RACINE, CARISTE
Cariste Racine arrived in the Yukon in 1897. In November 1898, he managed a sawmill at the far end of Windy Arm which was an arm of Lake Tagish. In 1900, he became associated with Edgar Agrenon Dixon and opened a laundry in Whitehorse, the Whitehorse Steam Laundry situated at the end of Strickland Street, near the Yukon River. Racine was also owner of a wooden boat for the transportation of merchandise in Miles Canyon.
It is especially as a hotel owner that he left his mark, Around1900, he owned the Bennett Hotel Grande Palace. A year later he owned the Windsor Hotel situated in front of the Whitehorse station. If one believes the newspaper ad, it is the largest hotel in Whitehorse at this time:
The Windsor Hotel seemed to be a family enterprise because in 1903, Jean-Baptiste, Richard and Samuel Racine all worked there. The two first named are clerks, the last one was the manager.
On November 10,1905, Cariste Racine asked for an area of 40 acres (16 hectares) in order to establish a sawmill along the Watson River, between miles 74 and 75 (km 115 and 120) on the railroad to the White Pass and Yukon Route. The demand for wood was very important in Whitehorse after the terrible fire on May 23, 1905 which was caused at about $300,000 of damage. The Windsor Hotel belong to Cariste Racine had been completely destroyed by the flames, but luckily for him, he owned the highest insurance of all the business people of the area, $10,000. In August 1905 Racine had a new hotel built on the site of the former hotel, and he called it the White Pass.
Cariste Racine continued to be in business in Whitehorse in 1910, but left for a while and when he returned from California in July 1915 he came with Ann K. Viau, probably his wife. It seems that this woman managed the White Pass Hotel until the end of the 1940’s.
Ref. Empreinte, vol.1l, pages 105-106
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