Johnston, Ernest Milton

• Ejnar Frans Jonsson (birth name)
• Milt (nickname)

Ernest Milton Johnston (“Milt”) was born January 27, 1905 as Ejnar Frans Jonsson to parents Alida Kristina Jacobson and Jon Olaf Jonsson. He was one of six children, with three brothers and two sisters. The family resided in Hamra, Sweden until 1908, when they immigrated to Canada and homesteaded south of Parkside, Saskatchewan. His mother Alida passed away there in 1911. The following year, his father, Jon Jonsson, was naturalized as a British subject along with his children.

Milt Johnston began working for the Consolidated Mining & Smithing Company of Canada, Limited (CM&S) around 1928. That year, he witnessed the testing of the Ford Trimotor aircraft at Reindeer Lake, Saskatchewan, where CM&S had a number of exploration sites. By 1936, he was in the Yellowknife area, where he staked a series of claims over the following years for CM&S.

He married Dorothea (Dorothy) Enders on February 24, 1941 in Edmonton. In 1942 and 1943, Johnston moved to Trail, B.C. to cover for CM&S workers who were deployed in the war. They left Trail around March 1943.

He entered into another prospecting agreement with CM&S around the same time, but by 1945 he had entered into prospecting agreements with Gateway Gold, which took him to Horseshoe Bend, Iowa from fall of 1946 to early 1947. By May of 1947, he was again back in Yellowknife, where he would remain until the early 1950s. From there, he worked in Alberta and B.C., prospecting gold and uranium, as well as working as a carpenter.

Johnston died on June 10, 1959.

Authority record created Feb 9/21 TC