Dawson City

Rita in front of an old blacksmiths shop.


We pulled in here the afternoon of the 3rd after a rainy 6 hour drive from Whitehorse. The road was in pretty good shape given the severity and duration of the winters here. Came across a few "frost heaves" where the freeze-thaw cycles had caused the pavement to soften and buckle, but their highway dept. had done a pretty good job of flagging them so they were easily negotiated. Lots of potholes too, but very light traffic all the way up.

We're thoroughly enjoying Dawson City. Looks like a movie set - a time capsule from the gold rush era. Most of the buildings and architecture date from the turn of the century and the streets are all still unpaved - I guess because of the permafrost that starts about a foot below the surface and wreaks havoc on everything from pavement to the buildings themselves, as you can see from some of the photos below that show the settling effect of seasonal cycles. It's winter here 8 months of the year, with temperatures dropping down to a nippy -60 deg. during the 21 hours of darkness in December and January. If you make it thru one of their winters, from the initial freeze-up of the Yukon in late September to the "break-up" in late May that makes you a real Sourdough. Everyone else (including the tourists) is considered a Cheechako...or newcomer in the local Tagish Indian dialect.



The remains of a former hotel and office.




This is the cabin once occupied by a poet named Robert Service, who wrote extensively about his time in the area and has become the poet laureate of both Dawson City and the Klondike gold rush as a result. Located about 8 blocks up from Front Street on the Yukon River. The cabin is pretty typical of the era when 35,000 people called Dawson City home. The population today is around 1800.




Diamond Tooth Gerties - the first licensed gambling hall in the Territory.




The original Post Office from 1900 - the first government building in the city and just about the first timber frame structure in the young city.


Spent an enjoyable afternoon yesterday up Bonanza Creek - a tributary of the Klondike River and the site of the original Discovery claim of 1896. This is the place where Skookum Jim, Tagish Charlie and George Carmacks hit paydirt and started it all. Was really fun to tramp around the area (and the exact site) where it all began - and which was the impetus for the biggest gold rush in history two years later once news of the strike reached San Francisco and Seattle. All those men who toughed it out getting over the Chilkoot Pass in the winter of 1897-98 were heading for this spot. Unfortunately, once they got here they found the entire area already staked and claimed by the hundreds of miners who had already been in Canada and Alaska prospecting themselves, and who made a beeline for the area once word of the initial strike reached them.


Looking for "color" about 115 years too late.



Once the initial panning verified the richness of the ground, the next step was to bring in sluices for a more industrial approach to separating the gold from the gravel. Later, the big mining companies brought in huge steam dredges that covered acres rather than square feet. The original claims from 1896-98 are still here, and in some cases are still being worked by descendants of the original stampeders. Back in the day gold was worth $16 an ounce. Now it's nearly 100 times that much...so it still pays.



An area of "tailings" or the residue of the steam dredges. Makes the area look like a moonscape in places.




We also drove up Dome Road to this lookout about 3,000 above the valley for a panoramic view of Dawson City and the river. The big one is the Yukon. The Klondike flows into it from the left of the picture - you can just make it out. The Yukon is murky and full of silt, while the Klondike runs clear. After they join they run parallel...half the river silty and the other half clear...before finally mixing completely a couple of miles downstream, finally emptying into the Behring Sea about 1400 miles from here.


Inside the Red Feather saloon.



The Westminster Hotel is the oldest of the original hotels in town. Called "The Pit" by the locals, it's the kind of place where if you just wander in (as a tourist) all conversation stops as everyone turns to stare at you. Peaked in as we walked by one day and it looked like a ZZ Top convention had hit town.



The free ferry that connects the Klondike Highway at Dawson City with the Top of the World Highway on the other side. From there it's about 6 hours to Tok, Alaska, and another 6 from there to Anchorage.




The official flower of the Yukon - the Fireweed. Local lore has it that when the top of the stalk blooms it means that summer is officially over. Looks like we still have some time left.

The Canadians are really a friendly lot. They remind us of the Aussies in many respects. The local Parks Canada Visitor Center is not only a treasure trove of information, but they even served up a birthday cake for the visiting Yanks on the 4th of July. Pretty neat, actually.

Filled up the car for the first time when we reached Dawson City and all I can say about that is....JEEZUS! Gas here costs $1.63 Canadian per liter which, once you do the conversions winds up being US$6.50 a gallon. Hopefully, once we get back into Alaska in a couple of days (where I'm told they make the stuff) the prices will come down a bit.