Richard George McConnell was one of Canada’s premier geologists and explorers. His published works on subjects including paleontology, glaciations, bedrock geology and placer deposits, some over 100 years old, remain respected works in their field. McConnell was born in Chatham Quebec in 1857 and educated at McGill University. In 1880 he first took up employment with the Geological Survey of Canada and headed west to examine and report on the geology of Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia.
In 1887 McConnell, along with William Ogilvie, conducted the first official recognizance survey of the Yukon region, entering by way of the Chilkoot Pass and Southern Lakes and hence down the Yukon River. Ogilvie’s job was to survey the international boundary while McConnell’s job was to survey the geology along the route. It was during this expedition when they met and hired as packers George Carmack and Skookum Jim who would later discover the Klondike Goldfields. In fact, it was this event that would bring McConnell back to the Yukon in 1901-02 when he was sent north again to conduct an extensive survey and report on the goldfields. Reports on the Kluane and Windy Arm Mines followed in 1904 and 1905.
When the Whitehorse Copper Belt properties came into prominence a few years later, not surprisingly, McConnell would be the chosen one to report on that district as well. In this endeavor McConnell spent four months in the summer of 1907 in the field: his resulting 60-page report (along with geological maps) would be the foundation of all reports on the district to follow.
Like many GSC men of the day McConnell had to be multi-disciplined in that in addition to reporting on the geology, observations and reports had to be made on the districts transportation, communication, forest cover, topography, climate and waterpower resources. In fact, it was the McConnell Report that was the basis for Whitehorse’s first hydro power grid installed at Fish Lake many years later (1948). A notable feature of McConnell’s Whitehorse Copper Belt report is that one need not be an educated geologist to understand the content. Written in laymen’s terms, it has something for everyone interested in rocks and minerals from rock hound to mining engineer.
In 1914, after spending over 30 years doing fieldwork in the west, ten of which was spent in the Yukon, McConnell settled in Ottawa to take up position as Deputy Minister of Mines. This position he held until his retirement in 1920. Twenty years later in 1940 R.G. McConnell died in Ottawa at the age of 86. Mount McConnell and the McConnell thrust fault, both in the Rocky Mountains of western Canada and the McConnell Glacial Epoch were named in honor of this great pioneer geologist.
