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Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 26
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Lake Bennett, British Columbia
by Margaret Carter
Introduction
"Wherever gold is found men are sure to flock, and the Church must
follow the people and be prepared to make the sacrifices needed to meet
their religious wants"1 stated the Presbyterian Record
as it explained the aim of the Church's Yukon mission to its readers.
"The salvation of men's souls is first, the building up of
congregations subordinate." And so the Presbyterians followed fortune
seekers who went north after the great Klondike discovery of 1896,
ministering to the people and opening mission churches wherever they
were needed.
The first of these missions founded in Canadian territory was at Lake
Bennett, British Columbia. The history of the church at Bennett mirrors
the history of the early gold-rush itself, for unlike the Anglicans and
the Roman Catholics, the Presbyterians did not enter the Yukon mission
field until the time of the rush. When they did, they were concerned
only with white men, and their missions reflected the movement and the
attitudes of the southerners who came "inside" to make their fortunes
during the days of '98. Rapid changes wrought in the north by the influx
of these men and the civilization they brought are also seen in a study
of the church, for the development of the mission in Bennett is
inextricably bound with the gold-rush that occurred at the head of the
lake.
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