Dawson: Life new and old

I've been enjoying myself here, not really wanting to leave, so I haven't. This is the joy of having no agenda, no reservations.

Iconic Dawson buildings on Front Street, by the light of the setting sun

Morning

I woke at 6am to sun streaming into the car. While N0MAD had been in welcome shade at midnight last night, the sun had swung around on the horizon so it was really coming in strongly early in the morning. I was still tired, so turned over and went back to sleep.

At 9am, a thundering noise woke me up again. It was one of the Yukon Air planes taking off (this gives you a clue where I spent the night: in the long-term parking lot of the airport. Don't laugh: it was very quiet until a civilized hour, and no one was walking around, peering at the car and admiring my license plate! Lest you have high expectations of the "long-term parking lot" — it's an open field.

This is the Yukon, after all.

I was checking mail and sending messages when my sister called. It's really nice to be in touch with loved ones, something that I did miss last year while I was in Canada. It may be one of the reasons I keep hanging around towns, rather than really heading off into the bush.

Life: Today

So it was not that interesting a day, perhaps, to you folks reading this. On a long trip like this, "real life" intervenes. I have to pay bills, check mail, I needed ice. I haven't had ice since leaving home almost three weeks ago. What I'd stored in the Yeti lasted for almost 10 days, but I haven't been able to keep milk or other perishables more than a couple of days, especially with the car heating up with the 24-hour sunlight. And it has mostly been sunny, not overcast or rainy!

I'd tried in town, asked at the visitor center without success, but did find a sign for ice at one of the RV parks. So I got a small bag (maybe 5 lbs of cubed ice), and one of the last three bags for $3CA. At least it will last for a few days, and I should be able to get more in Whitehorse. I guess this is mostly for mixed drinks, but I'll take it.

They also had a car wash.

N0MAD gets a shower

This is a necessary part of life out here, with the dirt roads and calcium additive that is both corrosive and cakes on a car like cement. Last year, I had the luxury of having the rain wash it off, but this year's rains haven't been strong enough — or lasted long enough — to make a difference.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you!

One car wash was 2 loonies for 5 minutes; another was 1 loonie for 3 minutes. I chose the latter. So you put your loonie in the slot, and the timer on the compressor starts running. There's a wand with a trigger for a pressure nozzle with a flat spray, and you merrily squeeze the trigger and wash off the car. The transformation is miraculous.

N0MAD is (mostly) clean again.

Life: Yesteryear

I wanted to go to the Dawson Museum, as I had not been last year. It's an imposing building that used to be the Territorial administration building, including the courthouse, and actually it still does act as a circuit courthouse a few times a month.

The Old Territorial Administrative Building now houses the Dawson City Museum

It is chock full of artifacts from the city and surrounding area.

I think this is locomotive #2; loved girl in costume on the right!

I had no sooner paid my money, than I was told that the train shelter tour had just started, and I was welcome to go "catch it." So off I went to look a the railroad engines.

Trains
The Klondike Mines Railway ran from the Bonanza Creek goldfields to Dawson City. It ran for both passengers and freight.

It was also extremely short-lived. First conceived late in 1898 (gold was discovered in 1897, but the "rush" wasn't until 1898), construction didn't begin until 1903. This was partially because the railroad would cross many claims along the route. Compensation for the claim-holders was complicated and costly, and permission took time to arrange.

Engine No. 1

Construction was completed in 1906; the first train ran in November of that year. By this time, the "rush" was over; population in Dawson was decreasing as disillusioned miners left. Demand for service declined, and the railroad eventually shut down its passenger service. It became a freight-only railroad, mainly hauling cordwood for the wood-hungry dredges and steam generators along the creek.

Just six years after it was completed, the trains stopped running in 1912.

The engines were abandoned. Why just abandon them, you may wonder? Shipping costs were prohibitive, and it didn't pay to transport them to where they actually could be used. This is one of the reasons that Dawson is so historically rich — people just discarded everything when they left.

I'm not really a train buff, but these are beautiful engines, and look to be lovingly restored, although only one of them actually can operate. The detailed information about each of the engines went right over my head, so I'm sorry if I can't provide details. But if you are curious here are some links:
- Short article from the Copperbelt Museum (which I hope to visit when I'm in Whitehorse)
- Longer Wikipedia article with lots of details

A miner's cabin, based on the photograph at left.

Galleries
Having gotten my fill of trains, I headed back to the museum galleries. On display are a number of scenes from historic life around Dawson. These were peopled by wax figures whose appearance was based on real (contemporary) residents of Dawson. The commentary on the displays included not only explanations about the scene, but also about the models for the figures, and also the residents who had allowed their hands to be cast for the figures. It was evident that the development of the displays was a community effort!

Bicycles were used in Dawson during the Gold Rush!

There was a miner's cabin, cut open so that you could see inside. It was an original "tiny house!"

There was a saloon display, an apothecary, a canvas tent bank...

And then one of the museum staff came to say that the short black-and-white 1957 documentary "City of Gold" would be showing in a few short minutes.

So off I went to the theater. I was glad I did; the film was excellent. It was narrated by Pierre Berton, who was born and raised in Dawson. Last year, I had read Berton's book "Klondike" in preparation for coming to Alaska and really enjoyed reading it; he's a natural-born story-teller. The film used Berton's memories to introduce the town as it was in the 1950s, then went further back in time to include his recollections of his father's memories — his father was one of the "rushers." It blended live action from the 1950s with photographs from the time of the Klondike Gold Rush. Notably, in order to make the still photographs come to life, the filmmakers panned over the still photos, in a technique we now know as the "Ken Burns effect."

It was fascinating to see the town — which Berton grew up in — during the 1950s. At that time, it was just a town, with kids playing baseball, people having coffee in the sole restaurant, and old men sharing memories on the boardwalks outside the shops. Buildings had not been restored. In fact, Berton said that growing up in the town was growing up with history: the children scampered in and out of the abandoned buildings, playing on the trains and making believe they were sea captains on the beached paddlewheelers.

Girls riding bikes in Dawson, 1906.
After the "rush," Dawson quickly became a city for "ordinary" folk.

Now, of course, the town is a designated "historic complex, so kids nowadays cannot do that. It does provide an interesting take on history, though, and the metamorphosis of a town.

I went back to the galleries, but no sooner had done that when the same staff member said that a "rocker" demonstration would take place outside in a few minutes.

I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get to see the exhibits!

Rocker demonstration
I was interested in this because, while I've read about this, I've never actually seen it done. I should have taken a movie!

The staff member was so quick (and I was so fascinated) that I didn't even get to take a picture.

A bucket of "paydirt" (donated by a nearby mine on French Creek) was dumped into the top of the rocker. Water dipped from a can on a stick was poured into the top, and the rocker was vigorously sloshed back and forth. Large rocks (about 1" and larger) were kept out by the large screen on the top. Smaller rocks and gravel fell through to the "apron" below. The apron is made from canvas, with a couple of large riffles. The vigorous action made larger gravel pop out of the apron and into the sluice below. Heavier bits of gold remained on the apron. Additional water was poured into the rocker, and the rocking was decreased to a more gentle and regular pace. This encouraged the gold flakes to settle to the bottom of the silt in the apron. This is not where the fine dust would accumulate. When there was mostly just fine particles in the apron, this residual, gold-bearing material was put into a gold pan and washed (swirled and dipped and "bathed") to remove the silt and black sand from the gold.

Pouring gold from the smelter

I must admit that it was pretty exciting to see the gold bits in the pan. It really IS THERE.
— Here's a video that shows how a similar model works

GOLD! from the smelter!

After that, we got to see smelting. All the little bits of bold that have been recovered from the rocker had been added to the smelter, and then heated up. Gold melts at about 1100° — as you can see, the crucible is red-hot!! The gold is poured into a mold. It cooled very rapidly, and we all got to hold the raw, now-cold metal. Because this is raw gold, it has impurities in it, so it's not really yellow gold. It had black on the top, and was sort of a rose gold.

I must admit, it was sort of a thrill to hold that slab of gold. Also, we were encouraged to bend it — it's so pure (even given the impurities) that it's actually malleable, almost like copper. One does not do this with gold jewelry!

