Dawson City, Yukon, CanadaDawson City
The ferry over the Yukon river
We wake up – and it is not super
sunny. No big deal, we head over to Dawson City. After a relaxed start we head
onto the road and soon after we come to the river: here is the free ferry
crossing over. And the ferry ramp is dirt on which you drive onto the ferry
ramp – so they can adjust the Ferry ramp to the water level in the river – when
we watched the cars coming off, it is quite a bump, I wonder how this fancy big
RV’s can do this without getting stuck: but they also have a big sign, that you
go on the ferry at your own risk to your vehicle. The current is fairly strong,
so the ferry first goes up the river and turns in a circle back towards the
other side.
Info about the dempster
Stop #1 today is to check out the
Visitor info and get some more info about the Dempster. She sends us right over
to the NWT Visitor info, as they are there only for people travelling up the
Dempster. They have a guest book which Paul reads to check out, what other
people write about the Dempster overall the road is in “fairly good” condition
and yes all the gas stations are open and carry diesel. But we heard that one
guy complained the day before because he had to buy 2 expensive new tires in
Inuvit – but then he went with bare old tires… better be prepared.
- The NWT Dempster Highway visitor info is in one of the old riverfront buildings it got built in 1900
Instead of a visitor info they have
KVA:
- KVA is Klondike Visitors association
- In the 1950s tourists who arrived on steamships were greeted by a small group of locals dressed in 1890s costumes. The Klondike tourist bureau wanted to give people a sense that they were entering a special place. It was such a hit with the visitors, that they included tours of the town and the Klondike fields with dances in the Grand Palace Theatre or the Golden Nugget Hall, they set up gambling tables to keep visitors entertained
- They still do the tours today and are dressed up – the only downside – we think it costs way to much money as each single event is at least 7 $
A free concert
We heard about the free concert which
is every Friday and yes today is Friday – so we go there and listen a bit to
the country music until we thought we heard enough. Wondered along the river
and also on the boardwalks (good they have them as the roads are dirty and
muddy, full of water puddles) and check out the 2 grocery stores – and then
stock up on what we need for the next 6-7 days, as we are not super sure how
cheap Inuvit will be and what they all have.
In the historic town: the Klondike City or Dawson City
- In 1874 the first American Trader Leroy Jack McQuesten came in the area,
- 1883 the camp at the mouth of the Klondike River was called Tr’ochek and was a base for the hunters and consisted of a few fish-drying structures – by 1896 there were a few log cabins
- It is the heart of the Klondike Gold rush – it also got the title “Paris of the north”: being the largest city in western Canada, fabulous wealth and isolation demanded for luxuries many of them uncommon in the southern cities like electricity, telephones, luxury foods and high fashion
- Many took advantage of the booming infrastructure of Dawson City and opened saloons, stores, banks, brotherls, restaurant and made their money of the never-ending supply of miners arriving consumed with gold fever
- The first trip by car from Whitehorse was done in 1912
- Before the gold rush no-one knew about this inhospitable wilderness in the NW corner of Canada’s vast NWT
- It was Yukon’s first capital from 1898 to 1953
Gold is calling
- The Klondike got it’s name from the Indian work “Thron Diuck” meaning “Hammer water” – early settlers had difficulty with pronouncing it and then it became Klondike
- Before there were several gold rushes like at the Fraser River, Cariboo, Cassiar and they slowly headed north, by 1870s prospectors trickled into the Yukon in search of Gold
- Most of the prospectors were already in the area when the big gold rush happened and once the stampede with all the gold-seekers came, most of the rivers were already claimed
- News of the 1896 Klondike Gold strike was picked up in all major newspapers and a trickle of experienced prospectors and miners turned into a flood of newcomers from all our America
- Gold was the foundation of global monetary system for centuries and the lure for gold caused a series of North West American goldrushes that led to the Klondike “the last great gold rush”
- Global depression and widespread unemployment brought thousands here – most had no mining experience
- It’s said 1 Mill people planned to go to the Klondike, one hundred thousand actually set off and 30.000 made it: most arrived in the winter in Skagway and had to wait until May in make-up camps until they could head north
- You can paddle in 10-12 day paddle the 500 miles from Whitehorse to Dawson, in the old days the sternwheelers took 40 hours
- 88% of all the gold mined in the Yukon comes from the Dawson area
- One gold nugget that was unearthere here weight 2 kg and was nearly 6 inches long. In 1898 it valued 1158 $ equaling in 2010 a value of over 160.000 $
- The first miners did more digging than panning – as the richest deposits were buried in the permafrost: they thawed the ground with fires and then started digging – by 1900 most miners had sold their claims to cooperation’s.
