“Canada 🇨🇦 ~Dawson City in the Yukon!”

• August 5, 2023
• By Pen
• 0 Comment

The headline of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on July 17, 1897, broadcasted the news of the discovery of gold in the Canadian Klondike.
Under the headline: “Gold! Gold! Gold!” The newspaper reported that Sixty Eight Rich Men on the Steamer Portland, arrived in Seattle with “Stacks of Yellow Metal.”

One day in Dawson City was plenty for us. There used to be more activities like dance hall shows, but covid took care of that.
We did a self-drive and walk tour, to include each dirt street (first through sixth), plus side streets. and we found all three cemeteries; including the oldest pioneer one. It was very interesting!

Oldest “YOOP” Cemetery Yukon Order Of Pioneer ⬇️

The Yukon Order of Pioneers (YOOP) is a fraternal organization established in 1894 at Forty Mile, Yukon by George T. Snow, Jack McQuesten, Al Mayo, Tom O’Brien, Jim Bender and others. Its purposes were the “advancement of the great Yukon Valley, the mutual protection and benefit of its members, to unite members by the strong ties of brotherhood and to prove to the outside world that the Yukon Order of Pioneers are men of truth, honor and integrity.”

Two Other Cemeteries ⬇️

Dawson City Yukon was the site of the famous Klondike Gold Rush in 1898. This fascinating gold rush history, makes it one of the most interesting towns to visit in the Yukon or Alaska.

Dawson City is one of those towns that everybody seems to know about, but few people ever get to.
It’s definitely why we came!

The current settlement was founded by Joseph Ladue and named in January 1897 after noted Canadian geologist George M. Dawson, who had explored and mapped the region in 1887. It served as Yukon’s capital from the territory’s founding in 1898 until 1952, when the seat was moved to Whitehorse.

.

While salmon fishing near the Klondike River in Canada’s Yukon Territory on August 16, 1896, Dawson City, Yukon; the heart of the soon to be world-famous KlondikeGold Rush; three Yukon “Sourdoughs:” George Carmack, Dawson Charlie, and Skookum Jim found gold in Rabbit Creek (now Bonanza Creek) a tributary of the Klondike River.

George Carmack reportedly was the first to spot a nuggets of gold in a creek bed. His lucky discovery sparks the last great gold rush in the American West.

There was gold in them thar hills! 

The Yukon Bonanza Gold Strike has fascinating history, here. In fact, the Gold Boon would eventually grow Dawson City to the size of 94 streets!

Current Day Dawson City ⬇️

We were so grateful for sunshine and no rain for this side trip. The roads might have been dusty, but the mud would have been pretty crazy for sure!

We would get up on a hill behind the city and hike the easy and woodsy Crocus Bluff Trail, for the lookout over the Yukon River. 

I’m currently reading a book series about a kid in the 70’s who left civilization to become a trapper in the Alaska wilderness. On our drive up here, I was a little familiar with interesting history along the Yukon River. 

In the city, there is a statue of a Mammoth, and information about how they roamed the Yukon River, back in the ice age.

The kid in his books, tells about how a native showed him where the “boneyard” was, along the Yukon River. He would visit it a couple of times, looking for the giant Mammoth tusks. It was a dangerous area, though, because the enormous bodies of the Mammoth only became visual, due to the massive erosion that was happening along the Yukon River at that time. The other danger were the Grizzlies and Wolves who came feed on the easy meals of the beasts, once they began to thaw, which could be smelled for miles around, after the winter months. The kid did find lots of bones and even partial skulls.
Gold miners were also, quite often digging up tusks and bones, left from the era of the Wooly Mammoth, during the gold strike era.

Gold Rush Campground⬇️

This campground was conveniently, right in town. It’s an older place, so could only put one side of slides out on The Whale. This is what we normally do when boondocking ur drydocking for only one night. It worked out fine. We had full hookups with 30 AMP. We recommend.

Yup, we got Jonah cleaned up front all the glacier dust, and even put her top down, because we had such warm, sunny weather. She really gets a lot of attention wherever we go. It’s kinda fun. We meet lots of people this way. She also runs good, now, thanks to the Anchorage mechanic, and I am so happy about that!

At the end of our fun day, we headed back to Front Street, to  Sourdough Joe’s for dinner. NOTE: While most miners were able to forage and hunt for food, one of the most stable types of sustenance was bread.
Bread was relatively easy to make, used very few ingredients, was filling, and could be baked over the fire in the miner’s gold pan. As a result, miners earned the nickname “Sourdough,” because of this last fact.

⬆️ Enlarge to read the story on the picture about where we were sitting and eating: the lot is significant, following the Bonanza Creek Gold Strike 

It was delicious! Salmon Chower, Fish and Chips, and Fried Chicken. I’m not a huge fan of French fries, but Daryl said they were good.

We called it a night, early, because we would be up with the sun, since we had a very long ways to drive, before we reached Alaska again, and our final stop, in Alaska. By this point, we were quite suspect of the shape of the roads, so needed to make a huge effort on this one of two days, it would take, to get to our final destination.

*************