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William (Bill) David Addison was born April 27, 1939 to Peter Addison and Ottelyn (Robinson) Addison, the oldest of 3 children, in Toronto, Ontario.

His father, a forester, moved with the family to Port Arthur Ontario by the time Bill was 5 years old, where he spent his formative years. His mother Ottelyn inspired his love and knowledge of nature and his intense curiosity as she took Bill and his brothers exploring nature, canoeing, identifying flora and fauna. She in turn developed her love and knowledge of the natural world in Algonquin Park under the tutelage of her father, Mark Robinson, a Park Ranger.

The family moved to Richmond Hill in the early ‘50’s where teenage Bill developed his love of photography. He and his mother built a dark room in which they could develop their photos. Bill was particularly drawn to nature with its abundant wildlife and landscape opportunities. Like his father, he studied forestry at the University of Toronto, followed by a Masters’ degree in Fisheries in the mid 1960’s. It was at University that he met Wendy Livingston who he married in 1966.

Bill’s reading tastes and interests varied greatly, leading to him being conversant on almost any topic. The book ‘Dangerous River’ by R.M. Patterson made such a strong impression on him that he led Wendy on a honeymoon trip into the Nahanni River country where they spent a month traveling the river and its environs by foot and canoe in 1966 despite the fears of relatives that they would never return. He was always adventurous. The collection of fish for the Royal Ontario Museum and the search for lemmings helped finance the trip as did scuba diving for an engineering company. This trip was to be instrumental in many of Bill’s later endeavours.

In 1966, Bill started working with fisheries biology in Maple for ‘Lands and Forests’. Much to his delight, the unit moved north to Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) a year later. He was happy to have returned ‘home’. An article Bill wrote about the Nahanni trip appeared in Weekend Magazine that year as well. A few years later, Bill changed careers to join Wendy as a high school teacher which provided opportunities to camp and canoe together during the summers.

Bill promoted the Nahanni River area as natural place to create a park, and when this occurred in the early 1970’s, he proposed that old-timers in the area be interviewed to provide a history of the area while they were still able to do so. Due to his enthusiasm for the project along with his extensive interests and ability to connect to people, he was a natural choice. The proposal was accepted along with a request that he carry out those interviews. During this time, two daughters, Michelle and Kirsten were born, so the family stayed home while Bill travelled on his interviewing trips. He was always teased about having missed Kirsten’s birth because he was carrying out interviews at the time. Although the scope of the project was limited due to funding constraints, knowing that the interviewees were all aging, Bill continued the interviews after funding ran out, travelling from the Maritimes to California to the Northwest Territories. This was a task that he enjoyed thoroughly, and which resulted in a lifelong passion.

Bill returned to Nahanni River in 1978 and 1979, travelling the length of the river, but also carrying out many hikes in the surrounding areas. He loved exploring Canada which led to many car and canoe camping trips both locally and throughout the country with the family once the girls were old enough for this type of travel. Memorable trips to Dawson City, Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk, the Broken Islands and the Milk River provided a greater understanding of Canada for all.

After retirement in 1998, Bill had more time available to participate in his many interests. Winter and spring months often took Bill and Wendy on camping trips in the Southern US and west, particularly during rainy years in which flowers were present in the deserts or oceans were stormy and snowpack was high. Bill was a prodigious writer, and his ‘epistles’ and digital photos of our many travels in Canada and the US along with several international extended trips were greatly anticipated by the many friends and relatives who received them. His interesting talks and slideshows were greatly appreciated and very well received by a variety of organizations and friends. Retirement also allowed time to enjoy the growing family, which by 2013 included 2 sons-in-law and 4 grandchildren.

Bill’s variety of interests led him, along with a Thunder Bay friend, Greg, to the exploration of local geological formations which they were able to identify as ejecta from the Sudbury (Ontario) meteorite impact in the early 2000’s. This discovery led to work still being carried out on this discovery by geologists and mining companies. Bill and Greg produced several publications on this discovery and for this work they were awarded the Goldich Medal from the Institute on Lake Superior Geology. This interest led Bill and Wendy to a trip to South Africa to take part in a Geology Conference on meteorite impacts as well as a geology cruise to Antarctica. A large piece of ejecta from Thunder Bay now resides in a museum in South Africa.

