Saturday, 11JUL, we
headed east to the USA/Canada border & Dawson City, YT. The road over the border is called “The Top
of the World” highway. The road out of
Chicken, AK, is the Taylor Highway. At
the turn off for Eagle, AK, you leave the Taylor Highway & are then on the
Top of the World until you get to Dawson City.
We have seen many shops selling t-shirts that say “I Survived the Top of
the World Highway”, leading us to believe the Top of the World must be a very
bad road? In our opinion, the Taylor
Highway from Chicken to the Eagle turnoff is much, much, worse!
The Taylor is a very
narrow, dirt road, with no shoulders & is well known for vehicles sliding
off the road in the rain. The Top of the
World in the USA is a beautiful asphalt road to the border; & in Canada it
is needs some maintenance but most if it pretty good sealcoat pavement. This time Dan was able to cross into Canada
without incident. Corrie wasn’t very
comfortable on the entire ride, but she really didn’t like the small free ferry
in Dawson City across the Yukon River! Our
RV, Toad & one other compact car took up one whole side of the ferry!
After finding a RV
park in Dawson City, we washed the Toad & headed back to Dawson City in the
Toad. First stop was the weekly market;
then the Visitor Centre (which also contains information on all the Parks
Canada sites in town). Then Corrie did
some window shopping while Dan went on a photo expedition. Back at the RV Dan had to remove one of the
Toad’s front wheels to remove a rock from the brakes that was causing an
unbelievable squeal.
Sunday morning we woke
up to intermittent, heavy rain – really glad we did not have to drive in it
yesterday on the Taylor Highway! Went
downtown again for a walkabout to check out stores not visited yesterday. Also went back to Visitor Centre to view the
three short films they continuously run.
We had other Parks Canada activities planned, but everything they do in
Dawson City is at additional charges. Each
“program” costs $6.30/person but there are discounts for attending multiple
programs. The costs are not that much,
but we are spoiled by the USA system where you pay a reasonable fee for entry
& the majority of the Ranger programs/activities are included.
After lunch back at
the RV we drove up the Bonanza Creek Road to view Dredge #4; the largest wooden
hull dredge built. Since Dan had already
toured the inside of the Pedro Dredge in Chicken, AK, two days ago, we skipped
the paid tour. Then it was back to
Dawson City with a quick stop at “Claim 33” (open) & Leo’s Corner (closed). Back in Dawson City we took a “drive about”
checking restaurant menus for dinner later that evening.
Info on Dawson City
& the Klondike Gold Rush – What would become Dawson City was a moose grazing
area before gold was discovered. When
the stampeders arrived Dawson City was soon created; & was the biggest city
north of San Francisco & west of Winnipeg.
Word of the gold discovery only reached the outside world when the first
gold bullion was unloaded in Seattle over a year after the sourdoughs found
it. So by the time the stampeders
reached the Klondike, all the land was already claimed. Very soon 4000 stampeders left Dawson City,
not because the gold was gone; but because corporations/investor bought up all
the sourdough claims & began dredge mining.
A dredge with four to ten men could process as much dirt & gravel in
a minute as one man could in 24 hours!
These corporations continued dredge mining into the 60s, & still own
all the claims over hundreds of square miles.
Overall, Dawson City
has done an excellent job of retaining their gold rush heritage/legacy. The streets are still unpaved (which means
your vehicle is always dirty), the sidewalks are still wooden (pressure treated
wood), & the buildings date from the gold rush.
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