Martha Louise Black

Martha Louise Black, “The First Lady of the Yukon” traveled to the Yukon in 1898 with her brother and cousin in an expedition financed by her father. The party travelled by steamer from Seattle, Washington, to Skagway, Alaska. Then they hiked to Lake Bennett on the Chilkoot Pass trail, hiring porters to carry the required year’s worth of supplies for entry into the Yukon. Martha later wrote about the journey, “I cursed…my tight heavily boned corsets, my long corduroy skirt, my full bloomers, which I had to hitch up with every step.”

The party arrived in Dawson City in August of that year. Martha earned a living by staking gold mining claims and running a sawmill and a gold ore-crushing plant. She gained prominence when she married Dawson lawyer George Black in 1904 and became Chatelaine of government house when George was appointed commissioner. During World War I she traveled to England with her husband where she volunteered extensively tending to homesick and wounded Yukon soldiers.

Martha spoke widely about her beloved Yukon and her knowledge and lectures about Yukon wildflowers earned her a fellowship in the Royal Geographical Society in 1917. She was the 2nd woman in the Canadian House of Commons from 1935-1940. In 1946 she was awarded the Order of the British Empire for her social and cultural contributions to the Yukon.

Commissioned by Margaret & Rolf Hougen, O. C.