But back to Yukon Part 2 (by Kim because Mike can’t put down his book).
So as mentioned, we arrived at Dawson City via the “Top of the World” Highway from Tok, Alaska. The highway is only open during the summer months (same with the border crossing) and is a gravel road (with some sections better than others). However, it is amazing because you are driving on a mountain ridge looking down (rather than across) at valleys and looking across (rather than up) at the mountains. And then you think about geographically where you are and you really do feel that you are on top of the world.
For our accommodations in Dawson, we stayed at the Territorial campground across the Yukon river so every morning (and evening) we’d either load the van on the ferry or walk on the ferry with the dogs for the 15 minute free ride (the ferry also only operates in the summer as the river freezes up come October). Once you get over to Dawson City, the town is very concentrated and so very walkable. And that’s basically what we did pretty much every day – walk around the town and be confronted with history at every turn. It really makes you feel that you are walking in the city that everyone rushed to in search of gold over 115 years ago. Although most of the buildings are not originals (as Mike tells me from his reading, most of the original buildings burnt over the years except for the Palace Grande), they have been (or are being) restored to resemble their past appearance. Even new buildings have to have a certain look to them to match the historical feel of the city. Oh and in case you are wondering the Palace Grande is a theatre but was originally a brothel/gambling hall/saloon owned by Arizona Charlie).
But before I go any further, a quick history lesson (I am consulting Mike on the details). And apologies to anyone from the Yukon who is reading this and if we get any of the details wrong.
August 1896 – Skookum Jim and George Carmacks strike gold at Bonanza Creek about 5-10 km from Dawson City. However word of finding gold doesn’t get out to the world until 8-10 months later
June 1897 – 2 ships carrying gold arrive in the US – 1 in Seattle and 1 in San Francisco. This starts the “Stampede” to the Klondike. Stories of the amounts of gold available were highly exaggerated (such as “you can walk down a river bank and pick up the nuggets”) and 100 000 people dropped everything and started heading to the Klondike.
Summer 1897 – The Stampeders take different routes towards Dawson City. The most popular being The Chilkoot Trail or the White Pass from Skagway, Alaska. However to lure people to their town, Edmonton boasted a overland route (which didn’t exist). There were also some people that tried to go up the Alaska coast towards the Bering straight and around to get to the mouth of the Yukon River.
Winter 1898 – The people along the Chilkoot Trail had to winter in Bennett Lake as they were unable to go any further until the ice melted on the Yukon River for them to set sail on the boats they were building.
Summer 1898 - 7200 boats travel from Bennett Lake down the Yukon River and arrive in Dawson City. (from the 100 000 people that started out, approximately 30 000 people make it to Dawson). Dawson grows to over 30 000 people and becomes the largest city west of Winnipeg. However for these Stampeders this is 2 years too late to strike it rich with gold as all the claims have been staked. So their options were: 1) go work for a mining company already established 2) find other creative ways to make money (which wasn’t too hard in a city full of gold) or 3) go back home. Services like saloons, dance halls, gambling casinos and movie theatres as well as restaurants, accommodations and hospitals spring up and create employment. Getting food up to Dawson City also became lucrative. One guy carted 200 dozen eggs over the Chilkoot trail and made his fortune selling them at $5/dozen (while those same eggs were likely purchased in Seattle at 5 cents/dozen).
Summer 1899 – Word gets out of gold being found in Nome, Alaska. People start leaving Dawson City for the next big thing. Over 8000 people leave Dawson City in August. And all those services that were employing people are no longer needed which leads to more people leaving. Arizona Charlie considers putting his saloon on a barge and floating it to Nome.
And yet people still stayed so Dawson City did not become a ghost town (like many other places we have seen in our travels).
Back to present day and Dawson City still has the historic feel with their wooden boardwalks, historic buildings and visitors centre staff dressed up in period clothing. And if you’ve had enough of the history, there many other things to do here. There are the colourful characters (like Caveman Bill who lives in a cave on the other side of the river) and a vibrant arts community with their own visual arts school (equivalent to a first year university program). Dawson City also hosts many events over the summer including a very popular music festival, a writer’s festival and arts festival. They also have this amazing farmer’s market - who knew you could grow such great produce in a place so far north – the secret I am told is in the long daylight hours.
Mike and I did a couple of walking tours where we learned a bit about the history (and about some colourful characters- past and present) and explored some of the old buildings. We also walked the Dome hike (where the sun doesn’t set in June) and drove out to Bonanza Creek (where gold was first found in 1896). One of the highlights for me was the Jack London museum. Jack London is the famous American author who wrote classics such as White Fang and Call of the Wild. I don’t think I remember reading these books when I was younger (but maybe I did). But the museum curator gave such a passionate talk about him that I was ready to buy one of his books then and there. What was the connection to Dawson City? Jack London was one of those Stampeders who crossed the Chilkoot pass and was in one of the first boats to make it to Dawson City. He didn’t stay in the Yukon longer than a year (nor did he strike it rich with gold) but it appears that his year of living in a cabin and listening to the stories of other Stampeders and Yukoners was an inspiration for many of the books he would write in his lifetime. We also visited Diamond Tooth Gerties for a cabaret show (all proceeds going to the Dawson City tourist centre) and walked to the Paddlewheel graveyard (which is exactly as it sounds – a place along the river where about 9 old paddlewheel boats lay in various forms of decomposition).
We had a “Small world” moment when we were chatting with one of the staff at the Visitors Centre about our experience of Chilkoot Trail and she mentioned her sister from North Bay had also hiked the Chilkoot Trail. Sure enough her sister was in our little group of hikers!
Dawson City was definitely exactly what we needed after our days of driving on Alaska’s highways and I think it was there where we really started to feel the effects of “Yukon fever”.
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