Finishing Up Dawson City

July 30, 2009
Dawson City, YT

In the hopes that I'd get some better pictures, I headed up to a closer overlook, but the smoke was still interfering with the view. Not to be deterred, I did get a few shots of some interesting plants, then headed back into town to visit the Dawson City Museum. This museum presented several interesting themes, starting with the ice age forces that shaped the land, depicting the First Nations people that first inhabited the area, and carrying forward to the gold rush era with a lot of old photographs and memorabilia. There was also a separate building housing some of the railroad equipment used in the local area to haul supplies and support the commercial mining operations that existed from the early 1900s through the 1960s.

In the afternoon, I tagged along with Bob and Rod as they made a trip to the "sternwheeler graveyard" on the other side of the Yukon River. We took the ferry across the river and drove through the provincial campground to get as close as possible, then walked along the river bank for the rest of the way, about ¼ mile. There are four hulks up in the woods along the river, the remains of several boats that were hauled out and left to decay after river travel went out of favor after railroads and roads were built. The ravages of time and tide (well, in this case, floods) have definitely taken their toll, and it won't be too many more years until there's essentially nothing left. We got our photos and headed back on the ferry, ready to call it a day.

Click here for pictures.