ROY MINTER

Roy Minter (d.1996): Roy came to the Yukon in 1955 as a Canadian army captain with the Northwest Highway System. He left the service and joined the White Pass & Yukon Route (WP&YR) company as a publicist and special assistant to the president. He was on the Board of Directors of the Dawson City Festival in 1960 and played a key role in encouraging the federal government to invest time and money in the project.

He was a tireless booster of the Yukon and believed that Yukon history should be told accurately and defended. He formed the Klondike Defence Force in 1966 when Edmonton choose “Klondike Days” as the name for their annual festival. He was acclaimed for his TV and radio programs. His films “Brave New World” and “Take Four Giant Steps” won international awards.

He produced a 1967 film called “It’s the land, Have You Seen It?” as a WP&YR contribution to Canada’s centennial.  His authoritative book The White Pass: Gateway to the Klondike (1987) was exhaustively researched.  He became a Member of the Order of Canada in 1991 for his dedication to promoting the Yukon and his contribution to heritage preservation and Yukon tourism through the recovery of archival material and the recoding of pioneer stories. Roy was a founding member of the Yukon Foundation and his estate donated $100,000 to the Roy Minter Fund to help historians research and publish their work.