June 12, 2026 Dawson City, Yukon Day #2

This morning the sky was mainly cloudy. There was hardly any wind at 7 a.m. and the temperature was 11°C.

Dawson City’s historical buildings are part of Parks Canada’s Klondike National Historic Sites. Dawson City is one part of Trʼondëk-Klondike, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which has seven other components within the homeland of the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin. As a UNESCO site, Trʼondëk-Klondike documents the Indigenous way of life, in particular the upheaval from 1874 to 1908, prior and during the Klondike Gold Rush.

We walked to Riverwest Bistro for a light breakfast and coffees. We walked over to Ferry Road to watch the vehicle ferry battle the Yukon River current to travel from West Dawson to Dawson City. There is no bridge over the Yukon River so it is by ferry in the spring to fall and ice road in the winter. We proceeded to the Ninth Avenue Trail which runs along the east perimeter of the town for 2.5 km. We walked about 500 meters before deciding there was not enough time to hike it and get back in time for the 10:30 a.m. tour. The morning walk was just over 3.5 kilometres.

On the tour drive along Bonanza Creek Road, our driver, Robert, gave us some history. The Stop sign at Fifth and Front was bilingual English and Hän, the language of the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin people. The rivers were the means of getting around until 1969 when highway construction began. The Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin people have come to the confluence of the Yukon and Klondike Rivers for over 13,000 years to fish and dry salmon for two months in the summer. This was their food supply to last the following winter. Gold is not an earth metal. It has been deposited from meteorite crashes, then over millennia has been ground from the meteorite and moved by water into streams of gold flakes or nuggets. These deposits formed sediment piles under the ancient lakes. The layer containing gold is called the pastry layer. The method of mining in the area is placer. This method uses water under pressure to loosen riverbed sand and gravel, which when put through a sluice or trommel washes away lighter rock and sediment, allowing the much heavier gold to sink to a collection tray. The tray was covered with a metal grate, named ruffles, and a coconut fibre mat in the old days to catch the gold flakes and any nuggets.

Robert explained that the Bonanza Creek Road is not static. Miners are allowed to move the road to mine for gold. The gravel road bed is just dug up and moved a few meters. The road is not too rough which is surprising. The miners only have ming rights, but do not own the land.

When Dawson was still a sleepy settlement the residents decided that they should have rules of good behaviour. They formed the Yukon Order of the Pioneer (YOOP) to do their own policing. Having some law and order already in place in Dawson helped keep the influx of over 40,000 men in line.

In the 1860s to 1900 miners used only shovels, picks and pans to collect gold. The first gold nugget was found in 1896 by George Carmack, and his brothers-in-laws, “Skookum” Jim and “Tagish “Charlie. It started the Klondike Gold Rush a year later. The men had been hunting not prospecting. George being Caucasian, was awarded the Discovery Claim status allowing him to have a double claim. Jim and Charlie each got claims on either side of George. One claim was 500 feet from the creek on both side of the water. They had to go to 40 Mile House to register their claims.

An influx of men started in 1898 for three or four years who were seeking their fortunes until gold was discovered in Nome, Alaska and they moved there. For staked claims along the Bonanza Creek Road, the boundaries are marked with two 4 inch by 4 inches wooden stakes and the person’s name is scribbled on the stake.

With claims abandoned, Joseph "Klondike Joe" Boyle, a local man went to Ottawa to lobby for a change to staking mining rights from claims to concessions. He was backed by wealthy families like the Rothschilds and Guggenheims. With the change to concessions, machines were imported and gold mining became a corporate business. Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation (YCGC) was created in 1923 operating until 1966. Gold was only $20 per ounce in 1930. The fixed price changed to $35 a few decades later. In 1973, Richard Nixon, president of the United States, removed the gold standard so the price of gold could be determined by the free market.

Fredrick Trump, Donald Trump’s grandfather, made his original fortune during the Klondike Gold Rush owning a canteen and restaurant near the Chilkoot Trail, near Bennett, B.C. then moved to Whitehorse and opened the Arctic Restaurant and Hotel. He made a fortune “mining the miners”. In 1901, as liquor, gambling and prostitution laws started to be enforced, he sold his business, returned to Germany a rich man. Later he immigrated to New York City.

