Tough, courageous men and women settled the North Country and the third and fourth decades of the twentieth century brought the most dramatic men and women of them all—the bush pilots. Even as bush pilots and their planes penetrated Alaska, their brothers penetrated Northern Canada.
Link to another story “Marvel Crosson—Lady Bush Pilot”
“Bush Pilot with a Briefcase”, Grant McConachie’s biographer, Ronald A. Kieth called him. A brave tough and skilled pilot, McConachie also proved to be an astute businessman. In 1941 he sold his company to Canadian Pacific Airlines—and became its head honcho.
When the U.S. Air Corps flew a bomber group north in January 1941 three of the six planes got lost, crash landed in deep snow on the Yukon, BC border in the “Million Dollar Valley”. Hired to support a salvage effort, Les Cook flew a dismantled caterpillar tractor to the site and ferried in an Army salvage team.
Les flew in support of the Corps of Engineers throughout 1942; became a hero to the men on the ground and to General Hoge who commanded the project. He died in a crash in Whitehorse late in the year.
Explorenorth.com on The Million Dollar Valley
Grant and Les were just two of the heroic band who plied their trade in the forbidding North Country.