Back in the galleries
I was beginning to think that I would never get to see all the exhibits, but finally made it through the displays in the north gallery.

One of the displays with native tools and artifacts

The south gallery exhibits were basically a walk through time, starting with the geology of the area. I still marvel at the marked changes to the fluvial patterns when the ice blocked the south-flowing Yukon River (and others, such as the Porcupine). When the ice melted, the rivers reversed direction and started flowing north into the Bering Sea.

Exhibits proceeded to the First Nations people and the coming of the white hunters and trappers, and concluded with the gold rush.

Even though I know the general history, I always learn something when looking at these displays, and enjoy seeing native handwork.

There are subtle differences between areas, too, in color and patterns and manner of construction.

(Just in knotting thread, I learned a new, more reliable way to do this from Fran when she was teaching me beading.)

Beaded moccasins

I'm actually taking even closer attention to examples of beading, since I'll be doing this for real next week. For instance, some beaders do work in straight lines (like the moccasins at left), others use a more curvilinear technique.

And I'd only covered the downstairs exhibits!!

Upstairs
The upstairs exhibits included a series of photographs of children in the town from the museum's archives (the girls on bicycles was from this exhibit).

There was also a small series of displays on toys found in Dawson: tops, marbles, game boards, dolls, tennis rackets and lacrosse sticks.

Another set of displays was on the "ladies" of Dawson: the "soiled doves" who provided much appreciated services to the miners. Where there is gold, there are miners; where there are men with wealth, the women follow. There were occasional crackdowns on prostitution, but for the most part, the women were left to ply their trade without too much interference. At one point, they were moved across the river to West Dawson, but they soon migrated back to the main town. The last brothel, run by "Ruby" Scott, closed in 1961. She donated freely to local charities, which may have contributed to the longevity of her establishment.

Silver: part of the "visual archive"

Also upstairs was access to the "visual archive" — artifacts that the museum retains, but that are not part of the displays for a variety of reasons: they may have multiple examples, or they may become part of rotating exhibits (like the toys, for instance). It's staggering the number of items: typewriters, boxes, bottles, cups, saucers, eggbeaters, picks, shovels, tea kettles, gold pans, eyeglasses — all the flotsam and jetsam of life.

The courtroom, which is used as a courtroom a few days a month, had a marvelous exhibit of "lantern slide" photographs. While I've seen quite a number of photographs from the gold rush now, I had not seen any of these. They were of mushing, skating, horsing around, If you want to see some of the photos, the museum does make them available online, and to order prints:
— Dawson City Museum photo archives

St Paul's Church by the light of the setting sun, 10pm

Back to life today

Now that I had ice, I went shopping for victuals to tide me over for the next few days, until I get back to Whitehorse. Milk! Eggs! Vegetables! Chocolate macaroons! Luxury! I felt like the steamer had just come in.

I went to the picnic tables by the river to make dinner and charge up my devices, since the sun was pretty strong. A couple from Vancouver in a hefty camper asked about the solar array. It does charge the phone quickly: was at 30% and went to about 70% while I was making dinner.

However, with all the writing I've been doing late in the day (after 5pm), the solar array isn't quite able to keep up with the demand, due to the low sun angle. I managed to fully charge the phone, but the computer lagged behind and is only at 50% charge. It's not falling below that, it's just not charging more than that.

I had a nice dinner by the river. My friend with Bella the golden retriever, came by on her nightly walk and gave me some tips about places to go for the night.

Canada Day events in Dawson (in English and French)
LOVE the red and white push pins!

I'll spend the night here, then go on to Mayo and Faro on my way back to Whitehorse. Still not sure where I'm going to spend Canada Day. There are fun events here in Dawson, and also in Whitehorse, although the Whitehorse events seem to be aimed at music, which isn't really my thing. The pancake breakfast (dejeuner de crépes) does sound good, but to be frank, Dawson's sounds like more fun.

ASIDE: Not being fully powered up while heading into the bush has made me nervous, so I'm finishing writing this the next morning in the visitor center, where there is wifi and reliable electricity. It's just often crowded, and you can't always get a plug! This morning I got here early, and, in the good Klondike tradition, staked my claim on an outlet!