MORNING IN DAWSON CITY
Our Hotel and Surrounds
Looking out from our hotel window in the early morning, Dawson City was blanketed by layers of recently fallen, thick, soft powder snow. There was not a person nor even a vehicle to be seen. For all appearances, Dawson City was closed to the world. Accentuating its old-world charm, the city appeared more than ever like a scene from an old Western movie set. So reminiscent of the boom or bust days of its extraordinary gold rush history.
On an ominous, heavily snow-clouded morning, the surroundings looked bitterly cold. And once again, we experienced that special pang of raw excitement we love so much in travelling during the wintery months of the high Arctic....
It was, however, just as well that no one in our group felt like walking through the icy streets to a café for breakfast. Firstly, we were picked up relatively early for our day tour of the city. Secondly, virtually nothing was open anyway. Certainly not for breakfast. There were no bakeries operating, and only one or two cafés open for evening meals. A supermarket was open, but not until late morning.
In fairness, it was the low season when the whole town virtually closes down. But it is well to know this beforehand. In the cold low season, it would be really inconvenient if you arrived unprepared. Stashing up on biscuits, cheese, and fruit was a must for us.
Our Downtown Hotel, however, was very pleasant. Our room was spacious, comfortable and warm. Faithfully restored to its early boom years, the rich, ornate furnishings and the whole atmosphere of The Downtown were evocative of its heady, bustling former Gold Rush days. You could, in fact, almost hear the rowdy noise of the gambling and drinking patrons and the dizzy spinning of the non-stop roulette wheels. It was not at all difficult to feel the hotel crowd throb with excitement, the smell of the thick, hazy smoke of the saloon bar, restless ghosts of Dawson City embedded in the very walls of the old building.
Our cozy room included two queen beds, tea and coffee-making facilities and free Wifi. The hotel also offered block heater car plug-ins to assist vehicles in keeping charge during freezing nights, a feature we Australians are definitely not used to!
Dawson City had experienced a very cold winter with temperatures as low as minus 44°C. For our day in Dawson, however, the temperature ranged from a chilly minus 15°C to an almost balmy plus 3°C. The lowest-ever recorded temperature was minus 58.3° C in February 1947. On reading this, we couldn't help but recall the lowest temperature we had experienced to date was minus 55° C in Bilibino, Chukotka, Russia. And that WAS cold.....
Hotel staff was very pleasant, friendly and helpful. It was not hard to notice that many businesses in the parts of Canada we were travelling were owned and managed by families of Indian descent. Many others were of Asian background. The Yukon certainly gave the feeling of optimism, perhaps because it had long been known as a "land of hope" where many newcomers to Canada had established themselves very successfully. Sadly, many were not so fortunate.
On chatting with the staff, they asked us why we had booked into The Downtown Hotel. After all, they said, the establishment had been undergoing renovations for the past three weeks, and neither the restaurant nor the bar would be open for at least another month. Why had we not booked into The Eldorado, their sister hotel owned by the same management, that had both a bar and a restaurant open? We shrugged.
Madam, Care for a Human Toe in Your Cocktail?
“You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips have gotta touch the toe”
In hindsight, we were not sure whether we were disappointed or relieved that The Sourdough Bar at our Downtown Hotel, was closed. Our apprehensions were, of course, about its special cocktail told to us by our friends Karen and Farrell during our stay in Whitehorse, and one that I alluded to in a previous chapter as "But that's a story for later....."
It takes a fair bit to shock us, But that story certainly did. The Downtown Hotel is home to the infamous "Sourtoe Cocktail" - possibly one of the most repugnant bar experiences one could ever imagine. At first, we thought our friends must have been joking at our expense. But as we were to find out, the Sourtoe Cocktail served at the Sourdough Bar was absolutely for real.
Simple to prepare, it was just a shot of whiskey (usually Yukon Jack) garnished with an unusual accompaniment - a mummified human toe preserved in salt... According to the Downtown Hotel website:
"The legend of the first “Sourtoe” dates back to the (prohibition days) of the 1920s and features a feisty rum-runner named Louie Linken and his brother Otto. During one of their cross-border deliveries, they ran into an awful blizzard. In an effort to help direct his dog team, Louie stepped off the sled and into some icy overflow—soaking his foot thoroughly. Fearing that the police were on their trail, they continued on their journey. Unfortunately, the prolonged exposure to the cold caused Louie’s big toe to be frozen solid. To prevent gangrene, the faithful Otto performed the amputation using a woodcutting axe (and some overproof rum for anaesthesia). To commemorate this moment, the brothers preserved the toe in a jar of alcohol.
