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History
Poole Field was a trader, trapper and prospector in the Yukon and Nahanni Butte region. He was born near Regina in approximately 1880. He joined the Royal Northwest Mounted Police (RNWMP) as a young man and transferred to the Yukon during the gold rush in the late 1890s. After three years, Field left the RNWMP and went to Alaska for about five years. He returned to the Yukon and during this time, he met and married Mary Atkinson (nee Lafferty). Field made at least one trip into the Nahanni region in 1905 but returned to the Yukon. Mary and Poole moved to the Nahanni Butte region in approximately 1914 after coming into the possession of a letter written by Martin Jorgenson claiming he had found gold. In 1915 or 1916, Field and his companions found the remains of Jorgenson at his burned cabin near Virginia Falls. According to Dick Turner, author of the book "Nahanni", Field spoke Cree and Slavey fluently and was an excellent woodsman. In approximately 1924, Field began operating as an independent trader and ran a store at Trout Lake for three years before returning to Nahanni Butte where he operated an independent trading post from 1928 to about 1935. In the 1940s, Field worked as a river pilot during the summer and trapped during the winter seasons.