Chooutla School

Anglican missionary activity in the Yukon began in 1861 when the Church Missionary Society (CMS) sent Rev. William West Kirkby to make contact with the indigenous peoples of the Mackenzie River and northern Yukon districts. That year, he travelled by canoe down the Mackenzie from Fort Simpson to the Peel River, west to the Richardson Mountains, and along the Porcupine and lower Yukon Rivers to Fort Yukon (Alaska). His evangelizing efforts in this region were brief (he returned once more in 1871) as he had a young family and preferred being missionary in charge of the station post at Fort Simpson. He was replaced in 1862 by Rev. Robert McDonald who served for 40 years on the Mackenzie-Yukon Missionary Circuit, using the northerly Fort McPherson as his base.

By the late 1950s, students in the senior primary grades were sent to Whitehorse to board at the Anglican St. Agnes Hostel (opened 1952) and to attend the integrated federal day school in town. Through the 1960s, grades 1-4 were taught at Chooutla; students usually ranged in age from 6 to 13. In 1967, Ottawa transferred responsibility for education of native children to the Yukon Territorial Government but the latter was not immediately prepared to run the residential schools and hostels. MSCC continued to manage the Chooutla School until its closure on June 30, 1969. The facilities were then transferred to the Yukon government and were remodelled in 1972 for use as the Carcross Community Education Centre.