The history of Whitehorse, Yukon

Posted by Hessel Oerlemans in the Yukon History & Abandoned Places group, on March 8, 2025.

    Hessel and twin brother Jacobus were born at the Whitehorse General Hospital on October 5, 1955. Father Pieter "Pete" Oerlemans worked for CNT (Canadian National Telegraph).

A. This is where we (Oerlemans) lived (3A, CNT). You can see my dad's car in front. These were duplexes. The people next to us in the early sixties were the Spencers (Kim would bring my mom stink weed and expect a cookie...he got one), Dekoas and I believe Tutons.

B. This duplex was the Edelman's (they had a yellow skidoo and motor bikes) and McDermit's (older couple)

C. This duplex was the Mckenzie's (Charlie would babysit us) and Nelson's (Corey was our age and we played with him. His dad had a small runabout on a trailer in the back yard. The steering wheel had a suicide knob, that when you turned it the ladies bikini would slide off. Yes, we liked to play in there.

D. This was the garage and shop.

E. Voth's and not sure who lived next door.

F. Suttons lived here. (my brother shot Mr. Sutton in the forehead with a sticker dart from a toy pistol once. He chased us around for sure. My older brother hung out with Ronald)

G. Repeater Station. This is where my dad worked when he was not doing windshield time on the Alaska Highway.

H. The sand pit, where we lost many toys. I am sure they found some when they put in the dealerships.

I. This was where we waited for the school bus. In winter we waited inside. In Spring we walked home from Takhini most of the time. I think it was a parking garage.

J. This is where we would slide and toboggan down what we called "Chicken Foot" hill in the winters. In the summer there would trailers parked from eighteen wheelers in storage behind the garage. We played in the oil tanker trailer because it was like a submarine inside with the baffles. Not smart we lit matches to see. There was also a skating rink in the middle of the open space between the duplexes.

K. The store where we got our chocolate bars. Once a summer the watermelon truck would park there to sell melons. When they left they tossed what was left and we thought that was great.

L. The entry to the dirt roads leading to the clay cliffs. Lovers would drive in and we would run over and barricade them in. Block the exits with branches, etc. Just being a nuisance.

M. The ball diamond where we played little league.

N. Takhini Elementary School. We would play behind the school in a type of bayou - trees would be standing in quite a pond of water. We got the strap for being in there.

O. Crestview This is where the Elaine's and Eldon Brown lived. They were our nemesis. They would come down to our area (CNT) and scare the crap out of us with sticks, bats, chains and even bow and arrows. Charlie Mckenzie used to come scare them off for us.

P. Just lower in the photo were underground military bunkers and oil tanks where we would explore.

Q. The forest behind the houses where we spent a lot of time playing and picking moss berries. There were as we called them "hobos" living in the woods. We lived right on the flight path to the airport, so as kids we watched a lot of planes fly over our heads. A lot of Sabre jets etc.