June 13, 1963 – “The Dempster Highway – that’s the name the Yukon Order of Pioneers feels should be given to the Flat Creek-Eagle Plain resource road now in course of construction. A view expressed earlier by the YOOP has been renewed in the brief issued this week which notes:
‘We the Yukon Order of Pioneers feel very strongly that a most fitting name for the road now under construction and referred to as the ‘Aklavik Road’ should be named the ‘DEMPSTER HIGHWAY’ in recognition of the admirable services of ex-Inspector W. J. D. Dempster of the Royal Northwest and Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
‘No story ever told or written of the early day Trail Blazers is ever complete without recounting some of the exploits of ex-Inspector Dempster of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
‘His devotion to duty and his more than 30 years of service in the Force could not be more fittingly recognized than by naming the new artery to the Arctic, now known as the ‘Aklavik Road’ the ‘DEMPSTER HIGHWAY’.”
On August 27, 1963, Northern Affairs Minister Hon. Arthur Laing made the announcement at a Yukon Order of Pioneers luncheon that the road known as the Chapman Lake – Aklavik Road would be officially called the Dempster Highway.
(The Whitehorse Star – Whitehorse, Yukon)
