June 25, 2012 Day 17/60 Dawson City, YT
We got to sleep in again. I love seeing new things but it is really nice to see them in the same place we camped in the night before. It is rough when Rick has so much to do outside to prepare the trailer to move and I have to push the kids along and prepare the inside.
We started our day with a drive up the locals only road to The Dome, a great vista point where locals and visitors celebrate the Summer Solstice by watching the sun set at midnight behind a 6,000 ft. mountain. It is supposed to be just as good a few days before or after the solstice. We are going to take their word for it because none of us wanted to go at midnight.
On the way up, we passed the town cemetery. We didn’t get out as some of us could spend an entire day looking through the history there. You could see most of it from the car and as usual there were no other cars on the road so we slowed way down. There is rumored to be a man buried there who upon his death wanted a guest book placed at his grave for all visitors to sign. We saw very old tombstones made from very old stone and all matching. On the other side of the road, we saw all matching wooden head “stones.” Trees had grown up inside many of the fences around graves. Some of the fences were made of steel water pipes, bed frames, etc. It is yet another example of the resourcefulness of the people in the Klondike.
Once at The Dome, we had a 360 degree view of the area. You could see the tailings along the river valley. You could see most of the town and the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers. It was a wonderful view but I am glad it was not midnight.
From here we headed back to the trailers for some forgotten gold panning equipment and some snacks for the day. As luck would have it, our late start this morning meant we missed the 9:15 tour to Goldbottom Mines. For $45 they drive y out to their active mine, give you a tour (ok, we sort of got this experience on Duncan Creek for free) and then let you pan their tailings (no salting, no guarantee). All this can be yours for $35 per person if you drive yourself out. The next tour was after lunch and we felt it would be to hot then. At this time, we thought we would try for the tour tomorrow. Later, we decide to skip it entirely.
Thirteen kilometers off the main highway, along Bonanza Creek the site of gold discovery first responsible for the Gold Rush in the Klondike) we came to Dredge #4. We took a tour and our guide was very personable and knowledgeable. This incredible beast was used for about 60 years in the Bonanza Creek valley. It swept its way from one side of the valley to the other, dredging many feet above the water line of its floating pond and about 50 below. There were several of them used after the initial Gold Rush period ended. It is impossible to describe how large this dredge is. It had about 60 large iron buckets that scooped up everything in its path and fed it to a huge rotating drum (you can imagine how noisy this thing must be when operating) that kicked out anything bigger than about 1.5 inches. The rest fell below and was put through giant sluice boxes. All the water they needed was piped from over 100 kilometers away. The dredge ran on electricity so they had entire teams of men running wires out the valley. Then there were teams of men responsible for removing everything organic from the front of the dredge and thawing the ground (permafrost is really hard to dig in). The dredge and others like it created the large worm-like mounds of tailings everywhere you look. There was not environmental impact concern during the gold rush and the company went bankrupt in the 1960s. I wonder if that was so they wouldn’t have to ‘put everything back nicely.’ Sadly, there is no funding to keep this dredge open to the public. It will be closed for tours and people will only be able to read about it from plaques on the side of the road. Ironically, they still are doing restoration work on part of the dredge that was approved and budgeted for 5 years ago.
Nature is returning to the Bonanza Creek valley. Trees are growing out of some of the tailings. Moose are said to calf in what is left of the floating pond (now more like a swamp). There are barn and cave swallows and purple martins. We even saw little flowers pushing their way up through the rocks on the tailings.
Just up the creek from the dredge, Dawson City owns Claim #6 and allows the public to pan for gold. You can’t pan anywhere else in the valley as all the claims are currently active. The price of gold has created a second rush. From the creek you can see modern mining going on all around you. The guys from Discovery Channel’s “Gold Rush” are out here somewhere.
We decided to try our luck at panning. It is after noon now and we haven’t eaten, so we all grabbed some snacks and set to work. I helped divert water to our sluice box that Mike and Dominic were setting up. Rick and Luca went for “pay dirt.’ We all helped out at first while Mom cheered and filmed us. It wasn’t long before we attracted the attention of other tourists. Most were nice and asked, “Any luck?” Some said they would try their luck and promised to let us know when they struck gold by yelling “Bonanza!” I guess this the Yukon version or “Eureka!”
One older gentleman stopped by repeatedly to offer advice and explain the process to us. He never asked our level of experience or understanding. He just wanted to tell us how it should be done. Oddly, he was not doing any panning. We all bit our tongues, assured him that we had some idea what we were doing, and thanked him for his advice. Later, he came back to show us the tourist map that indicated we should get our pay dirt from across the road. We thanked him again and quietly suggested under our breath that if the tourism board really wanted us to find the pay dirt indicated on the map they simply should put up one of the helpful roadside signs with an arrow pointing to the gold. Well, after several buckets with no gold we decided to go back into town.
Having skipped lunch we all felt our hard work had earned us an ice cream. We went to the cash only place we had found last night. The prices were not outrageous. It was delicious and refreshing. Luca opted for a slushie, which they made fresh. You could also get mix-ins in your soft serve (like a blizzard). However, the rest of us went for pre-made ice cream. In my opinion, Rick’s Pralines and Cream was better than my Triple Chocolate Brownie.
We went to the visitors’ center (stamp and washrooms) and a few shops. While the rest of us were inside, Judy and Rick saw a woman walking bare-chested down the boardwalk on the main street. Apparently, that is not a problem here. The attitude in the Klondike is pretty much, “Whatever.” Rick said she was not attractive. I wonder how the boys would have dealt with it had then seen her. I wonder how I would have dealt with them dealing with it.
The small First Nations cultural center (another stamp) is one of the nicest we have seen. It had a collection of dolls on a traveling exhibit that were made for the Olympics. Some were made by local artists. There was a good short film on the history of the First Nations people in the area. I stayed awake, barely. The native language is taught to everyone in the schools here (First Nation and settlers) through third grade. There was a docent led tour of the other room. This docent is First Nations and could relate to the artifacts in a very personal way. It was interesting but the boys got cold and the grandparents were waiting outside.
We had to get groceries and the store on the waterfront didn’t have everything so I dropped everyone off to start dinner. Mike and I went to the other grocery in town. It was smaller but had a deli. They didn’t have skim milk but a delivery is expected tomorrow. After a delicious chicken dinner (Rick did a great job with the chicken), I was ready for bed. It was only 7 PM! I didn’t get to go right to sleep. As at home, there are always a million things to do first.
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