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Dutch-born John Lammers immigrated to Canada in 1948 with his young family and found fulfillment as a guide in the Yukon wilderness after his arrival there in 1953, following stints in Ontario and Alberta. Formerly a part-time newspaper columnist, he self-published his autobiography A Castle on the Frontier (Gray Jay Publications 2004) during his retirement years on Saltspring Island. Subtitled An Immigrant's Life Journey from Holland to the Yukon, 1921-1987, it most notably recalls the Nazi invasion of Holland and his 35 years in the Yukon. The castle of the title refers to a base camp at the confluence of the Pelly and Yukon Rivers. He left the Yukon for Saltspring Island in 1987 where he died, at age 91, in 2013.
Ten years in the making, his memoirs were completed when Lammers was aged 82. "The idea of a biography was tempting but for a very long time I felt that it would be little more than a form of conceit," he writes. In fact, his autobiography provides a fair-mind record of Yukon pioneering and exploration during the latter half of the twentieth century.
BOOKS:
A Castle on the Frontier: An Immigrant's Life Journey from Holland to the Yukon, 1921-1987 (Gray Jay 2004)
Gray Jay Publications, P.O. Box 456, Salt Spring Island, B.C. V8K 2W1 ISBN 0-9734905-0-0
[BCBW 2013] "Mining" "Outdoors" Alan Twigg / HolocaustLit
Ten years in the making, his memoirs were completed when Lammers was aged 82. "The idea of a biography was tempting but for a very long time I felt that it would be little more than a form of conceit," he writes. In fact, his autobiography provides a fair-mind record of Yukon pioneering and exploration during the latter half of the twentieth century.
BOOKS:
A Castle on the Frontier: An Immigrant's Life Journey from Holland to the Yukon, 1921-1987 (Gray Jay 2004)
Gray Jay Publications, P.O. Box 456, Salt Spring Island, B.C. V8K 2W1 ISBN 0-9734905-0-0
[BCBW 2013] "Mining" "Outdoors" Alan Twigg / HolocaustLit