As geologists expanded on the ejecta studies that Bill and Greg started, Bill returned to intensive work on the Nahanni ‘Old timers’ project, transcribing interviews that hadn’t been transcribed as part of the original project. During their trip to Alaska and NWT in 2017, Bill was still searching archives and talking to people associated with the Nahanni area. Sadly, Bill was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer soon after his return from this trip and died October 25, 2017.

Tom Alföldi is a scientist and photographer. He holds Bachelor of Applied Science and Master of Engineering degrees, and spent most of his career at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing, a part of the federal Department of Natural Resources. In 1971, while studying for his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering, he took a summer job doing aerial photography in the Canadian arctic, to provide stereo air photos of engineering sites for a graduate student, Rob McCuaig. During his time in the Northwest Territories he also took many personal photographs.

Alternatives North, originally named 'Northern Support Group,' was formed in April 1977 in support of the principles of aboriginal right to land ownership and self-determination. Initially, the group served to present non-Indigenous, northern opposition to the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. When the name 'Northern Support Group' was officially registered by a group of Yellowknife businessmen supporting the pipeline, the new name Alternatives North was adopted.

Jack Anderson was a carpenter at the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company between 1937-1938. He died in 1983.

John Anderson Thomson was born on April 30, 1900 in Glengairn, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He served in the Royal Flying Corps. during World War I, joining in 1917 at the age of 16. After being wounded and spending time in recovery, John immigrated to Canada in 1920, settling in Unity, Saskatchewan. He spent the next several years farming sheep and teaching school. In 1926, John returned to Scotland and married Janet Paterson, from Braemar, who had been born June 18, 1902. The Thomsons returned to Saskatchewan after their marriage. In the 1930s, John attended the University of Saskatchewan and in 1934 was a student assistant with the Geological Survey of Canada in the Arctic. In 1936, he graduated with a degree in geological engineering. John worked at the De Santis Gold Mine in Timmins, Ontario from 1937 to 1941 as geologist, mine engineer, and mine superintendent. From 1941 to 1942 he was Chief Engineer at Delnite Gold Mine, also in Timmins.
John served as an RCAF navigation instructor in Manitoba during WWII, from 1942 to 1944. On April 6, 1944, while still in uniform, he arrived in the north, employed by the General Engineering Company of Canada as a field engineer and geologist. Janet followed soon after. General Engineering had a contract to evaluate the mining properties of Yellowknife Gold Mines and Yellowknife Bear Mines. By 1946, General Engineering was no longer active in Yellowknife, but John decided to stay, gaining a contract with Negus Mines. Together with J. A. Buchanan, Dominion Land Surveyor (DLS) of Edmonton, he formed Thomson & Buchanan Engineers, Geologists and Surveyors. John articled under Buchanan and earned his own DLS commission in 1956. John also filled in as Mine Superintendent at Negus in 1949 when the regular superintendent was on leave.
John’s surveying and geological investigation work took him all over the Northwest Territories and what became Nunavut, to mining claims, communities, and larger centres such as Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Hay River, Iqaluit, and Yellowknife. His work included water and sewer main layouts, roads, power line rights-of-way, lot and block surveys, site certificates, legal mineral claim surveys, and surveys for mining companies. John undertook many significant surveys over the years, including surveying the power line from the Discovery Mine to Bluefish Hydro, laying out the route of the Mackenzie Highway proposed by the Federal Government in 1947 and suggesting a better route, doing DEW line surveys and laying out airstrips in 1954, finding river crossings for a pipeline from Alaska to Alberta in 1969 (not constructed), surveying a pipeline from Norman Wells to Zama pipeline in 1979, and surveying and investigating the Slave River as part of a hydro feasibility study.
When John broke his knee-cap in the spring of 1958 and was unable to do fieldwork for the rest of the season, he took the opportunity to teach geology and surveying at the University of Saskatchewan. From 1958 to 1966, John spent summers doing field work in the north and winters teaching in Saskatoon and drafting plans. This winter/summer transition led to the Anderson-Thomson being the first travellers on the unfinished highway between Fort Providence and Yellowknife when they left too late in the season to bring their vehicle back to Yellowknife by ice road.
John Anderson-Thomson’s business was run under the banner of “Thomson and Buchanan” for a number of years, then as “John Anderson-Thomson”, and “John Anderson-Thomson Engineering & Surveying Ltd.” as of April 30, 1976. After working in cooperation with Underwood McLellan Associates, out of Edmonton, for a few years in the late 1970s, John Anderson-Thomson officially sold his business to them as of December 31, 1981 and retired from official practice in 1982, although he remained on retainer as a consultant. The name of the Yellowknife business became Thomson Underwood McLellan Surveys Ltd.
John was involved with a number of organizations and had many interests outside of his business. The Yellowknife Branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy was established at the Anderson-Thomson house in 1945. John was also a member of the Saskatchewan Land Surveyors’ Association, Canadian Institute of Surveying, Association of Professional Engineers of Saskatchewan, and Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of the NWT. John received a Canadian Engineers’ Gold Medal Award from the Canadian Association of Professional Engineers in 1983.
In 1952, John assumed command of the No. 7 Company Canadian Rangers, on the request of the Governor General, Lord Alexander of Tunis. The Rangers participated in Exercise Bulldog III, a scenario to defend Yellowknife, in 1954, with great success. In 1954, he was appointed as Magistrate and Justice of the Peace, a position he held for the next 22 years. He earned himself the reputation of being a “hanging judge”, but received a special award from the RCMP at the end of his service. In 1959, John was invited to join the Royal Commission to determine the route for the Great Slave Lake railway from Pine Point to the current end of steel in Alberta. One of three commissioners, his minority report in favour of the western route, managed to convince Prime Minister Diefenbaker.
John also had a founding role in the layout of the Yellowknife Golf Course in 1947 and was a member for several years. He was also enjoyed shooting and curling.
Janet Anderson-Thomson was also influential, assisting John in his work, designing the NWT tartan, and accompanying the junior and senior choirs at Holy Trinity Anglican Church. Avid supporters of the NWT Pipe Band, the Anderson-Thomsons were given honourary membership in 1979. John and Janet were also joint recipients of the Commissioner’s Award for public service in the NWT in 1975.
Janet Anderson-Thomson died 1983. John passed away two years later on September 15, 1985 at his daughter’s home in Ontario. Their two daughters, Mary and Myrtle were each already married and had families of their own in Ontario.

