Day 22: Dawson City

It rained last night and the night before, so our campground became more like a wet sandlot. Every time Jay and I and the dogs went in and out of the rv we brought in sand, even though we did our best to wipe feet and paws. Luckily, the rain stayed away during the day.

In the morning, we toured Dredge #4, eight stories tall, the largest wood hulled dredge in North America. As we approached the dredge, we saw wave after wave of piles of gravel. We later learned that these were “tailings”, or the gravel that has been dug up and “spit out” by dredging. Our guide was a virtual dredge encyclopedia.

Interesting fact: It took only 4 men to operate the dredge, but 120 to prepare the land before dredging could begin, which took up to five years!

We had “free time” in the afternoon, Jay went shopping, but didn’t buy anything, and I took Sandy for a walk on Dawson’s dike walkway.

Our final Parks Canada tour was of the Commissioner’s Residence. Interpreters enacted various scenes to convey issues of the times. Jay loved the mounted Moose, Elk and Caribou heads in the main hall and a chair made out of three Moose antlers. Despite that the house was rebuilt after a number of fires, it was quite impressive.

In the evening we saw a show at Canada’s first casino, Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall. It’s a “must-see” in Dawson. Actually the singer was quite good and the 4 dancing girls had amazing energy as they did the can-can, splits and cart wheels and flirted with the men in the audience.

We finished the day by sharing dessert at the Aurora Inn: Vanilla ice cream, topped with caramel sauce and cashews, floating in maple whisky. Yummy!