Whitehorse and Very Cool Dawson City

En route to Whitehorse, we had spectacular scenery, ate lunch at a roadside in that boasts the largest sandwiches in the territory (everything in the Yukon is big), and saw remnants of a deserted roadside inn.

Whitehorse is a big town (26,000).  Situated on the great Yukon River, it sprang to life during the 1880’s as a transportation hub for the Klondike gold rush.  

We hiked around Miles Canyon, formed by lava flow basalt rock which is resistant to lateral erosion.  This channels the water and significantly increases its velocity flowing through.  Canyons like this presented great challenges to the gold rushers.The water is an amazing color.

We stopped to see the largest weathervane in the world- the plane really does spin around as the wind direction changes.  

We stopped at a museum that described what the Yukon was like during the last major ice age, complete with a Mammoth skeleton.   You can buy chunks of Mammoth tusk in stores- it’s readily found during gold mining activity.  

Whitehorse is a very nice clean town with many Fist Nation residents.  

We easily parked the RV in town, walked along Yukon River walk, and around Kona II, a sternwheeler that carried miners, ore, supplies and mail up and down the Yukon until about 1955.

We had dinner at a pub, in town, before attending a show of the Fantastic Follies – a lively vaudeville show of song, dance and re-enactments of period poet Robert Service writings.

Did we say how much we love our RV?  Between dinner and show-time, we had about an hour to kill.  We walked to the RV (parked 2 blocks from the show), showered, mapped the next day’s route, and cleaned house.  Then we walked to the show.  After the show, we drove 1 mile to the local Walmart, and bedded down in the parking lot, along with about 50 other RV’s.  It was an amazingly quiet ‘campground’.   We have not for one minute wanted for a larger (or smaller) unit.

Up and out for the trek to Dawson City.

Dawson City:

The Klondike “highway” is rough, potholed, unpaved in sections and not an easy drive.  We broke the trek to Dawson City into two days, staying at a free, deserted, Yukon government campground the first night.  A glorious location, on the Yukon River, with only one other camper in the whole park.

We’ve been eager to get to Dawson City because the guidebooks make it look like fun.  We were not disappointed.  The town is a hoot.  We immersed ourselves for two days.  The town is a ‘living’ national historic site, with a very well organized menu of reasonable priced docent guided tours and presentations.

 

Dawson City was the epicenter of the massive Klondike gold rush (late 1890’s-1902).  The town’s population exploded from 300 to 30,000 within just a few months.  

Men hiked the Chilkoot trail (in snow – with steep pitches up to 45 degrees) transporting 1000 pounds of gear per person.  They would carry up a portion of their load, drop it at the top of the mountain, walk down to bring up another load until all 1000 pounds of gear and supplies were at ‘the top’.  Then it all got loaded into sternwheelers or privately made boats, for the ride down the Yukon River to Dawson city.  The lumber from the small boats was then used for cabin building upon arrival in Dawson.

The sternwheelers are shallow draft boats, allowing them to glide across sandbars on the Yukon.  The river flows rapidly (about 20 mph).  Navigation was with hand-drawn maps with trees and rocks as the primary markers.

The prospectors arrived to sewage infested town built on a permafrost marsh, set up a tent and tried to stake out a gold claim.  By the time most of them got there, all the claims were taken.  The town was loaded with thieves, cheats and scoundrels.   Most men never even mined and just hung out in miserable conditions till they could move on after the next Springs thaw.

There were few women.  Some established private entertainment businesses which lasted until the 1960’s.  A number of very entrepreneurial women started boarding houses near the gold camps to house and feed men who wanted to live nearer to their gold claim than Dawson City proper.  

Many of the buildings in Dawson City are original, and in poor repair.  Buildings on marsh permafrost don’t hold up well.  They cannot be anchored to the unstable ground.  When the frost melts, it mixes with water and dirt to form a fluid muck into which different footings settle at different rates.   No restoration measures have been taken with these buildings so visitors can see what naturally unfolds.

A number of buildings were moved into Dawson City from a nearby town.  They were transported to the edge of the Yukon River, and in the winter, when the river was frozen over, the buildings were pushed and pulled into Dawson.  From one unstable permafrost location to another.

These date to 1901:

All the streets in town (except one) are still dirt.  There are boardwalks on many of the streets.  The one paved street (paved 3 years ago) was a subject of great controversy.  Some people in town wanted it paved, others did not.  There was a city referendum and the paving proposal was defeated.  Within days, the road was paved, by the territory of Yukon.  It was NOT a municipal road, therefore a municipal decision.

Our first day in Dawson, we went food shopping, went to the library to update blog, had a hail storm, took a ‘Strange Tales and Weird Events’ tour, toured the original Post Office, and went to TWO can-can shows.  Since the sun doesn’t set until after midnight, it’s hard to get a feel for when it’s time to go to bed.  Even then, it’s not dark at all, even in the middle of the night.  Not sure why we brought so many flashlights.  Didn’t think THAT one through!

Hail Storm:

We are camped right in town – within walking distance – no ambience, but great location.  Stinky would NOT leave the camper for a walk.   There are Ravens all around town.

Interesting stories / people:

·         Joe Ladue opened the first Saloon in Dawson City.  He charged $2.50 for a beans, bread, stewed apples and coffee meal.  That same meal would sell for 15 cents in Seattle.  He was known for his good manners and generosity.  When the gold rush ended in 1899, 8,000 people left Dawson City.  Joe went back to New York, a rich man, to marry his childhood sweetheat

·         Jack London lived in Dawson City and wrote Call of the Wild there.  His cabin can be toured

·         Percy DeWolfe (The Iron Man of the North) carried the winter’s mail between Dawson City and Eagle, Alaska, for 35 years until 1950.  It was a 210 mile roundtrip.

·         Robert Service lived in Dawson City for about 6 years – he was a poet who attained great wealth as his poetry about the Yukon and the gold rush was extremely popular.  He wrote ‘The Cremation of Sam McGee’.  He sold movie rights based on his poems.  There are several Robert Service specialists in Dawson who can recite miles of poems. We toured his cabin.

·         In 1886, 22 miners settled on Liars Island for the winter.  It was named for the tall tales they would tell for winter’s entertainment.

·         From Laura Beatrice Berton’s “I Married the Klondike” memoir:

“One December, the mercury hovered at fifty below for the entire month.  There was a flu epidemic and many deaths, especially among the halfbreeds and Indians.  There could be no burials until weather moderated.  The frozen bodies were stacked in the undertaking parlor.  The winter’s graves always had to be prepared in the fall, when the ground could be easily worked.  As more people died during the winter than the summer, there were always a good many standing (graves) open ready for the season.  It was a grisly sight to pass the rows of yawning holes waiting for occupants, and to wonder which of us would rest in them before the long winter was over.”

Other Shots of Dawson City:

We loved Dawson City.

Tomorrow – “Top of the World Highway”