Ethel Lougene Wilkinson

Ethel was born in the Wenatchee Valley, Washington, on March 17, 1917. She was the second of three children born to Cecil and Laura Wilkinson. Her older brother was Jared and her younger brother was Eddie.

Mrs. Wilkinson’s brother had been placer mining on Selwyn River, a tributary to the Yukon River just below Fort Selkirk. He invited their family to come North and join him in 1917. The mining did not go well so they moved up to Fort Selkirk and set up a trapping area for the winter and worked at odd jobs in the community during the summer. Their youngest son, Eddie, was born there in 1919.

There was no school in Selkirk, but Mrs. Coward, the wife of a local trapper, was a Lay Reader for the Anglican Church and teacher providing instruction for any children who may be in town. The school was a small one-room log cabin on the bank of the Yukon River and provided a rudimentary education for any of the children of trapping families in the area. This is where Ethel and brother Jared had their only formal education.

In 1927, the family moved up the Pelly and MacMillan Rivers to establish new traplines so as the children grew, they would have their own lines and be able to contribute to the family. Any additional education would have been provided by their parents.

Jared and his dad worked together for the first few years but as Jared grew older and more skilled in trapping, he branched off on to his own lines with the cabins that were built in summer. It was not long before Ethel also had her own team and trapline, short two-day trips at first but she very soon was an equal with her dad and brother.

In the spring they would take their winter’s catch to the Moose Creek treading post which was in the general area. They would then go out on their lines and do the needed repairs to trails and cabins in preparation for the next winter. In the fall, well before freeze-up, they would go down to Selkirk in their small boat and get the supplies needed for the coming winter. Ethel was an accomplished woods person and a skilled trapper. During the winter, their mother had correspondence school material she had ordered when she was at Selkirk and when either of the children came in for a rest from the trapline she would have them work on their three R’s skills.

This was a very bountiful trapping area and within three years they were able to have Mr. Coward, with their help, build a gas boat, the Owl. This made their life much more flexible enabling the family to visit Selkirk more often, and to take their furs to both the stores in Selkirk so that they were able to get a more competitive price for the furs.  By now all three children had their own teams and established traplines. This meant there were four family members fully employed all winter. During the late twenties and thirties Yukon furs were in high demand and one could make a good living working in this trade.

Ethel was a skilled bush person and was always an equal to her brothers. She was a very shy person and incredibly quiet, staying in the background whenever she could. Her brothers were avid photographers and Ethel always tried to avoid being a model for any of their photo shoots.

In 1940, the Pelly Farm, just seven miles up the Pelly River from Fort Selkirk, was up for sale and the Wilkinsons purchased it. This was an old farm which had started during the Gold Rush. It had large fields of very fertile river soil and in winter there was a contract to feed and care for all the horses used by the Federal Government Land Survey summer crews and they were able to continue running a couple traplines. There were a few cattle, several of their own horses, chickens, and a few pigs. In summer they were able to grow lots of root vegetables, which could be sold to families in Selkirk and some to the Steamboats in summer.

Ethel loved animals and happily took to the farm life. She also had a much-reduced trapline but still had her own team of dogs and was able to get out on the land in Winter.

With the new Highway being built in 1948 from Whitehorse to Dawson City, and the removal of the Steamboats from the Yukon River, the family decided to sell the farm in 1954 and move into the old Pelly Roadhouse which was close to the highway.

In 1956 Ethel met Andy Porterfield and several years later they were married and moved Outside to Edgewood, B.C. where she remained until her death in 1985.