Joyce (Richards) Yardley

Grace and Eric Richards, Joyce’s parents, originated from England. Eric was from London and he was travelling with a group of actors touring through England when he met Grace in Sussex. When Grace’s family moved to Calgary, Eric, who was very much in love, followed her to Canada where they were married. In October, 1925, the Richards’ family moved, via White Pass Rail, to Whitehorse where Eric took a job with Taylor & Drury working for Isaac Taylor in the dry goods department. Joyce was born a month later on November 3rd in the old Whitehorse General Hospital on Second Avenue. At that time, her sister Dora was ten years old, Ted was nine, Wilda eight and Ray was seven. Grace was a busy mother with five children including a brand new baby girl. They lived in Whitehorse for many years.

Joyce went to the old Lambert Street School. Having contracted measles when she was four, she had to wear thick glasses and suffered some teasing from the other kids, who called her Four Eyes. Although this made her self-conscious for a time, it also fortified her courage in later years. Also being the youngest of the family, she was spoiled by her older siblings. She said this is what made her so stubborn because they eventually gave in. Her strength came from fighting for what she wanted.

The family attended the Old Log Anglican Church where she sang in the choir. On weekends in the summer, the family would go on canoe trips, picnics and berry picking. Her father, Eric, would go fishing and grouse hunting in the fall. They built s small cabin at Ice Lake, about three miles north of town, where they spent many wonderful weekends. Her father also built a small sailboat and Joyce eventually learned to sail it herself. Unfortunately, that lake does not exist anymore as the US Army put a Beam Station close by and cut down all of the trees around the lake. Eventually the little lake, and the fresh springs that fed it, all dried up.

Her school chums included Therese Porter, Gladys Wilson, Gudrun (Goody) Erickson, Phyllis Walker and Evelyn (Babe) Richards. Her favourite teacher was a red-haired Laurie Todd. Joyce got along very well with her uncle, Leslie Richards, who came to visit from California. With her best friend Gladys, they would often watch the river boats arrive and depart all summer long. They loved to catch a ride, for a couple of miles, on the Cat Trains going to Dawson in the mid 1930s and they would also walk out to the Whitehorse Rapids. They remained friends for many years.

Her older brother, Ted, was shot down over Germany during WW11, leaving behind a wife and a little daughter. Ted wrote poetry during his time overseas and his work became quite renowned after his death. Mt. Richards in the Canyon Creek area was named in his honour. His death was a big loss for the family.

Joyce met Gordon Yardley in Carcross on the train coming back from a basketball game in Skagway, Alaska. Gordon had just finished a summer job working on the Tutshi and was heading for Whitehorse to take a job with Pan American Airlines. They dated for awhile, and when Joyce was of age they got married on July 24, 1942. The happy couple spent their honeymoon in Atlin, BC. She got her father’s blessing but her mother thought it was too soon to get married, and wanted her to get a job first and have some life experiences. So Joyce got her first job at Taylor & Drury in the grocery department to prove that she was old enough for marriage.

In 1943, they moved to Carcross where Gordon was awarded the contract for installing a telephone pole line from Skagway to Whitehorse and from Carcross to Jake’s Corner on the Alaska Highway. They rented a house owned by Johnny Johns, an outfitter and big game guide, and later built their own home. Their neighbours were Mr. & Mrs. Hugh Grant, the Anglican minister and superintendent of the Choutla Residential School. The Grants’ son, Moe became a famous bush pilot in the Yukon. On December 6, 1943, Norma Dale Yardley was born in the old Whitehorse General Hospital on Second Avenue in Whitehorse. She was delivered in the same hospital room, attended by the same nurse and by the same doctor who delivered Joyce, 18 years earlier! Gordon worked at various jobs including cutting cordwood and hauling stove oil for the people of Whitehorse. In 1944, the small family went to Vancouver to visit Gordon’s parents in Langley.

In 1946, they rented out their house in Carcross and bought 10-Mile Ranch, acquiring 400 acres of land and started farming, raising cattle and chickens. The ranch was 10 miles from the RCMP post at Tagish. They purchased some haying equipment, four head of cattle and two horses. The resident bears, cows, chickens and geese shared the meadow as there was plenty of good food for all.

On May 24, 1947, Kirk was born. The only way to get to and from the ranch was by foot or by boat. Later, Gordon built a road out to the Tagish Road. Now they could drive out to Fort St. John and Dawson Creek and pick up yearlings to build up the herd. In the fall it was time to butcher and sell the meat, which was always spoken for. By 1948, they had a big garden just behind the old cow barn so she never had to fertilize! She grew record size vegetables, lots of potatoes and cabbages up to eleven lbs. Joyce stored everything she could in a cellar and sold the rest, including 150-200 lbs. of lake trout.to the SS Tutshi, a paddle wheeler that transported tourists from Carcross to beautiful Ben-My-Chree at the end of Tagish Lake.