- After 1906 the monsters of the creek arrived the Dredges they churned through the river valleys and you could hear the grinding and screeching leaving behind worm-like tailing piles – dredging faded out in 1966
- It had a horrific impact on the environment causing massive soil erosions, water contaminations, deforestation and loss of local wild life
- Natives some made money by becoming guides, many felt victims to the new disease like smallpos and the introduction to drinking
- In 1899 Gold was discovered in Nome
The firefighter Museum
A bit of interneting and we can’t sit
the whole afternoon around in the camper – so we checked out the Firefighter
museum. They had there 2 super old steam run waterpumps – the cart is horse
drawn and the steam engine could pump the water from the river: that is really
cool. There were pictures on the wall and info about the fires they had in the
town and in the other garage you could see some more fire engines. I thought it
was super nice to see.
- One of the steam fire machines from 1897 came in 1900 to Dawson City, it could pump 500 gallon a minute. The 1899 Waterous steam fire engine also came to Dawson in 1900 and could pump 1300 gallon of water per minute, it needed 4 horses to pull the 5.5 tons heavy machine
- On thanksgiving 1897 a fire spread through the centre of Dawsons newly built town destroying its wooden buildings and in July 1898 they acquired a fire steamer apparatus and by October the fire brigade began its operation. It is the oldest fire department in the Yukon
- In April 1899 a massive city fire burned ¾ of
the city, news said that hundreds of miners were now sleeping in the snow and
that it consumed thousands of tons of provision. They had one fire engine but
no-one really new how to handle it. The Bank of
British North America had a flimsy vault and all papers inside were
destroyed: this loss alone was around 1 Mill $, cabins from miners blew up
because they kept there the dynamite. It is said that the fire started in an
apartment over the saloon: some tried to save their bucksin bags of gold dust
while scantly clad women suffered from
the biting gale coming of the river. After it thieves were plentiful. It was
estimated that 4 Mill $ were lost
Along the Yukon river in the rain
Good thing we brough the umbrella as
it started to rain a bit more – as we walked along the Yukon river – once in a
while stopped to read the signs about some cool interesting historic facts.
- The Yukon river is 3520 km long and is the 3rd longest River in North America
- The Tr’ondek Hwech’in made their summer camp along the waterfront where the Klondike meets the Yukon river
- After the gold rush the waterfront was the bustling focal point of the town – in 1898 they were lined with warehouses
- Along the southern shores, it became shanky town where newcomers lived on boats and rafts
- Since 1902 the ferry crossed over the river
- The Yukon river was the main connection to the outside: if you are not close to the river you are lost. until in 1955 the Klondike Hwy got built
- In 1987 they built a vast rock and earth dike to protect the town from spring flooding
The SS Keno: you can
only visit the steam wheeler on a tour (and as we saw steam wheelers before) we
are happy to look at it from the outside and read about its’ history – as well
as the disaster of the SS Sophia.
