We had a reasonably short
drive to get to Whitehorse for our next stop. Whitehorse is the largest city in
Yukon and has plenty of places for shopping so is a great place for us to
refill our cupboards, catch up with laundry and necessary repairs.
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| Canada's Highway 1 ~ The Alaska Highway |
To get to Whitehorse, we
follow Hwy 1, the Alaska Highway from Haines Junction, where we spent last
night. We made a couple of sightseeing
stops, one of which was to see an old bridge.
This old bridge does not meet today’s standards in spite of the
restoration that has been done over the years, but the history lives on.
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| Canyon Creek Bridge |
It was originally built
in 1903 when the gold rush hit the Kluane County and a route across the creek
was needed. It was rebuilt during
construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942 and was described as the most
important bridge built by the US Army Corps so was left in place when a
permanent bridge was built downriver.
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| Hi Country RV Park |
We arrive early afternoon
and set up camp at the Hi Country RV Park, a busy and well equipped park to
stay in. We’d stayed here before and
would have one more visit again before leaving our Northern Adventure.
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| Downtown Whitehorse,Yukon |
This is our second visit
to the city of 28,000 people. Being the
capital, it is a busy center for government offices but also a very busy city
for locals and visitors. We enjoyed our
walk downtown where most of the storefronts take us back to the historical early
days of the city.
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| S.S. Klondike |
A visit to Whitehorse
would not be complete without a tour of the SS Klondike. This sternwheeler was actually the second
Klondike. The first one was used
1921-1936 to take freight from Whitehorse to Dawson City and this one was used
1937 to 1955.
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| Inside the S.S. Klondike |
This sternwheeler was the
largest and could hold 50% more freight than any others and still navigate the
shallow waters of the Yukon River. Once
the highway connected Whitehorse to Dawson City, the SS Klondike was converted
to a cruise ship in 1950, the dining room can be seen past the kitchen. It operated as such for five years, when lack
of interest forced it to shut down.
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| Macbride Museum ~ Whitehorse, Yukon |
The huge copper nugget in
front of the museum was mined in 1905.
It weighs 1175 kg. (2590 lbs) making it Yukon’s largest nugget and
likely the largest in Canadian records.
Through several challenging obstacles over five days, it was moved here
in 1958. It was dedicated to the many
prospectors of White River county who staked claims between 1900-1958.
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| Healing Totem Pole |
All totem poles are story
tellers but this one has a very amazing story to tell. The project included several carvers over a
20 week period. It is 11 metres (36 ft)
high and was created to help former residential school students heal. Each wood chip during its construction was
kept then signed by a former student or family member, each representing a
life. When completed, the chips were
burned and the ashes saved in a box and put inside the totem pole, this represented
sending each child back to their mom.
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| Granite and metal totem poles |
We took a walk along the
Yukon River from the SS Klondike into downtown area which wanders through the
area once called Whiskey Flats. It was
known for the squatters and those who came in droves when the gold rush brought
them and there were no homes for them to stay in. For several years there were hundreds of
cabins, huts and shacks.
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| Tribute to Firefighters in Whitehorse, Yukon |
In 1953 when Whitehorse
became the Yukon capital, new development began. Due to the “unsuitable and unsightly” homes
of Whiskey Flats, some were relocated but many were destroyed without owners
consent. A riverside walk and park now
borders the river where these homes once sat.
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| "Raven Steals the Sun" by Philippe Lablond |
Whitehorse is the city
with the least air pollution in the WORLD according to the Guiness World of Records! That is quite something to be proud of, as is
the Indigenous artwork seen in several places in the city.