Years later, whilst cleaning out an abandoned cabin, the toe was discovered by (the late) Captain Dick Stevenson...The Sourtoe Cocktail Club was established, and its rules were developed. Since its inception, the club has acquired (by donation) over 25 toes".
Those who complete the shot are added to the “Sourtoe Cocktail Club,” which now has over 100,000 members. Determined to continue the tradition, Captain Stevenson dedicated his ashes and each of his toes to the hotel to keep the tradition alive.
The rules were as simple as the cocktail preparation:
Step 1 – Come down to the Sourdough Saloon at the Downtown Hotel, Dawson City
Step 2 – Purchase a shot of whiskey (most club members prefer Yukon Jack)
Step 3 – Pledge the "Sourtoe Oath"
Step 4 – Watch as a (genuine) dehydrated toe is dropped in your drink
Step 5 – Drink your Sourtoe Cocktail - being sure to touch the toe with your lips.
Step 2 – Purchase a shot of whiskey (most club members prefer Yukon Jack)
Step 3 – Pledge the "Sourtoe Oath"
Step 4 – Watch as a (genuine) dehydrated toe is dropped in your drink
Step 5 – Drink your Sourtoe Cocktail - being sure to touch the toe with your lips.
Weird story. But then again, Dawson City is an unconventional place. Hardly surprising, with its extraordinary "larger than life" beginnings...
A Very Short City Tour
We were all a bit surprised that our city tour began at 9:00 am. And even more surprised when it finished just an hour later.
Deep snow had fallen the night before, and Leo had quite a time manoeuvring our minibus out of its parking bay. To allow for vehicle flow, snow graded from the road resulted in a high ridge encircling the vehicle that had to be removed for us to move. It was quite an effort to free our bus, involving two huge graders and some pretty extreme tactical driving by Leo.
Our first stop was at what is known as The Dome, a steep mountain lookout post providing splendid views of the Klondike Valley, the Yukon River, Dawson City and its surrounds. A favourite midnight tourist destination during the summer, the location apparently provides an excellent viewing vantage point for photography. I say "apparently" because we didn't get there. Heavy snow and slippery icy conditions made the steep climb impossible for our 2WD minibus. And wisely, Leo gave up trying to make the ascent before it became too dangerous. It made me wonder, though, how this bus might fare in the more northern parts of the highway, which would lead us along an ice road to the frozen Arctic Ocean.
The remainder of our tour included a visit to the Jack London Museum*, an outdoor museum featuring reconstructed log cabins and the Dawson City Museum. All of which were closed.
Just driving through the town, however, was fascinating. Wide, unsealed snowy roads were lined with raised broad walks and buildings beautifully restored or re-built in harmony with the city’s late 19th century Gold Rush past. Dawson City, we had to admit, was truly enchanting. And for us, being virtually the only tourists in town, it was a great opportunity to absorb the atmosphere of a real boom settlement of the golden 1890s.
Nathan, a delightful young Kazakhstani member of our tour group, was passionate about every aspect of our tour - museums, the Northern Lights, and the geography and history of the part of the Yukon in which we were travelling. Punctuality may not have been his strong point, but Nathan’s enthusiasm was infectious, and despite our tour being held up on many occasions (mostly due to his midnight to 3:00 am viewings of the Aurora Borealis), the group was very tolerant - and very fond of him. Nathan was also someone with whom I could speak Russian. Well, just a bit….
On his own accord, Nathan contacted the city museum and arranged for those who wished to visit in the early afternoon. It looked like an excursion to the supermarket, and the museum meant we were done for the day; our tour itinerary stipulating that the afternoon would be “free time”. No master classes in gold panning, no orchestrated amputation of toes and no contrived indigenous cultural activities - suited us perfectly.
*John Griffith "Jack" London (1876 – 1916) was a well-known, popular American author whose writings were largely inspired by his time living in the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush. Amongst his most famous books were "The Call of the Wild" and "White Fang"; novels about dogs and wolves.
At an early age, Jack London was homeless. Self-educated, he had strong political beliefs and became an ardent socialist. London's books, not surprisingly, at the time, were very popular in Russia.
TO UNDERSTAND A GOLD RUSH CITY....
The Famous Klondike Gold Rush - 1897 to 1899
To understand Dawson City or any other Klondike Gold Rush boom town settlement is to comprehend the history and events that took place in this short but frenetic slot in time. A place of fortune and great wealth for some, the adventure and excitement of finding gold was tragically tempered by poverty, disease, failure and hopelessness of most of the gold prospectors, many of whom died during their forward journey or whilst living in the bitterly cold, harsh and unforgiving conditions of the Yukon.
