Dawson City

I slept really, really well. It was good to rest after yesterday's stress.

Visitor Center in Dawson

I got up, checked the tire, and it indeed had deflated. I pumped it up again, and went to the visitor center to see about a place they recommended. They said either the RV place (where I'd been getting my air), or the automotive place across the street.

(Let me just say that the visitor center in Dawson has the nicest people. Bilingual (French and English), and sometimes trilingual with German, they treat everyone with courtesy and compassion.)

Cinnamon toast souffle

I also got my "gold ticket" for one of the tours. Since I didn't go on the dredge tour last year, and it normally costs $20CA, I'll do that one, but probably tomorrow.

Tire

Today, the first order of business was to get the leaky tire fixed. I went to the RV place, but, when I asked about fixing a slow leak — for whatever reason — they said they could not take me. "Perhaps they can help you across the street," said the proprietor.

I don't know if it was because I didn't have an RV, or because they didn't want to deal with a slow leak, or what, but, they obviously did not want my business. So I went across the street. Unfortunately, they were booked, then closed for lunch, but the manager said if I got there "right at 1 o'clock" they'd take me then.

So I went to make brunch. On the menu was (old) bread, and using up the last of the eggs. A little cinnamon, a little brown sugar, and you have a delicious, filling hot brunch! It might not look as pretty as sliced bread, but it really doesn't matter!

One o'clock came around pretty quickly, so packed everything up and high-tailed it to the automotive shop. It obviously is a place that locals come. Guys in grimy overalls were talking machine troubles and parts, sharing stories of stripped gears and stuck bolts. Today's coffee was donated by "Lorena;" the pot was empty. There was about every part you could imagine on the shelves: washers and battery nodes; wire, gaskets, washers, filters and fluids... you name it, they probably had it. People must come for miles around to fix things.

N0MAD's tire getting fixed (again)

Good to her word, the manager brusquely took my key, asked, "Which tire?" and told me to sit in the waiting area. Unfortunately, both chairs were taken by locals who looked like they were well into a good story, so I went outside.

Another lady who also had a "soft" tire came outside, and we got to chatting. She was from the UK, down by Stonehenge. She had a dear friend of 20 years here in Dawson whom she was visiting for six weeks. She was camping in the campground across the Yukon, and working (volunteering?) at the arts center, too. We had a pleasant conversation while waiting.

Eventually, the chairs were vacated and we sat indoors, but N0MAD got fixed in pretty short order, so we wished each other well, and I left. I just hope the patch or whatever holds! Perhaps the third time is the charm, as they say!

ASIDE: I also have two windshield chips in the brand new windshield. Most drivers on the Dempster are respectful; they know that it's courtesy to slow down when approaching an oncoming car. They know the consequences. I suspect it is mostly the uninitiated tourist yahoos who do NOT slow down, and go tearing by, spewing rocks behind them like shrapnel. I met a couple of them. These chips should not expand or degenerate into cracks, I hope. Chips were expected; it's part of life up here. As one person said, "Everybody drives with cracked windshields." An exaggeration perhaps, but you do see a lot of them.

The Commissioner's House

I had a bit of time to kill before the tour of the Commissioner's House, so did a bit of writing while waiting. The solar panel is so easy to set up, that it's really a breeze. At least when there is sun!

Parks Canada Tour: The Commissioner's House

I think I may have mentioned it before, but Parks Canada does AMAZING tours here in Dawson. Last year I went on as many as I could, because they were just THAT good. With my Parks pass (which is good this year, too), the tours were unlimited, and I think I went on at least three of them, plus going on the Keno (paddlewheeler). The tour guides were friendly, affable, and knew their material — they answered every question completely, and could expound on almost anything thrown at them.

With Canada 150, Parks Canada has changed the format of tours, so now you get ONE "gold ticket" to be used for any tour, but you have to pay for the others. I'll use my special ticket for the dredge tour, which I did not do last year, and which normally costs $20CA (I think that might include panning for gold). But I did want to see the inside of the Commissioner's House, especially after having been on the tours last year — I knew it would be a treat!

About 20-30 people were on the tour. After gathering on the wide veranda, we all had to put booties on over our shoes, since they want to keep dirt down to a minimum. Many of the artifacts in the house are original.

Commissioner's office

The house was built in 1901. This is after the early days of the Klondike Gold Rush. Gold was discovered in 1896, but word only trickled out after that, so that it was 1897-1898 by the time the stampede happened. The rush, at least for individual miners, petered out within a few years, but there was still a lot of gold in the mountains; it just required bigger machinery to extract it. Thus, the Commissioner was tasked with overseeing the area around Dawson, and getting high-rollers to invest in the dredging, which really was the only cost-effective way of getting the gold out of the placer mines.

Large parlour toward the back of the house (a second parlour in the front of the house is where this photo is taken from)

The house is a grand house, with the Commissioner's office, dining room, parlours (music room?) and sun room downstairs; bedrooms on the second floor, and servants' quarters on the third floor. (Servants included a maid, butler, cook, gardener and assistant gardener.) I'm not sure where the kitchen was, and didn't think to ask, I was so awed by the house in general! It is the first house at the south edge of town, and represented to incoming investors that Dawson — and its gold — were here to stay; that the residents weren't just living in canvas tents and shacks (although many of the miners and other residents WERE living that way).

Dining room. Note the dead animals on the wall!

It had all the refinements of a fine home of the time. Unfortunately, the architect had only been there in the summer, and did not take into consideration the cold of winter. It can get down to -40° here in the winter. With single-pane glass and no insulation, the gardener and assistant gardener were tasked with cutting and stoking the boilers with wood during the winter in order to heat the house. Not an easy task — apparently they went through 500(!!) cords of wood during the winter.

Light detail

The house has been ravaged by fire, and flood, and in the 1950s became the home of some nuns. These Sisters actually preserved many of the furnishings of the house, putting them in storage. The bottom floor has been renovated and restored using many of these furnishings: about 80% of them were original to the house. The remainder are antiques of the time or reproductions.

Commissioner Black and the mountie
serving tea and cakes

It is beautifully done. They are NOT restoring the second floor bedrooms, partially because of <ahem> budget constraints, but also because there are no photographs of the bedrooms, so they don't know how they looked. The bottom floor has been carefully restored so that it looks like it did when the Black family lived there.

The guide gave us facts, but we were treated to short performances by a representative miner (complaining about "big money" coming in); a maid; a bishop who was championing the rights of the "Indians;" an inspector Mountie, and Commissioner Black himself, who berated his maid for not having everything ready for the next "party" (for investors). The scripts were informative, and the actors were GREAT. Such a memorable way to teach history!

(I recognized one of the performers — he'd been the saloonkeeper on one of the tours last year. He's been living in Dawson City for eight years now, and this is his fifth year of working as an "interpreter" for Parks Canada. )

Tea on the veranda. I felt like I should have been dressed up!

After the performances, we were allowed to go in all the rooms and ask questions of the interpreters. Then we all went out for tea and cakes on the veranda. So... Canadian! It was delightful!

The tea was quite tasty, and they sell it on site as the "Commissioner's Special Blend."

After that, I walked around town. I wanted to get my porcupine quills at the Trading Post, and it's always fun to go shopping here.

One aisle in the Trading Post

The Trading Post is a cross between a hardware store, military surplus store, a handcrafts and outdoors emporium, with antiques and special goods thrown in.

You can find furs, hides, wool shirts, camping gear, prospecting gear, backpacking items, tents, axes, plates, jewelry, baskets, gold panning equipment, knives, guns, traps, canoes, handcrafted baskets, kitchen goods, hand cream, carving tools, antique egg beaters, modern egg beaters, paint, thread, beads, needles, patterns, waterproof mackintoshes, thermal underwear. It's an amazing place.

Where else can you get a grizzly bear rug ($4,995), an ulu, hiking sticks, commemorative pins, and mosquito netting by the yard — all under one roof?

I got my porcupine quills, some beads (can't help it, the price was very good, and for very good quality), two feet of mosquito netting and some reflective, insulated boot liners. (Fran had these when we went to Fairbanks in March, and I was jealous as my feet got cold from standing on the snow one morning.)

I was sorely tempted by a "sewing basket" by "Mic Mac" made from cedar (I think). Beautifully made, with decorative work around the edges.  The top fit with the bottom perfectly. Of course, it was totally impractical, as the decorative edges would catch on thread, but it was a fine piece of basketry, and only $25!

I walked around town a bit more, then sat down to write and finish up the entries for the last couple of days.

I'll spend another day here: off to the dredge in the morning, then to the museum and the native arts center for beading in the afternoon. 

Then probably continue south to Faro and Mayo and the Silver Trail 

ASIDE: N0MAD continues to generate interest. As I've been sitting here writing, a number of people have come up to look at the car and the plates. They often ask me about it, where I'm from and what I'm doing. It's a great ice-breaker!

Front Street, Dawson. It almost doesn't look real!

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MAP OF DAWSON: Where I am now. 
Moosehide is the native settlement; West Dawson is serviced by (free) ferry. If you're going to Alaska, you take the ferry and Hwy 9 ("Top of the World" Highway). west and north. I did this last year, but was unable to see much because of weather.