Whitehorse Star, 1927

The Mystery Woman Lillian Ailing...

Part 3 of 3

After that, there is silence. Did Lillian Ailing reach her destination? Her strange odyssey took a new twist in the early 1970's after B.C. writer Francis Dickie recounted her saga in True West, a Texas based publication.

Arthur Elmore of Lincoln, California, read that story and told an equally strange tale. Elmore said he had been in Manchuria during the closing days of World War II and had made friends with a Russian soldier.

The Russian had invited him to visit his home in Yakutsk. Elmore made the visit in 1965 and sent this story to True West: "As a very young boy somewhere around 14 or 15 (the Russian) had lived in a very small community in the Soviet Far East, named Provideniya, which is about 170 or 180 miles (290 kilometers) from the present town of Whales Alaska, across the Bering Strait.

"He stated that late one afternoon, while on an errand for his mother, he saw a crowd gathered on the waterfront and several official looking men were present, questioning a woman and three Eskimo men."

"He said he recognized that the Eskimos were from the Diomede Islands in the Strait by their dress, but the woman was differently dressed, like a European or American. "He remembered the woman telling the officials she had come from America where, she said she had been unable to make a living or make friends."

"She said she had to walk a terrible long way because 'no one would lift as much as a finger to help me in any way…I tried to make friends at first, but everyone wanted no part of me - as a foreigner - and that so deeply hurt me I couldn't bear it and so I began to walk. I knew it was far and would be hard, but I had to do it, even if no one understood. And I did it.'"

Elmore continued: "He told me he saw the girl and the Eskimos led away - he never saw them again - but memory was to linger with him always. He also stated all this took place in the fall of 1930 - he was very positive of that date because, he stated, his family were moved two years later.…"

Did Lillian Ailing make it?

Her fate remains one of the world's most amazing stories.

Whitehorse Star

THE "MYSTERY WOMAN” AS THE STAR SAW HER

August 31, 1928

Whitehorse Visited By Woman Hiker

A woman giving the name of Lillian Ailing walked into town Monday evening and registered at the Regina Hotel. Lillian was not given to much speaking but as near as can be gathered from information she gave at different places, she had walked from Hazelton to Whitehorse, a distance of about six hundred miles, following the government telegraph line all the way.

However nothing is reported of her until she reached Atlin, where she tarried only long enough to buy a pair of shoes.

At Tagish she was taken over the river by Ed. Barrett. On Saturday last she arrived in Carcross and had a meal at the Caribou hotel. Mr. Skelly frankly admits that he had never seen or heard of her before; nor was he able to get any information from her. She left Carcross the same afternoon, travelling in a northerly direction.

On Sunday afternoon Mr. and Mrs. George Wilson overtook her between Carcross and Robinson and she rode in the car with them as far as Robinson, where she got out, saying that she was going to rest a while. Beyond saying that she was going a little north of Whitehorse she had very little to say to Mr. and Mrs. Wilson. She did say however, that for a part of her journey she had a pack dog but that he was drowned in crossing a stream. When warned that she would have streams to cross between here and Dawson she said that she would cross them on a log.

She told Mr. Erickson that she did not have very much money, and she seemed to be conserving her resources but paying her way. She had no means whatever of killing wild game and was carrying very little food. If she knows her destination she is not telling but she started north from Whitehorse on the Dawson trail Tuesday forenoon.

September 7, 1928

The Mystery Woman

The last report of the mystery woman was that she was seen by H. Chambers some distance east of Takini several days after she left here. Mr. Chambers offered to give her a ride to the fork of the road but she declined.

The Star has verified her story in so far as starting from Hazelton is concerned. It appears, however, that she made two attempts before she got away. On the first occasion she was turned back by a Government Telegraph lineman.

At Hazelton a charge of vagrancy was preferred against her and she was sentenced to three months at Oakalla. Upon or shortly after her arrival at Oakalla prison it was found that she had money secreted about her person and she must have been liberated for in a short time she was back in Hazelton. Then she called on the policeman to pay her respects and make it plain to him that she was going to make the trip north as originally planned. The only information she would give was that she was going a short distance north.

To the few people she met on her way north of Hazelton she gave the impression that she was a man hater.

September 14, 1928

The Mystery Woman

Word reached Whitehorse that the mystery woman passed through Carmacks but she maintained her silence. Some time later she arrived at Yukon crossing, where she allowed H.O. Lokken to put her over the river. She still had the Pelly and Stewart rivers to negotiate.

October 19, 1928

Mystery Woman Reaches Dawson

From the time of the first account of the "Mystery Woman” in the Whitehorse Star, the people of Dawson have been looking forward with an unusual degree of curiosity for her arrival there. She had been reported at different points enroute from Whitehorse to Dawson.

Jimmie Adam had misgivings about extending the usual courtesies at Takhini; further down the trail she had declined an invitation to a ride with President Chambers; at Carmacks she made some meagre purchases and continued her journey; at Yukon Crossing H.O. Lokken put her over the river in a small boat; at Pelly Crossing A. Shafer performed a similar service for her, at Stewart T.A. Dickson's survey party was camped and the boys cared for her for three days during a bad storm, and from this point she went down the river in a small boat to Dawson, arriving there in the morning of October 5th.

She left Whitehorse on the morning of August 28th and as far as was known the only provisions she had was a loaf of bread, which she had cut in three pieces, as she said she was not carrying a knife. Thirty-nine days were spent between here and Dawson and practically all of that time she must have slept in the open. When leaving Hazelton in June last she refused to reveal her destination or the object of her journey, always intimating that she was going on a short distance.

Upon her arrival at Atlin she was in a bad way for foot gear, and there she purchased a pair of canvass shoes with rubber soles. These she was wearing when passing through Whitehorse. Upon reaching Dawson she had a different style of men's shoe on each foot.

At Dawson she said she had one more place to go before returning to Dawson to seek for employment. Her general demeanor resembles that of a haunted person, who is ever trying to get farther away from the object of her fears. If she continues her journey at this season of the year disaster is almost sure to overtake her. She is thought to be of Polish origin, and said to come from Reinfrew, Ontario. She gives her name as Lillian Ailing.