There was no electricity and no refrigeration in the first years. Joyce washed everything on a washboard. She made jams and jellies and canned and pickled everything she could, including moose and trout. She had a wood-burning stove in the yard and used the tub they used for their baths to boil the water for the canning and preserves. This way, she could do many at the same time. It was a lot of work. Finally, getting a gas washing machine, a gas iron and an Aladdin lamp really made a difference.

Now Norma was six years old and Kirk was three—schooling for Norma was by correspondence for Grades 1 & 2. In 1955, they moved back to Carcross and lived in a building they had hauled over from Johnson’s Crossing before moving back into their original home, when the renters moved out. They put in a well and bought a light plant—the first in Carcross. On weekends it was out to the 10-Mile Ranch to attend to the garden, chickens and the cattle. Soon Ted was born.

They opened a grocery store with partners, Herman and Doris Peterson, for a while. Later Gordon built two small summer cottages, and rented them. In the fall, they herded the cattle into Carcross along the lake on the old telegraph line, about fourteen miles, to corrals near their home. They bought and sold many horses over the years and the children all learned to ride.

Gordon landed a contract with White Pass Railway to provide railroad ties. He set up a sawmill a few miles out of Carcross, while Joyce looked after the children, the horses, the cattle and their home. She was the postmistress in Carcross from 1955-1960, a job which she thoroughly enjoyed. That’s when she learned how to type.

In 1960, they sold all the properties in Carcross and 10-Mile-Ranch and took everything else with them to Dezadeash Lodge on the Haines Highway. As well as the property with the Lodge, it also came with 120 acres of meadowland including a number of horses. Packing up and moving after eighteen years was a lot of work, but change was welcome.

Dezadeash Lodge on the Haines Road included a cafe, cocktail lounge, garage, gas pumps and twenty-two guest rooms. They had a power plant, sewer and water system and they did all of the maintenance, including supplying the wood for the furnaces. Every summer they had between ten and thirteen employees on staff. Some were local and some were university students from Vancouver, happy to come up north and work in such a beautiful area. They would close in October and open again in March. There was bookkeeping to do in addition to helping the boys with their correspondence courses. Gordon put up many bales of hay in the fall and had no problem selling the surplus. Joyce cooked when a staff member did not show up, cleaned the rooms, did the laundry, and, if needed, waited tables. She was busily involved in every aspect of the business. One particular time she was working in the lounge and a particularly obnoxious patron was irritating her and would not leave. She threatened him with a two-by-four and he made a hasty retreat. She was spunky!

Daughter Norma married Cal Waddington in 1961 and soon there were two grandchildren. In 1967, Norma and Cal bought the lodge from Joyce and Gordon. Son Kirk was also involved but a short time later in 1968, he and his wife, Gunn, bought property and built Kathleen Lake Lodge, eighteen miles away. Now Joyce had time for hiking, fishing and skiing in the winter and travelling in summer. She loved snowmobiling with their friends and they would go on trips over the mountains spending three or four days out in a winter wonderland. Their son Ted married in 1969, and moved to Cortino Lodge down the road about ten miles from Dezadeash. Joyce and Gordon built a home on the hay meadow, which included a huge fireplace with fabulous views in all directions. They bought new equipment for cutting and baling hay. Soon they were producing several thousand bales a season and selling most of it. They staked some mining claims and also ran a trap line for a few years.

This was a wonderful time in Joyce’s life. Her family was close by. Norma and Cal had sold the lodge and built a summer home near by. The families spent many holidays together, especially at Christmas and Easter time. Joyce now had five grandchildren. Joyce and Gordon and their son Ted were part of the crew on the filming of the movie Challenge to be Free, about the Mad Trapper.

Joyce’s daughter and family moved back to Whitehorse and the sons had also left so it was lonely for her. By 1974, the whole family had moved back to Whitehorse. Father and son, Kirk, formed a construction company and were soon busy with contracts. Joyce discovered pottery and also took art lessons with Ted Harrison. Soon she had a potter’s wheel and a kiln. Joyce sold her pottery, which helped pay for her hobby.

In 1978, Gordon, Joyce and their son Kirk started placer mining in various parts of the North, including Dawson City, Atlin BC, and near Carmacks. That lasted around fourteen years. In Atlin, they went into business with another couple and purchased six claims. Their son Kirk and his family joined them, as third partners, and moved into an older cabin on the property. The ladies scoured the old dumps, finding hundreds of antique bottles and trinkets. Their son, Ted, and his family also came out in the summer. In 1982, Gordon had a stroke. The two sons were able to take over the business in Atlin while Gordon recuperated.