Alestine Andre was born in 1951 in Aklavik, NWT to Eliza (Sam) and Hyacinthe Andre. She lived on the land with her family until the age of six. Beginning in 1958, Andre attended school at the RC Mission School in Aklavik, Grollier Hall in Inuvik, Akaitcho Hall in Yellowknife, and she graduated from Samuel Hearne Secondary School in Inuvik. Alestine Andre spent her summers with her family at their camp.

Andre graduated with a diploma in Public Administration from Camosun College in 1987, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and Women’s Studies from the University of Victoria in 1994, and with a Master’s degree in Ethnobotany from the University of Victoria in 2006.

Alestine Andre worked for CBC Radio in Inuvik, the Committee for Original Peoples’ Entitlement (COPE, now the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation), and the Mackenzie Delta Tribal Council (now Gwich’in Tribal Council (GTC)). In 1994, Andre began her career with the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute (GSCI, now the GTC’s Department of Cultural Heritage). During her time with GSCI, Andre worked as Cultural Director, Executive Director, and Heritage Researcher.

Alestine Andre’s contributions to culture and heritage have been recognized by a number of organizations. In 2005, Andre was awarded a Gwich’in Achievement Award by the GTC in the career category of Gwich’in Culture. In 2007, Andre was awarded a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the category of Culture, Heritage and Spirituality. In 2012, Andre was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Ole Andreasen came to the North on a whaling ship that was possibly captained by his brother. He was a trader who operated the trading post at Shingle Point in the Richardson Islands in the early 1930s for T.C. Pederson. He also had a post at Point Atkinson (Nuvoraq) in the early 1920s. He traveled with Vilhjalmur Steffanson on several of Steffanson's expeditions in the Canadian Arctic and owned the ship the 'Gladiator'. He married Susanna, also known as Atugpik and had two sons, David and Jasper.

