Jack Densem was born in Toronto in 1918. After graduating from school he began working for Remington Rand. In 1941 he took a leave of absence from his work to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force (R.C.A.F.) In 1945, Jack Densem spent six weeks in Ottawa where he received advanced training as a wireless mechanic. In 1946, he was sent on a special assignment to Yellowknife. In Yellowknife, he along with three other men from the R.C.A.F. were placed under the temporary supervision of Lieutenant Myers of the United States Navy. These men worked on an experimental signals project. They studied aerial photographs taken at fifteen minute intervals and then calculated the correctional measures needed to take into account the effects of the magnetic pull of the North Pole upon radio signal communication systems. This information was then sent to the United States Navy in Washington who produced final correctional charts. Densem spent nine months in Yellowknife in 1946. During this time, he met Isabelle McMillan who was working for Mrs. Swanson at the Busy Bee Café. Jack and Isabelle were married in Edmonton in 1946. In 1946, Jack Densem was discharged from the R.C.A.F. and returned to his old job at Remington Rand in Toronto. Jack and Isabelle remained in Toronto until his retirement from Remington Rand in 1988. At that time, the couple retired to Langley, British Columbia.
In 1953, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Corporal Clare J. Dent was the N.C.O. I/C at the Baker Lake detachment. He later became the Superintendent in charge of "G" Division, Criminal Investigation Branch.
In 1928, a prospecting expedition consisting of Kenneth Dewar, Harold Wilson, J.B. Muirhead and J. Thomson, set out by canoe and traveled from Great Slave Lake, to Chesterfield Inlet via the Hanbury and Thelon Rivers. Two of the expedition members kept journals and took photographs of the trip. Kenneth Dewar compiled stories and photographs from the two journals into a single journal. The journal includes Mr. Dewar's account of finding the remains of John Hornby, Edgar Christian and Harold Adlard. Portions of Mr. Dewar's journal were published in Canadian Geographic.
The Dogrib Birchbark Canoe Project, begun in the spring of 1996, was a collaborative effort to build a birchbark canoe in the style of the traditional Tlicho (Dogrib) canoes. The Canoe Project was an extension of a larger effort to complete heritage resource inventories for two Tlicho traditional canoe routes. During the course of the trail inventories, the remains of 30 birchbark canoes were located and recorded, providing an indication of the important role the birchbark canoe played in traversing the Tlicho region. Stakeholders in the project included the Dogrib Treaty 11 Council, the Dogrib Divisional Board of Education, the elders of Gameti (Rae Lakes) and Behchoko (Rae), the Rae/Edzo Friendship Centre and the Archaeology Section of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. The canoe's design was based on a similar birchbark canoe built by Chief Jimmy Bruneau in the late 1960's. All efforts were made to document the process involved, whether on video, audiocassette or on paper. The project involved six elders (Joe and Julie Mackenzie, Paul and Elizabeth Rabesca, Nick and Annie Black) from Behchoko (Rae). Six students from Chief Jimmy Bruneau School in Behchoko (Edzo) participated as well. Tom Andrews, Subarctic Archaeologist at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, coordinated the project from Yellowknife. Don Gardner, a professional canoe builder from Calgary assisted with the project. With the help of the "Canada-Northwest Territories Co-operation Agreement for Aboriginal and Official Languages Program" administered by Parks Canada, broadcast-quality videocassettes of the first feature-length birchbark canoe production were completed in early 1997.
Thomas Albert Donnelly was born May 21, 1921 in Red Deer, Alberta. He grew up on the family farm with his parents, Albert and Mary, and his four brothers - John, Don, Bob and David. He served as a Sgt. Pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War and met his wife, Ida Lucy (Pat) Tofflemire in London during the war.
After the war, Thomas and his wife moved to Teslin, Yukon where he worked as a meteorologist at the airport, which was a part of the Northwest Staging Route. Thomas and his wife Pat had two sons, Tim and Michael, and four daughters, Chris, Eileen, Margaret and Susan. Two of his daughters (Susan and Margaret) were born in Teslin in 1951 and 1953.
He moved to Alberta circa 1955, and lived in Calgary, Suffield and Edmonton. He worked as a meteorologist for the Department of Transport, and later became an Inspector, which required him to travel throughout the Yukon and Northwest Territories. He was an avid photographer, and loved the North. Thomas Donnelly died on October 5, 2005 at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta at the age of 84.