In his article, The Klondike Gold Rush, 2009, Michael Gates asserts that if the USD 29 million (adjusted) in gold that was recovered during the few frenzied, furious mining years from 1897 to 1899 were divided equally amongst all those who participated in the gold rush, the amount would fall far short of the total that they had invested in the effort, time and money, just to reach the Klondike.
As mentioned in the previous chapter, the discovery of gold by George Carmack, “Skookum“ Jim Mason and “Dawson” Charlie in the Yukon in 1896 led to the famous "Stampede to the Klondike" (the latter two being Tagish First Nation members and into whose families Carmack had married; the former more likely to have been the first to discover gold).
The discovery was made at what became known famously as "Bonanza Creek"**, igniting an unprecedented rush of an estimated 100,000 would-be prospectors who left their homes worldwide (although mainly from the USA) and headed to the Klondike.
** Fascinated with the origin of the word "bonanza", I wondered if it derived from the Yukon Gold Rush days (maybe I'm thinking of the Cartwrights - Hoss, Little Joe, etc of the TV series "Bonanza", which was filmed in the USA!)? Well in fact, "bonanza" is a Spanish word that originally referred to "a calm sea", a phenomenon that was good news for the merchants and fishermen who depended on the sea for their livelihoods. Thus, the word came to be used for any piece of good fortune, especially a sudden source of wealth such as an oil strike or the discovery of a gold mine. And it was definitely not named after the television series of the same name!
Most prospectors took the route through the ports in Dyea and Skagway in southeast Alaska to reach the goldfields. From here, the "Klondikers" could follow the notorious Chilkoot or White Pass trails to the Yukon River before sailing down the Klondike to their terminus of Dawson City.
The trip was a torturous ascent. Canadian authorities stipulated that each prospector had to bring a year's supply of food and necessary equipment. All up, the Klondikers' equipment would have weighed close to a ton, most carried individually in a series of loads, and some of which involved more than thirty return trips. In the harsh cold conditions and rugged terrain, many perished from hypothermia or as a result of landslides during the journey. Many of those who survived did not arrive until 1898. Once there, they found few opportunities, many leaving disappointed and broken.
To accommodate the influx of the prospectors, boom towns sprang up along various gold rush routes, with Dawson City being founded at the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers. The population of Dawson City skyrocketed to 30,000. Buildings constructed of timber were unsanitary, and the city was soon plagued by disease and fires.
Prospectors led hard, miserable lives, manually mining with pans and shovels in freezing permafrost conditions. Tough going, any digging required the earth to be heated first by placing a fire on top. Most were on the move, living in portable shelters such as tents and scantily built cabins. And with the sub-Arctic conditions and no medical assistance, the death rate amongst the inhabitants of the Klondike soared.
Nevertheless, the promise of fortune, romance and adventure continued to attract prospectors and those seeking business opportunities within the region. At Dawson, hopeful newcomers found a bustling and rapidly growing city with unkempt millionaire veterans or "Sourdoughs" (a year's residence in the Yukon would earn a person the title of "Sourdough") and poverty-stricken would-be gold prospectors. It was certainly a place where "anything goes"...
Dawson City was a confronting and divided settlement of wild extravagances and distressing poverty. It housed a richly diverse population from all walks of life, including prospectors, adventurers, business people, teachers, street car drivers, office workers, gamblers, writers, actors, entertainers and even policemen, most of whom had no experience in the mining industry. And then there were the women of the Klondike - wives, mothers, prospectors, business keepers, nurses, members of the clergy, entertainers and prostitutes. Yet, another story to be told....
On the other hand, to make way for the Klondikers, the indigenous Hän were marginalised and forcibly moved to reserves in other areas; the harsh treatment virtually obliterating the entire population of those formerly residing in the Klondike. It was not until a century later, due to land claim settlement, that the Tr'ondëk Hwech'in (descendants of the Hän) found redress and self-government.
During the summer of 1899, gold was discovered in Nome, Alaska. Newspapers, once encouraging so many people to the Klondike, lost interest, instead focusing on the Alaskan discoveries. Many prospectors left the Klondike for the new gold fields, marking a swift and sudden end to the short Klondike Gold Rush. In a matter of just a few years, the Klondike Gold Rush was over.
