The Heart of the Klondike

We set off on our final push north. The drive from Whitehorse to Dawson is 337 miles. It took us 10 hours. The “highway” was filled with frost heaves (dips, bumps, potholes, etc due to the freezing and thawing of the ground underneath the road). Besides the frost heaves, there were many gravel sections and other areas under construction. With few places to stop, it was a long day (literally, there is NOTHING out there but two, maybe three roadhouses). When we arrived in Dawson, though, we were greeted with a beautiful double rainbow.

On our first full day in Dawson we took a walking tour of the town led by a wonderful and informative docent. The town of Dawson grew up because of a gold strike along one of its creeks in 1896 and that lead to the Klondike Gold Rush. Stampeders rushed in from all parts of the world to stake their claims and strike it rich. Similar to the California Gold Rush, only a few struck gold but the history and its characters are rich in their own way, even today. Our docent brought many of the people of the past and their stories to life as we walked the streets of Dawson. Interestingly, Dawson remains much the same today as it was at the turn of the century. The streets are rough and unpaved, the sidewalks are still made of wood, many of the buildings are sinking into the permafrost, there is no bridge across the river and electricity only made it up here three years ago (they still maintain the large city generator since the electrical power can be iffy at times). There are miners galore still walking the streets (yes, real ones) and the hillsides and streams are being mined day

and night.

While in Dawson, we tried our hand at gold panning on Bonanza Creek, not far from the site of the original gold strike, visited Jack London’s cabin (an exact replica sits in Jack London Square in Oakland) and learned all about his time here in the Yukon, visited a huge old dredge, saw a funny show in the old Palace Theater and went to the top of Dome Mountain for a panoramic view of the entire area. We also gambled at Diamond Tooth Gertie’s, a casino run by the city of Dawson.

We did have two opportunities to get out on the water again. The first was a long float trip down the Klondike. The serenity of the trip was briefly marred by a sudden storm. The wind came up so strongly that our raft (which was motorized and headed downstream) was actually being pushed upstream while the trees in the forest were falling into the river around us. Somehow we managed to out run the worst of it without even getting wet.

Our second trip took place on the Yukon River with a first nations guide, Tommy, who grew up in Dawson along with his 15 brothers and sisters. He took ten of us out and shared his rich family and clan history with us. Many people here in the north still base much of their survival on what nature can provide. Tommy was no different. He fishes the river still using the age-old method of a fish wheel (his is the only one left on the Yukon). Growing up Tommy’s summers were spent on an island in the middle of the river which housed a fish camp where the family caught and prepared fish for the winter. The highlight of the trip was a stop over at his family camp where Tommy shared more stories, memorabilia, and a traditional serving of fry bread. It was a perfect way to spend our last day in Dawson.