Whitehorse, Yukon

 Whitehorse is Yukon's biggest "city" at a population of around 26K and is also the capitol.

We roll into Whitehorse about mid day and find another beautiful day in store for us to wander the streets and get the layout of the town before settling down at the Hi Country RV Park. Whitehorse got it's name for the infamous Whitehorse rapids, a major obstacle for the Gold Stampeders floating down the Yukon River to the Klondike gold fields.  The miners thought these rapids resembled a stampeding herd of white horse with their manes flying.  It's been told that many would-be miners lost their lives running these rapids in their flimsily built and overloaded log rafts/boats. Today the rapids have been flooded due the building of a hydro-electric dam to power the city.

Entering Whitehorse

Early photo of a successful run of Whitehorse rapid

Walking around Whitehorse we find many tributes and references to the miners who brought the city into being. We are surprised to learn that gold wasn't the only metal mined in the area.

Statue commemorating the miners

The largest copper "nugget" ever found in the region

Close up of copper nugget

We quickly find the Informational Center along the lovely river walk. We notice many pamphlets are in German as well as English.  After meeting many Germans in the Yukon, we learn that Condor Airlines runs direct flights of airbuses from Hamburg Germany to Whitehorse. No wonder! Apparently Germans love the wilderness and sparse population. As one we met explained to us, here in the Yukon you can drive 200 miles and be lucky to find a gas station, while in Germany he'd be in Spain in 200 miles.

River walk along the Yukon

Information Center

Tribute to the native tribes

We decide to explore the MacBride Museum of Yukon History. It's inconceivable to us in our comfy Navion the hardships the early miners and pioneers suffered. We especially get a kick out of the Sourdough Thermometers consisting of different liquids in bottles, each freezing at different temperatures - anywhere from -40 to -75 degrees centigrade. Brrrr... glad we're just here in summer.

We also learn the early gold rushers were mostly after placer gold - the kind found in nuggets and gold dust along streams and rivers. Apparently there's still gold in the Yukon, but it's "hard rock" which has to be dug out in more elaborate mining operations especially to break through the permafrost.

Now that's a BEAR! He's got to be over 8' tall

Geeze - can't fathom Yukon winters in a canvas tent

Fossiliferous limestone

Big chunk of "hard rock" gold (veined quartz)

First locomotive over the White Pass & Yukon Railroad

We walk back along the river to see the SS (Steam Ship) Klondike - a wonderfully restored paddle-wheel riverboat.

Old docks along the Yukon River

Yukoners' sense of humor painted transformer

The SS Klondike

Once the mines got more established, shallow drafted riverboats were used in the summers (dog sleds in the winter) to ship supplies down river to Dawson and bring more refined gold back to Whitehorse and over the White Pass Railroad to be shipped out at Skagway.

Examples of cargo to go down river

more cargo in burlap bags.

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But the most important cargo going either up or downriver was wood as the steamer used 2-3 cords an hour to move forward.

Wood for

the hungry boiler.

As the Yukon became more civilized, the riverboats started to carry passengers as well. First class passengers were able to travel in comfort.

Observational deck

1st class cabin

dinning room.

Still the journey wasn't without it's perils, such as Five Finger Rapids where the ships had to be cabled up river between the dangerous narrow passage.

Lifeboats

Buckets ready for fighting fires

Anchor

Wheel room

Paddle wheel

Before we leave town, we stop at the Beringia Interpretive Center. Beringia is a lost continent of sorts that formed during several of the past Ice Ages (17 of them to be more exact) when ocean levels fell and the land bridge between Siberia and Alaska was exposed. Due to the surrounding mountains, this area was kept ice free and supported vast plains of nutritious grasses to feed the mega mammals that flourished there.

Wow - Wooly Mammoths were BIG

Ride'm Bucky the Giant Beaver

These see these well packed motorcycles in the parking lot

Entry to Beringia Center

Now that's a BIG Mammoth

Map of how Beringia covered the norther plains

The Center also covers the first peoples to migrate into these lands from Siberia.

Crow creating the lands

Wonderfully carved wood wall panel

Although we don't actually go inside the Transportation Museum next door, we do check out the "World's Largest Weather Vane" made from a DC-3... and yes it does move when the wind blows.