July 21, 2022
Today we have branched off the Alaska Highway and started up the Klondike Highway to Dawson City. The Klondike Highway roughly follows the route that the riverboats took from Whitehorse to Dawson City. Those riverboats brought ore from the gold mines and silver mines upstream to Whitehorse, where the railway was, and they supplied the towns with provisions on the way downstream to Dawson City.
We camped overnight at the Moose Creek Campground, after picking up a couple of the famous giant cinnamon buns in Stewart Crossing.
July 22, 2022
The next day we continued past the Tintina Trench to Dawson City.
We explored downtown Dawson City which still has an early 1900’s look to it. We had fish and chips on Front Street for lunch. Then we explored an indigenous cultural center. After that we went and checked out an old gold dredge. It seems that corporate gold mining made plenty of money but very few of the gold stampeders made anything, most of them losing what was a fortune at the time. One guy, Sourdough Joe (Joe Ladue), anticipated the gold rush and made a fortune selling land in Dawson, returning to New York City to marry his childhood sweetheart.
July 23, 2022
The next day we visited the site of the discovery claim that led to the Klondike gold rush. We also checked out the Dome viewpoint high above the town.
Cheers, Chris
