Bonzer Words!: Yukon Gold
Rodney Gascoyne visits gold rush country.
It was the end of the cruising season to Alaska and beyond Labour Day, but Air North, an airline based in Whitehorse, in the Yukon Territory, of North Western Canada, still saw an opportunity—they offered a long weekend at attractive rates to visit the city and area.
I saw their ads and could not resist the flights and accommodation offer at a rate lower than the normal air fares. So I set off on Friday evening on a flight via Edmonton that had us arriving at 10 pm local time, with a courtesy bus to take us to our assigned hotel. In preparing for the weekend I had noticed that Skagway, in Alaska, was just 110 miles down the road from Whitehorse.
Saturday morning I spent my time walking around Whitehorse, understanding and experiencing the atmosphere of this Capital City. The best part was a visit to their information centre and a magnificent 15 minute film about life in the Yukon. It was full of beautiful sights and scenery plus a haunting sound of the many aspects of their lives. Like the prairies I got to know in the 80s, it is all about the openness and friendliness of the people. One of my guides there was a retired volunteer who says she could be one of the last pioneers born, at Five Fingers Rapids, on the banks of the Yukon River, in the wild interior, and her tales were very interesting.
After lunch I rented a car for two days, to last me through to my return flight home on Monday. Apart from seeing more of the local city, my main purpose was to go to Skagway and venture back more than a century in time. Australia and California may have had their own gold rushes in the mid 19th century, but that of the Yukon Gold Rush from 1898 till 1902, surpassed them in many directions.
Three prospectors went for an afternoon walk and happened to spot specks of gold in Rabbit Creek, just south of what became the town of Dawson City. The other story is that the find was made by one of the wives, while doing the laundry! The Creek was later renamed Bonanzer for obvious reasons. This set off the whole adventure for thousands of would-be millionaires from around the world, who scrambled to get there and stake a claim.
To get there, men had to venture into a wilderness that was not yet settled by anyone other than trappers. Many of them arrived late fall or in the winter and had to travel over the Chilkoot Trail that took them over White Pass, at an elevation of over 3000 feet. Many of you must have seen the early photos of a line of men, heavily laden with big backpacks, climbing the snow covered trail up and over the pass (see part of a mural from Whitehorse reliving that image).
If they made it inland they were then faced with travelling the rapids of the Yukon river, that yes, runs North towards Dawson City, and finally joins the Bering Sea on the west coast of Alaska, thousands of miles away. All this in winter temperatures that will freeze anything you choose. Even when on the claim, they needed to build fires just to melt through the permafrost, so they could dig out the hoped-for gold bearing rocks and clays. Finally in the summer months, with melted river water on hand, they could sift the material mined, to see what they had found. Large fortunes were taken out by many miners before companies came with large machinery to scrape the landscape clean. Gold is still found now in smaller quantities.
They came into the Yukon by a route close to the road I travelled to Skagway and, so in a far too easy and comfortable manner, I was retracing their journey. By the way, the scenery and mountains are magnificent and awe-inspiring. A trip to remember for certain.
You can make the journey yourself from the many cruises run for four months of the year, including a spectacular train trip over the White Pass and into the Yukon, just short of Whitehorse. The train starts in Skagway that has many ships each day in season but only supports less than a thousand in the winter. When locals there want to go shopping, their best route is the one I took, and they go to Whitehorse!
© Rodney Gascoyne
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Rodney writes for Bonzer!magazine. Please visit www.bonzer.org.au
