Day 16 – Dawson City

 With the gold rush of 1987 Dawson City boomed into a town of 30,000 people all seeking their fortune in gold! Now adays, Dawson claims about 1,500 year-round residents. It is a town with a unique history that the residents actively work to keep alive. 

You can walk down the roads and see historical buildings; some are disintegrating with age and others have been restored. 

The roads are still dirt and they still use boardwalks to allow pedestrians to walk and keep out of the mud on rainy days. There are some stop signs, but for the most part there is very little traffic so a person can walk across the road when you see something of interest. Or, in my case, when you want to take a photograph from the center of the road you just check to see if any cars are within a block.

You can visit a few different museums to learn more about the colorful history of this interesting little town. Or you can discover information about the First Nations people who have lived on this land for generations. There are restaurants and souvenir shops, as well as, the hardware store where you can still buy nails by the gram or the general store for groceries. The trading post has gold mining tools and indigenous carvings. Then there are the jewelry stores to purchase the gold nuggets that someone else found. There is always a line up on evenings when the Diamond Tooth Gertie’s shows are playing.

After a hard day on the trail, we enjoy stopping into a tavern located in the Westminster Hotel for a pint of Yukon Gold beer. It is a throw back in time, with warped floors, a solid wood bar accented with brass, locals chatting with each other over a game of cribbage, and memorabilia from the bygone days.  If you're lucky, an old guy will walk in, sit down at the old piano and start running his fingers over the ivories belting out songs that have been requested.

This little town with the distinct history is one of our favorites. We may have a bit of bias because Pat's grandparents were here during the Klondike Goldrush around 1900, but that will be another blog.

Cheers!