Dawson City

Placer mine tailings

Yukon River again

How many additions can you put on one building?

1901 Catholic Church

Part of downtown

Looking towards town from the river banks

Dirt roads in town!

One of the last river boats used before the road was built.

Notice the satelite dish!

Where the work storefront comes from.  The building is made from logs, but they used planed wood for the front only.

             What permafrost does to buildings!  These three buildings were built in the early 1900s and have been left as a demonstration of permafrost effects.



We traveled to Dawson City today.  Before we arrived, we entered a valley that for at least ten miles long and a half mile wide was nothing but placer mine tailings.  In some places coming into town, people had flattened the piles and started building homes on them.  When we got to the RV park we are staying in, I noticed a sign above the office/store that says, "We support placer mining".  Maybe I am wrong, but I assume when you have to post a position on an issue, the issue is controversial.  While we were driving, we saw a couple of wolves cross the road ahead of us.

We had been told in Whitehorse that Dawson City was maintained in a western motiff and I assumed that it was like Winthrop, WA where all the buildings are made to look western, but aren't really.  Wrong!  Most of the buildings in Dawson City are truly old.  The highway into town is paved, but the city streets are not.  There are no sidewalks, but there are boardwalks on every street, usually on both sides.  As we were walking, we noticed some workmen building up some posts for a new building.  When Mike saw a similar structure under a building, he mentioned that they must be getting ready to move the building.  We talked with one of the men who said that all of the buildings were made on the post structures so that they could be leveled every few years.  He explained that the permafrost movement breaks concrete foundations and that the ground shifts so much that every building has to be adjusted.  We realized that is why there are no sidewalks, and speculated that the city probably could not afford to continually repair its streets.

We went to a fabulous museum on the gold rush and lives of the participants.  I did not realize that "paydirt" comes from mining.  The old miners had to thaw the ground to dig it up and did most of the thawing with wood fires.  Because of the frost, they did not need reinforcement structures on their tunnels and pits during the winter and did most of the digging then.  They would stack up the gravel and dirt they dug to pan in the Spring and Summer.  They called these piles "paydirt".  Of course the town had many prostitutes, but also had women running roadhouses.  The museum had a demonstration roadhouse in a tent as most of them were.  Two young women were dressed in period costumes and offered us sourdough bread and tea served in the old metal dishes. They offered to do our laundry and mending and said that it was OK if we only had our underclothes washed every two months.  They were used to it.  One even wrote up an agreement with pen and ink, to grub steak Mike so that he could buy his claim permit and register his claim.  Later these same women performed a demonstration of using a gold pan and rocker box.  And they found some gold!  They get the paydirt from a local miner.  Gold mining is still quite active up here, but is mostly done by large machines.  There are a few old claims that are being mined by hand.

Tonight we are passing up Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall and the can-can girls.  Instead we are relaxing and watching a movie. 

I find that I have been grossly misled by children's stories of foxes.  I believed that all foxes had red fur.  Wrong again!  While driving today, we saw a totally black fox, and then as I have been typing away, a brown and black fox walked by outside my window. 

I am constantly impressed with how the Canadians include the First Nations people (native Americans) in just about all history.  In the States I am used to all history involving Native Americans being told and presented separately.  In Canada, the role of the natives is included in everything.  I get more of a feeling of a relationship between natives and the white interlopers here than I do in the States.  And, it isn't all presented with the whites being the goodguys.

Tomorrow, we cross the Yukon on a small ferry and head down the "Top of the World Highway".  It is largely paved, but we do have an approximately 80 mile gravel section to go over.  We will take a few days and be out of touch during that time.  Don't worry about us - we are just off sleeping with the bears!

Mike is still working hard!