Elsa | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Elsa

In 1946 Keno Mining Co Ltd (later United Keno Hills Mines Ltd) reopened the mine. The community received a post office in 1949 and the 1950s was the starting point for the first oil exploration winter road to drilling sites 500 km to the north.

Elsa

 Elsa, YT, is a former COMPANY TOWN located 108 km northeast of the Klondike Highway, 452 km by road north from Whitehorse. In 1924 Charles Brefalt staked the Elsa silver claim (naming it after his sister) on the northern slope of Galena Hill in the MAYO district. Within 5 years, miners working in the silver-lead deposits had established a village on the hill. After the silver ran out at nearby KENO HILL (1933), Treadwell Yukon Co moved its mill to Elsa. Falling metal prices and the death of its mine manager, Livingstone Wernecke, drove the company into dissolution in 1941, but independent miners kept Elsa alive.

In 1946 Keno Mining Co Ltd (later United Keno Hills Mines Ltd) reopened the mine. The community received a post office in 1949 and the 1950s was the starting point for the first oil exploration winter road to drilling sites 500 km to the north. The mine again fell victim to low prices in 1989 and permanently closed. The community is now abandoned and closed to the public.