FIRST - North West Mounted Policemen Sent To The Yukon - Skagway, AK
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neoc1
N 59° 27.180 W 135° 19.134
8V E 481919 N 6590538
A marker commemorating Inspector Charles Constantine and Staff Sergeant Charles Brown, the first members of the North West Mounted Police sent to the Yukon Territory, is located in Centennial Park in Skagway, AK.
Waymark Code: WMZBV8
Location: Alaska, United States
Date Posted: 10/16/2018
Views: 6
Inspector Charles Constantine served in Banff and Regina before he was sent to the Yukon district in 1894 to establish a police presence to control the growing number of prospectors in advance of an impending gold rush. He traveled with Staff Sergeant Charles Brown. On June 29, 1894 they arrived in Skagway, AK and hiked the Chilkoot Trail to reach the Yukon.
Constantine remained for four weeks and established the need for a police force. He then returned to Regina, leaving Brown to enforce Canadian laws, and gathered the first permanent contingent of the North West Mounted Police for the Yukon. Nineteen men under the command of Constantine arrived in the Yukon in July 1895 and established Fort Constantine.
A monument in Centennial Park contains a bronze plaque commemoration the pioneering efforts of Inspector Charles Constantine and Staff Sergeant Charles Brown in the Yukon. The plaque is inscribed:
IN COMMEMORATION OF
INSPECTOR CHARLES CONSTANTINE
AND
STAFF SERGEANT CHARLES BROWN
NORTH WEST MOUNTED POLICE
FIRST MEMBERS OF THIS HISTORIC CANADIAN POLICE FORCE
WHO LANDED AT SKAGWAY, ALASKA ON JUNE 29TH, 1894.
THESE TWO MEN ENTERED CANADA BY THE CHILKOOT PASS AND
TRAVELED OVER 500 MILES DOWN THE YUKON RIVER TO
THE AREA OF FORTY MILE. THEIR ORDERS WERE TO ESTABLISH
CANADIAN SOVEREIGNTY AND DETERMINE LAW ENFORCEMENT
REQUIREMENTS IN VIEW OF THE APPROACHING GOLD RUSH.
ON JULY 24TH, 1895, INSPECTOR CONSTANTINE AND
19 POLICEMEN BEGAN CONSTRUCTION OF FORT CONSTANTINE.
BY 1900, THE RUSH OF GOLD STAMPEDERS OVER
THE CHILKOOT PASS HAD ENDED, BUT THE MEN OF
THE NORTH WEST MOUNTED POLICE CONTINUED TO ENFORCE
THE LAWS OF CANADA IN THE VAST WILDERNESS OF THE YUKON.
DEDICATED ON JUNE 28, 1994
BY THE ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE
OF YUKON, CANADA
Weblink to the book Honoured in Places: Remembered Mounties Across Canada, page 39
Link
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