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The deaths of John Mcintyre and Joseph Abey, 1902
Highlights of History from The Whitehorse Star
A Watery Grave - Drownings in the Yukon & Alaska
Other Reports - articles from Atlin, Dawson, Victoria, and Detroit.
Dateline: December 8, 2023.
The Weekly Star, Saturday, December 6, 1902
At the present writing there seems to be no possibility of a doubt but that one of the most esteemed young men of Whitehorse, Mr. John Mcintyre, has met death on the winter mail route between Atlin and Log Cabin.
On Tuesday, Nov. 25th, McIntyre and a companion named Abbey, employes in the mail service of the W. P. & Y. Route between the above points, left Atlin for Log Cabin with their dog-teams and a consignment of mail. Since that time not a trace of them has been discovered, except footprints near Taku Arm, supposed to have been theirs, which were seen by the mail carriers who left the Log Cabin end of the route on the same date the missing men left Atlin.
Mr. Harry Price, purser of the steamer Gleaner, says that Golden Gate, on Taku Arm, where the carriers have to cross a neck of the Arm to gain the opposite shore, is one of the most treacherous places in the north. At this point the wind blows constantly during the winter and at times becomes a hurricane, and woe betide man or beast so unfortunate as to be caught there while tke tempest is raging.
A searching party is now out looking for the men, but with the fierce storms that have prevailed in that section during the past two weeks it is felt that their
task is a hopeless one.
Mr. McIntyre came to the country in the early days of the Klondike rush.
For the past four years he has made his home in Whitehorse. In 1898 he, in company with his partner, Mr. W. P. Grainger, discovered the Whitehorse copper district, and located among other properties the Copper King, one of the most promising mines in the whole of the Yukon and of which he is now half owner.
Of his history prior to coming to the Yukon but little is known. Mr. Grainger says he believes his home was in or near San Bernardino, Calif., and that he has
a sister who is at present attending Stanford University, that state.
The editor of the STAR lived for years in San Bernardino, Calif, and was
well acquainted with a family of McIntyres, but whether the unfortunate young man mentioned is a member of that family or not we are unable to say.
The Weekly Star, Saturday, December 13, 1902
Log Cabin, B.C., Dec. 11 - The Royal Mail arrived at Log Cabin from Atlin at noon today. The carriers reported the finding of the sled and dogs that went down with Abbey and McIntyre. George Coutts and John Fountain who were appointed by the gold commissioner to search for the lost men succeeded in grappling the sled with a hook improvised with a miner's pick and steel wire. The sled with the drowned dogs attached and tho load, including the sacks of ore and the mail, all intact, were drawn up where McIntyre's cap was found frozen in the ice, where it had floated upon the water at the time of the catastrophe. There was only one sled, notwithstanding the previous report that there, were two, and five dogs in the team.
The bodies of the lost men, however, could not be located with the crude appliances which Coutts and Fountain were able to obtain and when the mail had passed Golden Gate the searchers had returned to Taku to procure a more extensive grappling outtit before continuing the search.
It is thought that the bodies cannot be far away from where the sled was
found. There is a slight current at that point and they may have drift a short distance. The recovered mail contained a number of important government reports and other matter of special value. It was returned to Atlin, where it will be carefully dried and sent on to its destination. It is not believed that any material harm has been done to the mail.
The trail is now in splendid condition with the exception that there is a mile of open water on Atlin lake that is both difficult and dangerous to pass, as sleds, dogs and cargoes have to be taken across it in canoes and from them transferred to the thin ice at the water's edge.
The Weekly Star, Saturday, May 2, 1903
The body of Joseph Abbey has been recovered from the icy waters of Taku
Arm. It was found near the Gulden Gate, where the accident occurred by which he and John McIntyre lost their lives.
On Tuesday last one of Brooke's teamsters, who is engaged in freighting to Atlin, while driving along the trail noticed a body lying in the slush ice about ten feet trom the shore. The warm sun of last week had thawed the ice and exposed the side of the face, The teamster at once went out after the body and found it to be that of Joseph Abbey.
The remains were about five feet from the spot where the searchers found the bodies of the muil dogs last winter. There was less than one foot of water where Abbey's body was found frozen in the slush ice, or overflow.
Judging from the position of the body, and the place where it was found, it was evident that Abbey had got out and was making his way to the shore when he fell through sheer exhaustion and was frozen to death.
The body was taken to Atlin and will be sent to deceased's former home in Brandon, Manitoba. Search will be continued for the body of Mr. McIntyre.
[It will be remembered by the readers of the STAR that Abbey and McIntyre lost their lives last December while attempting to cross Taku Arm with the Atlin mail. - ED.]
The Weekly Star, Saturday, May 16, 1903
On Thursday afternoon Mr. Geo. E. Pulham, superintendent of mail service
of the W. P. & Y. Ry., received a telegram from Mr. E. J. Thain, acting government agent at Atlin, stating that the body of Mr. John McIntyre, the Atlin mail carrier, had been recovered. In this message no particulars as to the finding of the body were given.
Later in the afternoon Mr. Palham received another telegram from the same source which said that the body had been taken to Atlin by a Mr. Coutts and that the provincial authorities were looking after the remains. The burial service was held Friday afternoon. According to the report received the body was in very bad condition which tends to show that it had been floating around for some time.
John Mcintyre was buried at the Atlin Cemetery, and Joseph Abey beside his mother at the Madford Cemetery in Douglas, Manitoba.
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