The legendary Yukoner received a posthumous award that is out of this world.
Skukum Jim, also known as Jim Mason, discovered gold in the Bonanza River in 1897, leading to the Klondike fever. When he died in 1916, he invested the wealth he amassed in a trust to help improve the lives of the indigenous people in the Yukon.
Last week, on the recommendation of the Yukon Astronomical Society, an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter was named after him.
“I think it’s great,” said Xena McLean, Skukum’s great niece Jim Mason, who didn’t know her great-grandfather’s name had been sent.
“Everything that holds Skukum Jim Mason’s name in Yukon’s public history is important to his other nephews and nephews and family.”
Skookum Jim Friendship Center in Whitehorse. (Philip Moren / CBC)
Skukum Jim Mason was Tagis of the Dak l’a Weidi clan. The trust he created in his will still exists today, according to the Friendship Center named after him in Whitehorse. The interest generated by the fund is used to recognize indigenous peoples who have helped their community.
Maria Benoit, Haa Shaa du Hen, or head of Carcross / Tagish First Nation and former executive director of the Skookum Jim Friendship Center, was very happy to hear the news. Her great-grandfather was Skukum’s nephew Jim Mason.
“Coming from a first nation, this is a story in the making,” she said.
Asteroid Skukum Jim
The asteroid Skukum Jim is an asteroid from the main belt. It orbits other asteroids between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
“It takes a little over five years to complete a full orbit around the sun,” said Christa Van Laerhoven, president of the Yukon Astronomical Society. “Its orbit is not quite round. It is not uncommon for what we call eccentric. It is not very non-circular, but only slightly. And it is inclined to the Earth’s orbit by about 15 degrees.”
As far as Van Laerhoven knows, this is the second asteroid whose name has to do with the Yukon.
“The only other asteroid I can find in connection with the Yukon is called the Klondike,” she said, adding that it was named after two brothers who came to the Klondike gold rush, made a fortune and donated money to a Finnish university he built. library.
Oddly enough, Van Laerhoven said this was the university where the asteroid Skukum Jim was originally discovered.
However, if you are hoping to see the asteroid Skukum Jim, Van Laerhoven said you will need a telescope.
“Something big enough,” she said, big enough that it wouldn’t be easy to take it out in your backyard.
McLean said he hoped that one day science would be able to identify what the asteroid axis consists of.
“Wouldn’t it be fantastic if it was heavily laden with gold?” She said with a laugh.
Naming process
The naming began with an email from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada to the Yukon Astronomical Society, saying it had the opportunity to suggest some names to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which is responsible for naming things in space.
The way the email was worded, Van Laerhoven said, sounded like the IAU wanted to honor someone who has served society well.
“We really felt that if we wanted to honor Yukoner, we wanted to honor Skukum Jim,” she said.
“We really felt that his presence in the history of the Yukon was so great that if we wanted to get an asteroid named after Yukon, then it really had to be him.
9:30 Look! Up in the sky! This is the asteroid Skukum Jim
There is now an asteroid officially named after Yukoner Skukum Jim. Christa Van Laerhoven of the Yukon Astronomical Society explains how this happened. 9:30
The proposal was made in 2018.
The Yukon Astronomical Society was honored last week, on April 11.
“I am completely tickled that the IAU has accepted our proposal,” said Van Laerhoven.
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