10 Dawson City
This update is devoted to Dawson, probably the most interesting of all the places we have seen; and we have seen lots and lots of great places on this trip. Probably what’s so great about it is that it is living history; Parks Canada owns and maintains many buildings here, there is a great city tour, even the streets have been left as dirt and not paved.
Entering into Dawson, the first signs of mining activity are the piles of tailings left by the gold dredges. Will talk more about the dredges later on, but this is what they left behind. The 3d picture is an old sunken dredge. These tailings could well be from this dredge, in fact they most probably are.
The sternwheeler riverboat Keno
The opera house.
This is a landslide which took place some time ago and must have scared the locals.
The city funeral parlor. Note the additions that were made for “storage” thru the winter. Then, as today, bodies for inbalming or cremation had to be sent to Whitehorse for processing. The funeral home proprietor tried to guess how many would die during the winter and predug holes. He also tried to guess who would die and made coffins for them in advance.
The bank, much more secure than those housed in tents.
Rubie’s Place. Red light is missing. Was in business until 1961 when the authorities finally closed it.
A bar, one of dozens. The most lucrative business in the area was “mining the miners”. Everyone in the service businesses made more money than most of the miners made.
Note the leaning of the buildings in this shot. The buildings in Dawson, as those in most of the Yukon and Alaska, are built over ground with permafrost. Permafrost is ground that stays frozen all year, at least until the heat from a building causes it to partially melt and the building to tilt.
The post office.
The Dawson City Museum, a very interesting view of how life was in the olden days. It used to be the territorial administration building and still houses the courtroom used by the circuit judge.
The Territorial Commissioner’s Residence from when Dawson was the Territorial seat. The Commissioner’s Ball was being held while we were there but, unfortunately, we didn’t have proper attire (nor the money to pay for the ball).
Portraits were considered to be improper so sillouettes were used on the walls.
A couple of gold mining train locomotives.
The girls at Diamond Tooth Gertie’s
One of the more notorious drinks in Dawson is the Sourtoe Cocktail. It is served with great fanfare by Captain Jack himself. It is actually an amputated toe that is put into a glass of whatever one wants to buy at the bar and the drink is consumed with the toe touching the lips but not eaten.
This is gold dredge No. 4. I will get into its working at the next update. These dredges cost a lot of money but most if not all paid their way.
All for now.