Sylvester Drabitt was born in Tarnopol, Saskatchewan in 1926. He studied biology at the University of Saskatchewan and painting at the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago. He began work on his Ph.D. at Chicago and then continued his studies at Iowa State University. While studying in Iowa, he was introduced to Inuit art. He was so impressed by the work of Inuit artists, that he decided to study medicine in order to travel in the arctic and work and learn from them. He graduated from the medical program at the University of Manitoba in 1961 and served an internship at St. Boniface Hospital. In the fall of 1962, he joined the Indian and Northern Health Services and began practicing in Frobisher Bay (Iqaluit). In 1964, he served aboard the "C.D. Howe" as Medical Officer for the annual arctic patrol. He spent two years in Frobisher Bay and then returned to St. Boniface to study surgery. After spending a year in Cambridge Bay, he returned to Frobisher Bay in 1967 and left in 1968. He retired to Victoria. B.C.
Drama Arctic was a Yellowknife based amateur theatre group.
Pierre Jean Baptiste Duchaussois, OMI, was born in Walincourt, France on August 4, 1878. He was ordained in 1903 as a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He was sent to Canada where he worked at the Sacred Heart Juniorate in the Sacred Heart parish from 1903-1906, and taught at the major seminary in Ottawa from 1906-1913. He was then sent west to the St. Joachim's parish in Edmonton from 1913-1915. From 1915-1921, he explored northern Canada in order to write about the missions of the far north. From 1921-1924 he lived in France, writing and giving speaking engagements. He spent time in Sri Lanka from 1924-1929, returning to Canada in 1929. From 1932-1935 he visited South Africa and Zaire. Returning to France for his health, he also worked on the production of his film "Aux glaces polaires". He died in Nice, France on November 9, 1940.
Pierre Duchaussois was a prolific and popular writer, speaker and teacher. His publications on northern Canada include "Les soeurs grises dans l'extreme-Nord: cinquante ans de missions" (1917), English version "The Grey Nuns in the far North 1867-1919" (1919); "Aux glaces polaires, Indiens et Esquimaux" (1921, 1928), English version "Mid snow and ice: the apostles of the North West" (1922); "Apotres inconnus: vie anecdotique des Freres coadjuteurs dans les missions arctiques" (1924), English version "Hidden apostles, or, our lay brother missionaries" (1937); "Femmes heroiques: les Soeurs Grises canadiennes aux glaces polaires" (1927, 1928, 1933, 1959). He was awarded the Prix Montyon de l'Academie francaise in 1921 for "Aux glaces polaires", and the Prix Juteau-Duvigneau for "Rose du Canada" in 1933.
Born in Kelowna in 1956, Dennis Duffy was an archivist at the Royal Museum/BC Archives between 1998 and 2016. Between 1978 and 1993, he did extensive short-term and contract work for the BC Archives, including: audio copying, recording, editing and production; research, writing and editing. In 1977 he produced a radio program entitled "Hooked on the North," using excerpts from oral history recordings by Marjorie Nicol and Dennis Williams concerning the life of Dennis Williams. The program was part of a project in the Applied Communication Program at Camosun College and was donated to the BC Archives in 1978.
Robert E. Duncan was born in Alberta on April 20, 1915. In the spring of 1937, he moved to Great Bear Lake where he was employed in the power plant at Eldorado Mine. In the spring of 1938, he moved to Yellowknife and began work as the Chief Engineer at the diesel plant at Negus Gold Mines, Ltd. Mr. Duncan remained at Negus until the fall of 1942 when he moved to Fort McMurray, Alberta. He was employed in the power plant at Fort McMurray until his retirement in 1977.
In 1965, Gordon Eastman produced a film entitled "Challenging the Mackenzie Mountains." The film involved footage of a big game hunting expedition in the Mackenzie Mountains for Dall sheep, bear and moose. The hunting expedition was arranged by the Hungry Horse Camp Outfitters run by Stan Burrrell.
Gordon Eastman began a career in film making in the 1950s and continued his work into the 1980s. Eastman is considered a pioneer in both hunting and in shooting outdoor films. He was married to Mary Lou Eastman (nee George) and they had four children: three sons, Mike, Brad, and Rod, and a daughter, Maria.
Gordon Eastman died March 13, 1997.