had originally applied. The affidavit showed the trading post consisted of a house, two cabins, a barn and two storage buildings.

At the age of 69 years in 1954, Dorothy sold the trading post and went back to California where she passed away in 1970. She was buried in the same cemetery as her husband, George.

Dorothy was well-known and respected. In the words of a Yukon geologist she was “a character of the country.”