Tuesday was our first official fly out day since we arrived on Saturday. Dave was the flight lead to Dawson City. The flight there was about 2 hours, through some rain and low visibility, about 3 hours on the ground in the rain and then a 2 hour flight back again.
Dawson City - note the wide dirt roads. It was pretty muddy in the rain.
Dawson city was the heart of the Klondike gold rush in 1896 and was referred to as the Paris of the North. Over 30,000 people came to Dawson City to stake their claim on the surrounding creeks, with names like Bonanza, Eldorado and Last Chance.
It was wet and we didn't have a lot of time on the ground, so here are a few quick highlights:
Robert Service Cabin - Robert Service was the bard of the Yukon. A bank clerk and a poet, he did not move to the Yukon from England and Vancouver until his late twenties/early thirties. But because of his most famous poems, The Cremation of Sam McGee and The Shooting of Dan McGrew people often mistake him for a hard bitten Klondike prospector. His arrival in the Yukon was 6 years after the gold rush.
Straight's Auction House and Second Hand Store. Built in 1901, groceries, hardware, tobacco, furniture, clothing, guns and ammunition were sold here. But what made us laugh, was that in the walking tour guide it said, "In 1998, it was sold to a Yukon businessman who continues to stabilize and maintain this well-known building." Take a look at the photo below. Does it look like a stabilized and maintain building?
Modern Musher meets Fortymile Man at the Dawson City Museum. Look at the difference in gear etc.
Before we left we had lunch at Sourdough Joe's.
If we had had more time we would have taken a tour out to Dredge No 4. It's on the list for next time