Peter Andru was born in Phoenix, AB on November 3, 1930, the son of John and Mary Andru. He was raised in Edmonton, AB and graduated from the University of Alberta in 1954 with a B.S. in civil engineering, followed by an M.Sc. At the U of A in 1956 and an M.S.E. specializing in river engineering from Princeton in 1958. Peter Andru was employed by the federal government in the Department of Public Works - Harbours and Rivers Branch, moving to different offices across Canada within the Department. His specialties were harbour and river hydraulics dredging, and breakwaters. While in the Edmonton office from 1962-1965 he worked on projects in the north, including wharf repairs and pile foundation design and installation in Fort Chipewyan and Aklavik. Later working for Swan Wooster Engineering Company in the 1970s he was also involved in a project for Imperial Oil, designing a man-made island in the Beaufort Sea to support an oil drilling rig, the first of its kind. His career also spanned work in Thunder Bay, Vancouver, St. John’s, the US, and Karachi, Pakistan, and included 30 years total service in Public Works. He retired from the engineering profession in 1993.

Peter Andru married Evelyn (nee Frame) on July 22, 1961, and had six sons: Peter John, James Franklin, Stephen Lawrence, David Michael, Robert Paul and Gordon Neil. Peter played football when he was young and enjoyed bowling, curling and competitive bridge. He died on June 9, 2005 in Vancouver, BC.

The Diocese of the Arctic was formed in 1933 and incorporated in 1961; however, the administrative boundaries of the Anglican Church in the Northwest Territories have changed many times. In 1884, the Anglican Church created the Diocese of the Mackenzie River and it included parts of the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. In 1891, the Diocese of Selkirk was established and split off the Yukon from the Diocese of the Mackenzie River. In 1933, the Diocese of the Mackenzie River was abolished and the Diocese of the Arctic established. The new diocese consisted of the former Diocese of the Mackenzie River and parts of the Dioceses of Moosonee and Keewatin. It stretched across northern Canada from the Yukon-Alaska boundary to the Quebec-Labrador boundary and included the Ungava Peninsula and the Canadian islands north of the mainland. In 1970, the Episcopal District of Mackenzie River was established, however it rejoined the Diocese of the Arctic in 1974. Today, the Diocese of the Arctic spans the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Nunavik (Arctic Quebec). Originally the See city was in Aklavik with All Saints as the Pro-Cathedral, but in 1972 the See city became Iqaluit, when the Episcopal District of Mackenzie River as formed. The Diocese of the Arctic had has six bishops, Archibald Lang Fleming (1933-1949), Donald Ben Marsh (1950-1973), John Reginald Sperry (1974-1990), John Christopher Richard Williams (1991- 2002), Andrew Atagotaaluk (2002-2012), and David W. Parsons (2012-). The Diocese has also had several Suffragan Bishops, starting with Henry George Cook.

The Episcopal District of the Mackenzie formed in 1970 from part of the Diocese of the Arctic. It was later reabsorbed by the Diocese of the Arctic in 1975. Henry G. Cook was the Bishop of the district.

Carlton R. Appleby was a deckhand on the riverboat the 'Beaver Lake' during the summer of 1946. He traveled along the Athabasca and Slave Rivers for the summer and then boarded the 'Dease Lake' on September 1, 1946 and traveled to Fort Rae. During his time in the north, he also worked on the Yellowknife Hotel. He now resides in California.

In September of 1937 Alden Hayes and Wesley L. Bliss began an archaeological and geological survey in Alberta for the University of New Mexico with the cooperation of the Department of Geology, University of Alberta. An expedition was then organized to work in the Mackenzie River basin, from the Sikanni River in British Columbia to the Arctic, and from there into the upper Yukon system of the Bell and Porcupine Rivers to Fort Yukon. This 1938 expedition was funded by the American Philosophical Society and the University of New Mexico. Its members included: Alden Hayes, Douglas Osborne, Joseph Maloney, Thomas Cain, Richard Hayes, and was led by Wesley Bliss.

