Doctor Leonard Sugden was born in June of 1873 in Scotland. He first came north on a whaling vessel and practiced in Juneau. In 1897, he headed for the Klondike but had to winter at Marsh Lake, where he built a cabin and worked as a doctor for the NWMP. When the real gold rush began in 1898, he helped pilot boats through Miles Canyon and the White Horse Rapids. Dr. Sugden stayed in the Yukon. He was the inspiration for Robert Service’s poem, the Cremation of Sam McGee when Service heard of the story of Dr. Sugden hauling a corpse to Tagish and contacting the family in Tennessee to get permission to cremate the remains.
Sam Steele mentioned in his memoirs that Dr. Sugden once hauled a woman 100 miles on a sled to get her to medical help and safety.
Dr. Sugden married in 1906 and moved to the Kluane area where he mined, hunted big game and bought a Prizma movie camera. With it he produced, in 1915, a film called The Lure of Alaska which played to rave reviews across America and Europe.
The film includes shots from the Seattle harbor and along the coast of Alaska and features scenes of Juneau, Sitka, Skagway, a midnight baseball game in Dawson City, a caribou herd swimming in the river, and icebergs calving from glaciers. The movie also includes scenes of Sugden piloting a raft through the Whitehorse Rapids.
The New York Times in 1917 wrote:
“Seldom have nature pictures been such a combination of thrills and wild beauty. They are a notable accomplishment of the camera and Dr. Sugden’s nerve.”
Unfortunately, Dr. Sugden’s life of adventure ended suddenly in 1923 when he fell off a barge into the Stewart River near Mayo and drowned. He was 50 years old.
A CKRW Yukon Nugget by Les McLaughlin
So wonderful to find this information about my Great-Great-Grandfather. Thank you!
I’m married to a Sugden woman, and have copies of some information about Dr. Leonard. If interested, let me hear from you.
Hi there I am his great grandson and would be interested in having access to these articles. Is the film still available???
Hello. I have just found a “book” to my great grandparents from 1901 from a T Birks and Leonard Schofield Sugden. I cannot find any information on T. Birks
It has a poem about a “chechaco” musher written among watercolor paintings, old photos of a child, a snowshoer and musher.
My mother believes it may be of historical significance or value. I would be happy to send photos to someone who is related to him
I am trying to locate family members of Leonard Schofield Sugden. I found some interesting pictures, paintings along with a poem given to my great grandparents in 1901 – the paintings are sugdens
I have two nice water color pictures of Kluane Lake done by Dr Sugden in 1912.
They came through my Phelps Scott Family in Whitehorse.
Any chance you could email pictures of your watercolors? I’m trying to track down an image? ucam1 [at] h o t m a i l dot com