In 1983, they had moved their operation to the Carmacks area with son Kirk. Joyce was the camp cook. For a short time, Ted and his family joined them as well. In 1985, they moved around doing exploration work before going back to Atlin. Then in 1986, they relocated to Dawson and bought fourteen claims plus equipment with son Kirk. Joyce and Gordon bought a home in Saltair on Vancouver Island, returning to Dawson in the summers. Although mining was tremendously hard work, with long hours, Joyce never regretted it. They sold the mine in 1992 and retired. They sometimes travelled to Hawaii, Mexico and California for warm winter holidays.

In 1992, the family held a big celebration for Joyce and Gordon’s 50th wedding anniversary. Many relatives made the trip to the Island to help them celebrate. In 1993, they bought a lovely condo on Cameron Island in Nanaimo overlooking the ocean. Joyce also wrote her first book in 1993, chronicling her interesting life in Crazy Cooks and Gold Miners. She was seventy. Joyce loved living on the island. They also travelled to Arizona, Texas, Florida and Mexico in their motorhome.

A few years earlier, in 1987, Kirk and his family moved to Victoria for the winter months and eventually settled in Courtenay. Ted and his wife moved to Florida. In 1994, both Joyce and Gordon visited the jungles of Venezuela where Kirk was diamond mining. It was at this point that her husband’s health really started failing.

As time went on, Gordon had a series of mini strokes and was slowly losing his strength and abilities. He needed considerable care, so Joyce was there to help with everything—full time. She discovered a group of writers on the Internet and it became a much-needed social outlet and inspiration to capture her thoughts in writing. As she developed a network around her newly blossoming passion for prose, she began to attend events for writers, travelling with her granddaughter, Tanja, to one such event in San Francisco. which coincided with the Gay Pride Parade. They had a wonderful time exploring the city in all of its colourful, scantily clad glory.

Caring for Gordon became very exhausting for Joyce, so the family had to make the very difficult decision to move Gordon to a care home. It was a sad day, but it was necessary. Joyce and the family spent considerable time at the care home. Gordon passed away on December 20, 2000.

As her mourning subsided, Joyce picked herself up by her bootstraps and took up kayaking, loading it up on her SUV by herself, at 78 years of age. She was very independent and traveled with friends, relatives and sometimes alone. But in her prose she still talked about how lonesome she was at times, after all of those years with the hero of her life. However, she had enormous spirit, energy and was very curious and generally quite cheerful. In earlier years she loved dancing, singing and could whistle any tune—any time. She collected photos and memories wherever she went. In later years, she occupied herself with researching family histories and documenting them.

After writing her second book, Yukon River Boats, Joyce attended a wonderful book launch in 2006 at a bookstore in Nanaimo with most of her family there. Joyce said it was one of the better days in her life. Besides writing books of memories, Joyce also wrote poetry and had several poems published in anthologies. She wrote another book in 2006 entitled Yukon Tears and Laughter. It gave her great joy to chronicle her lifelong adventures and share her memories of the Yukon as it morphed from pioneer territory into the bustling hub that it is now.

In December 2002, Joyce married Fred Horn, who shared the experience of being widowed. They had known each other for more than ten years through computer club meetings and after Gordon’s passing, he found the courage to declare his admiration for her. They were both very active in their lives—attending elder college, kayaking and travelling, and he became her tender and trusted companion. In 2005, they went to England where Joyce did some research into her family history of the Richards as well as other family relatives. She also got to meet some of Fred’s family during their travels around England. Joyce put together a lot of information regarding genealogy on her mother’s side, which went back to the 1700s. She published a book for the family, in 2009, to help bring their history to life.

Fred and Joyce were living in Nanaimo in their late eighties. Joyce’s health was ailing due to the first stages of Alzheimers and she suffered a broken hip, which landed her in the hospital. The complexity of her care necessitated that she be transferred to a wonderful care home where she had round-the-clock care and attention. She was very happy there and loved having family come to visit and take her out driving and for lunches. Fred missed her immensely and visited her everyday. He checked many care homes hoping they could eventually move in together when he could no longer stay in their home. In November, 2014, after a major stroke following a few mini strokes, Fred died at the age of ninety. Shortly, thereafter, Joyce passed away, at the age of ninety-one, on May 5, 2016.

Joyce Yardley had both grace and grit, and she didn’t shy away from anything. She rolled up her sleeves and got in there, hand-in-hand with her husband, and did what needed to be done. She was never happier than when her family was around her. She had seven grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild. The experiences she packed into her life are: ranching, gardening, lodge owner, trapping, mining, painting, pottery, writing and travelling whenever she could. Joyce was made of the same stuff that built the Yukon. She was fun-loving and had a lot of spirit and she made a difference. In doing so, she lived her life to the fullest!

And Joyce would say in her later years regarding her latest experiences: “That was the best trip (meal, etc.) that I’ve ever had …in my whole life!” This was much to the amusement of the family!

A true Yukon Pioneer!