The Arctic Public Legal Education and Information Society (Arctic PLEI) was established in 1987. It was a non-government organization formed to assist people of the Northwest Territories to become more aware of the law and the legal system, and how to use it more effectively. The organization's programs aimed to reduce and prevent legal problems, increase people's knowledge about the law, the legal process and the justice system and encourage people to protect their rights by understanding the laws that affect them in their everyday lives in areas such as social services, assault, theft and labour. Arctic PLEI provided the public with an opportunity to access free legal advice by coordinating a toll free phone line, produced printed information (in English and Inuktitut) about the law aimed at the general public, produced videos and audio cassettes for use by schools and community groups, visited schools and community groups and held workshops on law-related topics based on needs identified by communities. Workshops were hosted on such topics as family violence, court procedures, women's rights and youth and the law. The organization formerly dissolved in 1996.

D'Arcy Arden was born in England, but came to Canada as a young man. He was educated at Ridley College, and trained to enter the Royal Navy; however, he was only five feet tall and was denied entry to the service. He decided to join a large survey in Labrador, where he learned to drive dogs. After a period of doing office work in Ottawa, he was sent to the Yukon (ca. 1911), to Herschel Island. In the winter of 1913-1914, Arden met John Hornby. In 1914, Arden settled at Dease Bay, although he had originally planned to travel to the arctic coast. He married Marie Adele (Arimo) Neitia and had one daughter, Catherine (Kay), and three sons (D'Arcy Jr. "Sonny", Hugh, and James) . In 1925, he was working in the Peace River area watching over the bison at Wood Buffalo National Park. Sometime in the 1930s, he returned to the Great Bear Lake area, and in 1933, he discovered and staked pitchblende claims at Hottah Lake. In 1938, he moved to Yellowknife where he and D'Arcy Jr. ("Sonny") set up a mink farming operation. He died December 26, 1959.

Ulric Joseph Octave 'Spud' Arsenault was born in Wellington, Prince Edward Island on April 21, 1899, the son of Gertrude (nee Cormier) and Joseph Felix Arsenault, who was an Acadian businessman and member of the PEI Legislative Assembly. His childhood was spent in Wellington PEI, Minnesota, Quebec City and Summerside PEI.

At the age of 16 he enlisted with the armed forces in World War One and served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the 105th, 26th, and 13th Battalions and was wounded in action in Amiens, France. He was discharged in 1919.

After farming and working on railways in Wellington PEI, he moved to western Canada in 1921, working on railways in Fort McMurray Alberta ca. 1921-1922, and for the Alberta Forestry Service as a fire ranger ca. 1922-1928. In the winters he had a cabin and trapline on the Athabasca River. In 1928 he began prospecting and mining with various companies including Dominion Explorers (1929), Eldorado Company (1931-1934), Althona (1935), Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company (1938), Ruth Mine (winter 1941/42), and Frances Lake, Yukon (1943-1944).

In 1945 Arsenault returned to the Yellowknife area to work as an independent prosepector, and staked some lapsed claims that he'd originally staked for Consolidated Mining, now the Spartan (Arsenault) group of claims. Working with friend Bill MacDonald this group of claims was purchased by Beaulieu Yellowknife Mines for $100,000 and 250,000 shares in a new mining company to be named Spud Arsenault Mines Ltd. Arsenault's story became a media sensation, but the collapse of the fraudulent Beaulieu Yellowknife Mines meant that the Spud Arsenault Mines project never materialized.

Despite prospecting again in Yellowknife in 1946 and 1976, Arsenault moved to Edmonton where he lived in semi-retirement for approximately ten years, and then moved to Vancouver Island.

Ulric 'Spud' Arsenault died in Victoria, B.C. on June 10, 1981 at the age of 82. His remains were buried in St. Paul's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Summerside, PEI.

James Ernest "Ernie" Ayrhart was born in Campbellford, Ontario circa 1898. He married Mildred Dale of Brampton, Ontario in 1945. He was a prospector whose first experiences and successes occurred in northern Quebec. He was later convinced to travel to Yellowknife and explore mining possibilities in the Northwest Territories. During his time in Yellowknife, Mr. Ayrhart became distressed by the extreme costs of flying in the north. In an effort to prove that Canadian Pacific Airlines (CPA) was over charging for its services, Mr. Ayrhart purchased a DC3, which he called the Yellowknife Express. Charging about one half the rates of CPA, the Yellowknife Express flew passengers and freight to Grande Prairie, Peace River, Fort Rae, Yellowknife and Norman Wells. Having shown that air travel could be run less expensively, Mr. Ayrhart sold the Yellowknife Express to CPA on the express conditions that their rates be reduced. After leaving the north, Ayrhart returned to Quebec where he again became involved with the mining industry. Ernie Ayrhart passed away in 1993.