The Steamboats of the Klondike
Goldrush
- In 1898 there were 57 registered steamboats they carried from June-Sept in 1898 over 12.000 tons of supplies and they all docked at Dawson city. They brought mining equipment, horse and dog feed, flour, dynamited besides fancy crystal linen, canned oysters, evening gowns
- more than 250 stern wheelers were on the Yukon River between 1896 and the 1950s, at one time 70 of them navigated the water at the same time, the 500 mile journey from Whitehorse took 4 days
- It was an important and new industry with wood camps along the waterways to feed the wood-fired boilers, employing a lot of people. A steamer used around 120 cords of ft food every trip from Whitehorse to Dawson City
- Barges were pushed ahead of the steamer to handle the tonnage
- Most officers commanding these ships were former Mississippi river men or deep-sea captains
- None of the steamers of the gold rush survived the SS Keno is from 1922 and because it was in fairly good condition got restored. She transported silver, lead and zinc ore from the mines in Mayo to Steward city
- Each fall when the river froze over the ships were pulled ashore by horses (some of the steam wheelers weighted 700 tons) as they were winched ashore (one of the winches is displayed along the shoreline)
- The SS Sophia: she left on Oct 24 ,1918 Skagway and a snowstorm reduced visibility, navigation in the icy waters with story weather in the Lynn Canal was difficult. The Captain alerted the Canadian Pacific office in Juneau requesting assistance – they were surprised as in Juneau the weather was calm. They prepared lifeboats but the gale force winds made it impossible to launch them, the bad weather prevented the small boats to get close enough to the Princess Sophia to unload the passengers. The high tide lifted the steamer of the reef and she sank: all on board were lost: 278 passengers and 65 crews – all what was visible from the ship was the mast. Over 100 Dawson city members were on the ship.
The muddy dirty roads of downtown:
Heading into downtown we walked a few
blocks down and then around admired the fake-store-front buildings, which as
super cool. Gine Liked Lola’s hotel (I mean it’s closed) but in the top floor
window you could see Lola inviting the guys. As the rain got worse and walking
around puddles more difficult we decided to end our walk and that we seen
enough rainy streets of Dawson.
- Dawson City is in the flood plains of the Yukon an in 1898 it got flooded and with the mud left and the over crowded and poor sanitation it became a breeding ground for insects and disease – the hillside was safer and cleaner (I can’t even image how muddy it was at that time)
It’s like it was in the good old days
of the adventurers of Dawson: the road is dirt and muddy, it rains and is cold.
When looking towards the forest
covered hill, we can’t imagine that the hills were covered in tents and houses
too (as 30.000 people lived here) – you can walk through the forest ad find
some old foundations, but we did that in Dyea and discovered it is not really
exciting.
Even we may didn’t appreciate it all
we walked not only on boardwalks but also came by the Grand Theatre, the old
post office, old stores, the Bank of British North America, Loew’s mortuary and
yes the courthouse building. Some are nicely restored and some are super old
and are falling nearly apart. Still with all the people around – you get the
old-town feeling even if the cars and RV’s are not really from that time
- Visitor info: this is a reconstruction of the old Alaska Commercial company office building that was once here they did major trade trades and had a store and warehouse in town (at one time over 50 warehouse buildngs were in Dawson)
- Klondike Kate’s restaurant: yes it was built in 1901 – from here you feel the oldtown
- Arctic brotherhood hall: this is a fraternal organization of 11 intoxicated men on a ship heading north to Skagway, they decided that the organization’s badges would be champagne and beer corks – they had their first formal meeting in 1899 in Skagway. Here in Dawson was the Arctic Camp #2. They had 32 camps in the northwest and 10.000 members all non-indegiouns men – they did not recognise the Yukon-alaska border, they promoted social and intellectual interaction. They built the hall in 1901 and in 1931 the organization was defunct with the last member dying in 1956
- The Yukon hotel is one of the oldest buildings in DAwso city and got built in 1898, it was once an office space for land agents and in 1934 bought by Emma Wilson after her hotel near it burned down and she renamed it as Yukon Hotel and operated it until 1957
We have Pizza
We decided to have Pizza tonight –
since it was at least 2 weeks we had a pizza and as we will leave into the
wilderness this could be a wonderful celebration. The pizza was good but not
perfect. But at least we were inside and in the warm!!!
Electrical repair in the rain
After supper we couldn’t use our
computers as the battery didn’t charge and Paul was wondering what happened as
he had to rewire something after the fuse blew. And as we sit and relax reading
our kindls Paul said I know what I did wrong, it will take me 15 Min if you can
hold the umbrella (yes it is raining and he had to change something in the plug
underneath the camper). So out we went and we spend close to 45 Min in the rain
half under the umbrella (no we didn’t got cold we have warm jackets – which
were wet when we came inside). After fixing it, we had the truck running for 15
Min and all is charging!!! Perfect – our world is ok again. And yes the next
morning when we checked – it did charge our laptops and the battery – we are
back in the game.
2025-05-22