Kristina Erickson

An enterprising pioneer

Kristina Erickson was born on December 12, 1891, to parents Jommo Eric and Kristen Olssen (nee Olesdotter) in Malungsfors, Sweden. Not much is known about her growing-up years but a school friend, John Olaf Erickson, was later to change the course of her life.

As a young lad, John Olaf had gone off on an around-the-world adventure. After visiting places such as the Canary Islands, Cape Town, South Africa, Australia and Hawaii, John Olaf landed in Seattle Washington, U.S.A.

The year was 1900 and here there was still much excitement and talk about the great Klondike Gold Rush that had taken place a couple of years before. He decided to check this out, and boarded a passenger ship bound for Skagway, Alaska. He rode the White Pass & Yukon Route train over the newly-laid track to Whitehorse, Yukon.

For the next twenty years John Olaf prospected and mined for gold, both in the Dawson and Kluane regions of the Yukon.

Finally, in 1925, he returned to Sweden and married his childhood friend, Kristina Olsson. They returned to Canada following the same route that John had taken twenty-five years earlier.

Kristina’s first home in Canada was a rustic log cabin at Silver City on the shores of Kluane Lake. Getting groceries and supplies meant a two-hundred-mile trip to Whitehorse with horses, over a rough wagon road. Whitehorse, at that time, was a village of around three hundred permanent residents.

On one of his trips into town, John Olaf heard that the town’s only hotel was for sale. With their first child on the way, John and Kristina decided that this could prove to be a worthwhile venture for them.

The Regina Hotel was a rustic log structure on Front Street near the Yukon River. This was a prime location for the passengers on both the White Pass Railroad, and the sternwheelers docking in Whitehorse. It was also from here that horse-drawn sleds laden with supplies for Dawson City and points in between, would depart.

For decades the Regina became a homey haven for lonely bachelors and the travelling public in general. The lobby welcomed visitors with a big wood heater, comfy chairs, a piano and tables for checkers, chess, and card playing. The Regina earned the reputation of a well-run clean establishment, with good food, while under Kristina’s management. Under the Erickson proprietorship, the Regina would undergo many additions and renovations over the next seventy years. John Olaf and Kristina’s two children, Gudrun Ingeborg and John Eric, were raised in the hotel, and it was kept in the family until 1997.

Kristina was also a lifelong member of the Anglican Church and participated fully in its various activities and committees.

Kristina Erickson passed away in 1977 at the age of eighty-six, out-living her husband,

John Olaf, by three years. She lies buried at the Whitehorse Grey Mountain Cemetery, leaving behind many descendants who are here because of this woman’s leap of faith back in 1925.