The bus drove us 16 km to the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Site, where Canadian Klondike Mining Co. Dredger #4 sits. It was last in operation in 1959. In the early 1990s Park Canada bought it and restored it. It is located on Bonanza Creek. Our driver pointed out examples of sluices and trommels which both separate the gold in the gravel with water.

We arrived at the gigantic Dredger #4 sitting atop its barge. We were introduced to Patricia, a Parks Canada guide who explained the story of the dredger. Attached to a shallow barge the machine could move through the gravel creek bed at a pace of ten feet per hour with its massive chain of 66 buckets, each weighing 2.5 tons. To transport the dredger to the Yukon after its construction in Ontario it cost $475,000 equivalent to over $2 million today.

Only four men operated the machine from the spacious inside - bow decker, oiler, stern decker, wench master. But five men on the shore were needed to pull the cables to advance the machine. It was so noisy that the men inside the dredger were usually deaf by the end of the season. The amount of water moved in 50 minutes to wash the gravel could fill two Olympic sized swimming pools. The dredger had its own electric power plant. Patricia led us onto the dredger to appreciate its size.

After the dredger tour our driver, Robert escorted the group down a 100 meter trail to Bonanza Creek close to the site where the first gold nugget was found. The creek is shallow and only five meters wide. Then we returned to the bus and were dropped off at the hotel.

One final story that Robert told was about the “rankings” of the men who came to mine gold. The name Stampeder was what the men who arrived during the height of the gold rush between 1896 and 1899 were called. The new comers who had not experienced the cold harsh winters were nicknamed Cheechakos. Men who survived their first winter were nicknamed Sourdoughs since they had managed to keep the huts warm even to keep their sourdough starter alive for making bread. Men were called Klondike Kings if they found vast quantities of gold on their claim.

Zelzen was waiting for our return and had a miner’s gold pan filled with gold wrapped Werthers Original candy ready to give people as the descended the bus. The rest of the day was free to do whatever you wanted.

We chose to hike into the forest to Crocus Bluff. We encountered very few insects. Robert had mentioned that our group had planned well, since we were visiting before the insect season got into full swing. The trial to Crocus Bluff had roots scattered throughout but was up to a two metre wide path. Some of the inclines were more than 30 degrees uphill. There were crude wooden stairs in places that made the climb easier. The view from the bluff was of the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin housing and the Yukon and Klondike river confluence, where, yesterday, Jesse had explained some of the area’s past history. We took the other trail of the Crocus Loop back and found an 18 hole Disc Golf Course designed into the forest. Some of the trail inclines were so steep that Claire negotiated a 100 meters slope crab style, bent backwards on her hands and feet, inching her way down to a flatter area. We joined a different section of the Ninth Avenue trail, which is part of the Trans-Canada Trail network. Following it until it crossed a road which joined King Street and led us into town continuing until there was a short light rain shower and we ducked into Klondike Ice Cream. That trek was 5.6 kilometres logging 14,905 steps so far.

For dinner we chose the Aurora Inn Restaurant, just a three minute walk away. The food was excellent and well priced. Larry ordered a cheese burger and fries while Claire ordered Klondike slow cooked pork that came with a mushroom sauce, steamed vegetable and potato salad.

After dinner we walked a few blocks over to Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall, Opened by the Klondike Visitors Association in 1971, it is Canada's oldest casino. We wanted to watch the 8:30 p.m. show. The 30 minute Klondike period style, cancan dancing show, included familiar tunes from turn of the 20th century sung by “Diamond Tooth Gertie”. There were four talented dancers who danced the cancan and other dances, including a tap dancing routine. Before the show we chatted with a couple from New Zealand who worked at Kelowna’s ski hills during the winter and are touring Alberta, the Yukon and Northwest Territories during the summer and plan to work in Kelowna again in the coming winter.

Back in our room, we completed the blog, too late to proof read and post.

Total steps 19,372