Charlotte Babicki, daughter of Joseph Anthony (JA) Babicki (1917-1997) and Phyllis Jean Lieurance (1921-2022), was born in Pratt, Kansas in 1946. Joseph was the son of Polish immigrants and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Phyllis’ family arrived in the United States in the 1600s and 1700s, mostly from England. Both Phyllis and Charlotte grew up in Topeka, Kansas. Charlotte attended Central Park Grade School, Crane Junior High School, and Topeka High School, where she was Yearbook editor.

Charlotte attended university at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 1964-1968, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science. She got a job at John Hancock Insurance as a trainee computer programmer (1968), then moved to a technical writing job at the Charles Stark Draper Lab (MIT) where she wrote user manuals for astronauts (1968-70). From 1970-72 she did technical writing at a division of Wang Laboratories.

Charlotte moved to Canada in 1972. After 5 months in Toronto, she found a job in Yellowknife with the Government of the Northwest Territories. Charlotte worked for the GNWT for 35 years (1973-2008). She held the same position number throughout, although her job title started as Manuals Writer and ended as Policy Advisor and she shifted divisions from Systems and Computer Services to Records Management and finally Finance and Administration. While working for the GNWT, Charlotte was member of Local 1, Union of Northern Workers and served as Chief Shop Steward and on the executive until 1991.

Charlotte attended the 1990 Literacy Conference as the Union representative, then volunteered for the Literacy Council organizing committee and wrote the by-laws. She served as the Yellowknife Regional Representative for several years, which included trips to Inuvik, Cambridge Bay, and Fort Smith for conferences. She helped to organize an annual NWT-wide writing contest, sorting the entries and editing 10 issues of Northern Writes. She also put together the 1992 publication called I Remember, which contained short memories of learning to read.

Charlotte attended an adult education class in Mysteries which broadened her appreciation of mystery authors. She also took several introductory courses in Tłı̨chǫ, where she learned to read, write, and speak a little, leading to the creation of some Tłı̨chǫ learning materials.

Charlotte also has an interest in quilting. She started in 1967 and learned from books and family examples. She joined the Yellowknife Guild in 2008 and served as a board member for a few years, during which time she wrote the newsletter, managed the guild’s library, and re-wrote the bylaws in plain language.

Charlotte wrote several publications in the course of her employment with the GNWT, including Project Information Books (NWT Alcohol and Drug Offices, 1984), Turning Work into Words: How to Write a Government Manual (GNWT Government Services, 1987), and Plain Words & Sentences (GNWT Public Works and Services, 2002). Since her retirement, she has written several genealogy booklets including Una’s Wedding, 24 November 1886 (2010), Letters from Marsha, 1968-1979 (2015), and From Allen to Wyandotte: My Kansas County Project (2021).

Richard Henry Baines was born August 29, 1892 in Wiltshire, England. He immigrated to Canada ca. 1910 and married Eva Manning Lewington. The couple had two children, Geoffrey and Richard Francis. Baines appears to have been employed by International Harvester for a number of years. In 1938, he conducted a study on methods of transportation for International Harvester Ltd. of Edmonton. For this study, Baines traveled to Goldfields, Saskatchewan, northern Alberta, Fort Smith, Fort Resolution, Yellowknife, Port Radium and Coppermine (Kugluktuk). During World War II, he lived in Fort St. John and was involved in the construction of the Alaska Highway in the United States Engineering Department. He died November 10, 1972.

Cyril John Baker, also known as "Yellowknife Johnney" was born in 1902 in England. He attended a technical college in Bristol, England and then went to Cambridge where he earned his degree in general engineering in 1926. He came to Canada after receiving his degree and his first job was with Noranda Mines in Quebec. He went to Great Bear Lake in 1932 and in 1933, he traveled from Great Bear Lake to Great Slave Lake. In the fall of 1933, Baker along with his partner, Herb Dixon, made the first discovery of gold about 30 miles up from the mouth of the Yellowknife River. Baker participated in many prospecting activities and staked the Rich claim, which later became Giant Mine. In 1938, he left the north and joined the British Army. He died on November 24, 1996 at the age of 94.