OBITUARIES — Joseph Perkin

Joseph Perkin, who participated in almost every major staking rush in Canada, has died. He was 97.

Born in Winnipeg, Man., in 1902, Perkin was introduced to prospecting by his stepfather. One of Perkin’s first jobs was running a steam-operated diamond drill at Bird River in southeastern Manitoba.

In 1923, Perkin helped stake claims next to the San Antonio gold property in northern Manitoba. The claims were incorporated into Forty-four Mines and soon acquired by San Antonio Gold Mines. The property Perkin helped stake entered production after the Second World War.

In 1924, Perkin went to Rice Lake, also in Manitoba, and joined Mining Corporation of Canada. There, he guided a team of 60 horses to haul supplies over a winter road.

Perkin made his way to Red Lake, Ont., in 1926 and began working for Howey Gold Mines in 1929. He began as an underground sampler, working his way

into the assay office. He later became chief assayer for the mine.

In 1932, Perkin left to continue prospecting. That lasted until 1934, when he and five other men began supplying the mine with meat by shooting moose and deer.

Following a brief stint with the Royal Canadian Engineers during the Second World War, Perkin returned to prospecting, a career that would finally

wind down in the 1970s, when he founded Kognak Gold Mines in the Northwest Territories.

Perkin was a director of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada.