June 6, 2017
Dawson City temps: 22/4 C
Breakfast time slots at Juliette’s let us sleep a little later than usual after the prior busy day and late night.
We enjoyed the Parks Canada tours so much the day before, we decided to stick with success. A Behind the Scenes tour took us into the partially restored Yukon newspaper and press building and a warehouse of preserved artifacts awaiting restoration. In the afternoon, a guided tour of the Commissioner’s residence gave us glimpses into the past with three very well done dramatized, period vignettes highlighting the challenges of running a large upper class household while governing a rough and tumble gold mining town.
 |
| The Commissioner's Residence © Dan Silas 2017 |
 |
| One of three historical vignette's presented inside the Commissioner's Residence. Here a local women from the church is pleading with the Commissioner to react to the debauchery of certain members of the mining population. © Dan Silas 2017 |
An extremely well done permanent exhibit highlighted the history of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation in the region, and the story of their displacement which coincided with European settlement and the gold rush in the area. A temporary and very moving exhibit about Indian Residential Schools shared the stories of this tragically imposed attempt at assimilation into white culture, a collaboration of both church and state. The Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre is a must visit destination in Dawson City.
 |
| Just one of several moving exhibits depicting the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in First Nations' people's experience with residential schools. © Dan Silas 2017 |
At KIAC the gracious executive director, Karen, whom we’d previously met at dinner the night before, give us a tour of the facility and the current exhibit, Eyes Water Fire, by Tomoyao Ihayo. Thank you, Karen, for making time for us in the midst of planning the opening the next day for a printmaking exhibit and event.
As it happened, an air show was scheduled for the afternoon. We were told it was Dawson’s first ever air show intended to commemorate the role of aviation in the North, as well as Canada’s 150th year since confederation (Canada Day is actually on July 1). Its start time was delayed by several hours, and as a result we managed to catch the last of it, as it overlapped our tour of the Commissioner’s House. I do hope that Canada Day celebrations in Dawson on July 1 acknowledged the thousands of years original peoples lived here before Europeans and bush planes arrived on the scene.
A highlight for me was the Bonanza to Hunker Creek loop road just outside of Dawson City. This is where you’ll find the famous Dredge #4, yet another restored Parks Canada site explaining how gold mining moved from panning to mass production. We stopped and poked around a bit, but my main interest was further up the road, past the off-grid independent gold mines and up to King Solomon’s Dome, with an elevation just above the tree line. The views from up here were nothing short of stunning.
 |
| View from the top of King Solomon's Dome. Not sure about the story behind the grave marker. © Dan Silas 2017 |
 |
| View from the top of King Solomon's Dome. © Dan Silas 2017 |
Back in Dawson, we tried Belinda’s Dining Room at the Westmark Hotel at someone’s recommendation. This was our most mediocre dining experience of the entire Yukon trip. It clearly catered to the bus tour crowd. I did appreciate the waiter’s recommendation of Bonanza Brown by Yukon Brewing, a nice smooth dark beer I wish I could get in Manitoba.
 |
| Street scene in Dawson City, with Moosehide Slide in the background. © Dan Silas 2017 |
After a short driving tour of a few unexplored corners of Dawson City, we turned in for an early evening and a good night’s rest before hitting the road back to Whitehorse the next day. We packed a lot into a short three day stay in Dawson City. Every minute was worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment