Known throughout the north as “Big Sister”, Kate Ryan never hesitated to mush over boggy country or frozen waste to bring comfort and relief to the sick and needy.
Ms. Ryan was born in Johnsville, New Brunswick in 1868 and in the early 1890s as a young lady she headed west seeking adventure. Eventually she made her way to Glenora, B.C. on the Stikine River where she opened up a restaurant. Any profits she made from this venture however were quickly eaten up by the hungry and destitute travelers she often kindly took in from the cold and fed free of charge.
During the winter of 1898 while mushing over the Stikine route to the Klondike she heard about some stampeders further inland on the Teslin trail who were stricken with scurvy. Immediately she rerouted her trip and mushed hundreds of miles over mountain and glacier to bring them food and comfort. Due to her heroic efforts, three men’s lives were saved. Eventually she made it to the Klondike, two months later, after mushing through hundreds of miles of un-mapped, un-charted country. The detour could have possibly cost her the chance at a good claim.
In the early 1900s at Whitehorse she was hired on as a special Constable with the R.N.W.M.P. to prevent the smuggling of gold out of the Yukon. One of her duties was frisking female passengers on the train out of the country. And sticking to the code of the Mounties, she never failed to get her “man”, or rather lady, often making some very interesting finds in some very interesting places upon some very flustered ladies.
Although she never married, due to the untimely passing of their mother, Kate took in and raised her nephews Leo, John and Charlie Ryan from her storefront/ apartment in Whitehorse. To compliment her Mountie salary she ran a restaurant on Front Street for many years. Kate was also known to dabble in mining properties eventually owning the Empress of India Copper Mine in the Whitehorse Copper Belt (she probably liked the name more than anything).
During her time spent in Whitehorse Ms. Ryan was a very popular and community minded person belonging to many organizations including the Catholic Women’s League, the Hospital Committee, the North Star Athletic Club and the Liberal Association. Among her closest friends were Rob Lowe, Norman Mcaulay, Minnie Lamereau and Robert Service.
The tragic sinking of the S.S. Princess Sophia off the coast of Alaska in late 1918 effected many citizens of the north, especially those of Whitehorse and other Yukon communities where many of the 246 who perished were from. Kate’s beloved Leo was one, as were many of her friends. In order to heal and move forward Kate knew she had to leave the Yukon behind. After spending almost two decades with the Mounties and rising in the ranks to Sergeant, Kate retired her stripes and relocated to the mining town of Stewart, B.C. to take up position as the Gold Commissioner – as with the Mounties, Kate being the only women to date to hold such a position of authority. On February 20th, 1932 Kate Ryan, “the Yukon’s big sister” passed away in Vancouver.
Over the years numerous newspaper and magazine articles and at least one book has been written about Kate who is often referred to as the “Real” Klondike Kate.
