Page 102 - Vacation Country Travel Guide

TOP OF THE WORLD contact the Dawson City Museum at 867-993-529,
info@dawsonmuseum.ca or www.dawsonmuseum.
ca. A collection of historic fire fighting equipment is
on display at the Volunteer Fire Fighter’s Museum
Highways 9 & 5 to Chicken, Alaska & Beyond located at the Fire Hall on Front Street and Duke.
Jack London’s original log cabin was located
on the North Fork of Henderson Creek, 120 km
south of Dawson City. London entered the Yukon
See Video in September of 1897 as a 21-year old prospector
looking for gold. While he didn’t strike it rich, he later
turned his Klondike adventures into fortune with his
legendary short stories and books. London’s cabin was
abandoned after the gold rush. It was rediscovered by
trappers in 1936 who found his signature on the back
wall, and is now an interpretive centre featuring live
presentations, located near the Robert Service cabin.
Robert Service became famous around the world
for his poetry about Yukon gold miners, with works
like ‘The Shooting of Dan McGrew’ and ‘The
Cremation of Sam McGee.’ When his 1907 book The
Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses made Service a
wealthy man, he was able to quit his job and travel
to France. Service worked for the Canadian Bank of
Commerce and lived in a log cabin on 8th Avenue in
Dawson City, which Parks Canada has maintained as
a tourist attraction. Following a recitation of Service’s
poetry on the front lawn, visitors can view Service’s
home through the windows and front door.
Location: Yukon Highway 9 from Dawson City to the Alaska border, where it becomes Diamond Tooth Gertie’s is Canada’s oldest
Highway 5 to the Alaskan towns of Chicken, Tetlin Junction and Tok. casino and offers a unique entertainment experience,
including three different Can-Can shows nightly,
The Top of the World Highway commences outside Dawson City as Yukon Hwy 9 and is a full bar service, food concession, slot machines,
seasonally maintained gravel road open in the summer only. From Dawson, cross the Yukon River blackjack tables, roulette wheels and more. The
by government ferry and drive through mountains and valleys until you reach the Yukon/Alaska building was built in 1901 by the Arctic Brotherhood,
border. From there the road becomes Taylor Highway 5 and leads through the small community of a fraternal organization dedicated to improving social
Chicken, Alaska and on into Tetlin Junction, nestled at the fork of the Taylor and Alaska Highways conditions in Dawson City and other northern mining
approximately 13 miles east of Tok, Alaska. communities. Over the years, the building was the
It’s a perfect circle tour—from Whitehorse to Dawson, over the Top of the World/ Taylor Highway center of Dawson’s most important social gatherings.
through Chicken to Tetlin Junction, southeast along the Alaska Highway, past the magnificent St. After the city obtained title in 1951, it operated as
Elias Mountains, returning to Whitehorse. Open to summer traffic only. a community hall until 1971, when the Klondike
The government ferry at Dawson City crosses the Yukon River free of charge. It shuts down Visitors Association transformed it into Diamond
briefly for shift change, refueling and servicing, otherwise operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall, named after Gertie
from approximately May 20th to mid-October. Long vehicles with low clearance may experience Lovejoy, one of Dawson’s most famous dance-hall
difficulties; for more information call (406) 667-5644. queens of the gold rush era. She got her nickname
from having a diamond inserted between her two
front teeth.
The Palace Grand Theatre was opened in gala
style July 1899 by Arizona Charlie Meadows, a Wild
West showman who came to Dawson City during
the Klondike Gold Rush. Structurally a combination
of luxurious European opera house and boomtown
dance hall, it is one of the most magnificent theatres
ever built. The Palace Grand played host to a variety
of entertainment, from wild west shows to opera, and
when the show got slow ‘Arizona’ himself would get
on stage and perform shooting tricks for the audience.
The building was saved from destruction by the
Klondike Visitor’s Association in 1959, then donated
to the National Historic Parks branch of the Canadian
government, who restored the theatre as a National
Historic Site in the early 1960s. Summer tours are
offered daily.
The Klondike Spirit paddle wheeler can provide
a leisurely, history-filled Yukon River cruise in the
Dawson area or a relaxing setting for a wedding or
other special event in unsurpassed, graceful style.
One of about two dozen gold dredges that worked
the Klondike gold fields, the No. 4 Dredge is the
largest wooden hull, bucket-line dredge in North
See Video America. Ten miles from downtown Dawson, it rests
alongside Bonanza Creek on Claim No. 17 (below
Discovery Claim), where it ceased operations in 1959.
Built in 1913, the giant dredge is now a National
Historic Site. Parks Canada offers daily tours which
take visitors inside the huge machine.
As Dawson is only 159 miles south of the Arctic
Circle, it has almost continuous daylight for the
Dawson Ferry over the Yukon River months of June and July. A high point of any trip
photo by: to Dawson must include a visit at midnight to the
VC Travel Guide Midnight Dome from which a panoramic view of
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