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The RCMP barracks in Dawson City. Claude sent this photograph to Mary with the inscription: “My 'home' here where you almost visited.” While Claude and Mary obviously carried on their courtship by mail, none of their letters to each other from this time survive.
The RCMP barracks in Dawson City. Claude sent this photograph to Mary with the inscription: “My 'home' here where you almost visited.” While Claude and Mary obviously carried on their courtship by mail, none of their letters to each other from this time survive.
Yukon Archives: 91-112 #558, PHO 606
Uncertain & unsettled
 
Return to Dawson City

Forty Mile may have been good for Claude creatively, but it was not so lucrative for employment, so that ultimately he had to return to the Dawson area for work in 1939. Mary stayed on in Forty Mile for a short while before returning to Dawson, hitching a ride with Percy DeWolfe on his summertime transportation, a boat. This time around, the Tidds were fortunate enough to live in a small cabin at nearby Rock Creek, which Mary praised as “Dawsons ‘summer resort.’ ” Claude was employed as a trouble-spotter on the pipe that brought water into the hydraulic mining operations.

At the end 1941, Claude was again living in Dawson, but alone this time, as Mary was in Vancouver. As he wrote to Mrs. Ryder that Christmas, he was frustrated by the lack of immediate job prospects and was considering heading Outside to join Mary.

At this writing, I think it is more than likely that I may go out myself before very long. There is little chance of getting anything to do here before the beginning of April anyway, and although I am able to live very economically just now it is not exactly the sort of life to lead indefinitely. Recently I got some valuable suggestions and advice here that has virtually caused me to decide in favor of pulling out of the North, and although I have decided nothing definite, I do feel that it is what I shall do in the near future. I have already got a letter away to Mary discussing the matter with her, so am more or less depending on her reply before making a decision. (December 25, 1941) 91/112 f. 2, MSS 365 [Claude to Mrs. Ryder]
Forty Mile/Twelve Mile Vancouver