Jack Sinclair was a western Australian from Coolgardie. He had prospected in Bulolo, New Guinea before he ended up in the village on the edge of the wild. Sinclair packed for his prospecting companion Bill Peyto. It was Jack apparently who held the first lease on the land beside the Bow.

At the outbreak of the Boer War Jack and Bill flipped a coin to see who would go forth to defend the Empire. Bill won the toss and spent a couple of years in South Africa where he fearlessly rode his horse in front of the enemy lines to draw their fire and have them reveal their location. Jack stayed in Banff to take care of the claims. The two men packed for Edward Whymper’s notorious trip to the Rockies in 1901, when the once-famed alpinist muttered furiously about his hired men. Soon thereafter Sinclair decided to check out for himself what Peyto had seen in South Africa. Upon his departure he told his fellow Mason Dave White that if he wasn’t back from Africa in five years Dave could have his property. In 1908 he wrote Dave from the Transvaal saying his prospecting wasn’t going too well, and wondered “if the old shack is still standing,” saying “it may come in handy for me yet.” Two years later he was engaged in starting an orange grove and trying to find “the necessary suckers” to take the copper claim off his hands, and arranging the transfer of the land in Banff for a hundred dollars.

Our most vivid memory of Sinclair comes from his old buddy Jimmy Simpson, another illustrious packer-outfitter and trapper. In a 1972 interview Jimmy said, “Decks those days could turn their hand to anything. There was the time I saw Jack Sinclair make a violin. Got one of the round cheese boxes – the type Stilton cheeses used to come in. Got it from Dave White’s store. Took it to his place and sat down and made a violin. When it was done, he sat right down and played it. Had a damned good tone too.”

After Dave White purchased the lease of the land between Bow Avenue and Bear Street it became a family enclave, at one time, near the end of the thirties, about 18 of Dave White’s heirs were living on the property. From horse business to family to cultural institution, Jack Sinclair’s Cabin has seen it all.