There is no doubt that the Gold Rush was instrumental in opening up and developing the Yukon. Or that the discovery was a godsend for the economy of a country in the depths of deep depression. Interestingly, there is another different but popular view of those tough Gold Rush days:
"The most lasting legacy left by the gold rush was the perception it left in the public mind. It was a shared experience that all participants faced, rich or poor, on a relatively similar footing and which left its mark indelibly etched in their memories...The adventures of the Gold Rush were also captured in popular literature in the writings of people such as Jack London, Robert Service and Pierre Barton..... (And so), the Klondike Gold Rush will never be forgotten" The Klondike Gold Rush, Michael Gates 2009.
The adventurous "Never Say Die" Gold Rush days inspired many movie writers, producers, novelists, poets, and songwriters of the early 20th century. During this time, epic films included the silent movie Gold Rush starring Charlie Chaplin, Texas Jack, and Tales of Billy the Kid. Furthermore, many of Jack London's novels - Call of the Wild, White Fang and The Far Country - were part of the huge number of literature made into movie and television series productions.
Interestingly, in 1978, another kind of buried treasure was discovered. Known as "The Dawson Find", it occurred when a construction excavation inadvertently uncovered a forgotten collection of more than 500 discarded movie films on highly flammable nitrate film from the early 20th century that was buried in (and preserved by) the permafrost. These silent-era film reels, dating from "between 1903 and 1929, were uncovered in the rubble beneath an old hockey rink and are now carefully preserved in Canadian museums. (Wikipedia)
DAWSON CITY TODAY
Up until 1953, Dawson City was the capital of the Yukon. The population, however, dropped after the Gold Rush and again after World War II when the Alaska Highway bypassed the settlement 518 km south of the city. The resulting economic damage led to a major decline in population and the subsequent shift of the capital to Whitehorse. Since the 1960s the population has stabilised, with a slight increase in recent years.
Today, Dawson City houses a full-time population of just 1,580 people. The town's demographics comprise European Canadians (61%), Indigenous Canadians (31 %) and East Asian Canadians (3.0%) of the population.
Dawson City's main industries are now tourism and mining. More recently, mining operations have shifted toward major international operators such as Goldcorp and Newmont Mining, Barrick Gold, and Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, all of whom have committed significant investment to exploring properties across the Yukon.
There are eight National Historic Sites of Canada located in Dawson, including the Dawson Historical Complex, a National Historic Site encompassing the historic centre of town.
Travel Yukon site sums up the current type of "Gold Rush Experience" tourism offered by the township: "You'll still see many touches of elegance in this town once known as “The Paris of the North,” but you'll notice a lot more flannel than Chanel. Ever since the gritty, glamorous gold rush days, Dawson City has been a good-time town.
While there’s far less gold dust on the floors these days, the entertainment goes on with fun festivals, cultural events and unique contests—like gold panning competitions and outhouse races... The city is always buzzing with activities that will take you back to gold rush times, like tour guides in gold rush era garb, elegant paddle wheelers on the Yukon River, and daily shows (such as at Diamond Tooth Gerties casino) at Canada’s oldest gambling hall".
In addition to the above more contrived activities, the city also offers historic tours, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, dog sled races, Northern Lights viewing, hiking, fishing and hunting opportunities.
AN AFTERNOON IN DAWSON CITY
Thanks to Nathan, we could visit the Dawson City Museum at 1:00 pm. One of the museum volunteers agreed to open the museum and let us stay for a few hours if we wished. It was very kind of him. There was no entry charge, and even when several tour members offered to pay, he refused, advising it would be better for us to make a small donation toward the museum.
The little museum was well set up in an old-style log cabin equipped with nostalgic exhibitions of the past Gold Rush days. The old photographs were fascinating, powerful, unwritten statements about the former life of Dawson City. Numerous pieces of memorabilia were displayed, as well as stories of individual "Klondiker" characters.
Visiting the supermarket to stock up on snack foods and lunch for the following days was useful. Again, the tiny well-stocked store was staffed by people of Indian descent. Friendly and helpful, they advised that their store was also the bakery during the low season - it was just as well as virtually nothing else was open.
But of course, being intrepid travellers, we can nearly always find a drinking spot. The Eldorado was at least open with both bar and restaurant service. Funnily enough, the rest of our tour members found the same place, and we enjoyed the afternoon together. Well, what else could we do on a cold snowy afternoon in Dawson City?
We had, in fact, very much enjoyed our stay in Dawson City. Once we overcame some of the minor inconveniences of nothing much being open, at least we had the city to ourselves and an opportunity to absorb some of its unique, pioneering past. We would definitely recommend visiting the township in winter. Just remember to bring some food!
2025-02-08