It was a late might/early morning as we pretended it was the solstice. But that will wait for a separate special post.
We snagged a couple of noon spots for the Parks Canada walking history tour of Dawson City. It was absolutely stunning for two people who love old buildings. Plus, we had access to the inside of the 3 buildings not open to the public. I loved the bright colours of all the buildings and the style. There are so many that have been restored to the “frontier style.” It’s quite impressive the amount of buildings that have been restored. I do wish they had signs on all the buildings similar to Charlottetown in Prince Edward Island so that the background is readily available.
There are a few that are currently being worked on. Which is awesome, but I can’t even imagine what the price would be with this work. The logistics of it would be quite daunting but not near as much as it would have been in 1899.
Of course, there are some that are in seriously bad shape! Apparently, most of the owners are waiting for Parks Canada to buy them out, which is unlikely to happen. There are some that are so bad we wouldn’t touch them with a ten foot pole!
The other area that needs some restoration work is the cemetery. Well, really, it’s 6 cemeteries side by side. The only one in any sort of decent shape was the RCMP one. We meandered through several sections and even managed to find the very first burial in 1889 (corected from my original1989), which was that of a young man who succumbed to typhoid fever.
The afternoon outing was a tour of dredge #4, another Parks Canada sight. This was very up The Engineer’s alley, but even I found it interesting. Gobsmacking, actually. The sheer size of it and the logistics of just building this enormous machine were amazing. It remains the biggest dredge machine ever built in North America.
We then braved the thunderstorm and did a walk around the interpretive area around Bonanza Creek, where the initial gold rush claims were staked. I may do a separate post on gold mining as well.
The early part of the evening was spent at a very tourist location. Diamond Gertie’s Dance Hall. The first show was very energetic and well done but at this point I was feeling very unenergetic and totally done.
BUT here I am at 11:30, watching the sun disappear into the clouds but without the spectacular colours of yesterday. And now I really must go to sleep…
Bernie
Ps I also want to post about the Indigenous of this region who’s land the gold was found on.
Equipoise Life 
Bernie, this sounds like a really fascinating adventure!
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It was definitely worth every penny. The landscape is stellar, and we always enjoy traveling together.
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Your sunset at 11:30 over the purple flowers looks amazing! Those buildings look worse for wear but interesting in their history. And wow, that dredge–it’s huge! Looks like wonderful weather–you’re wearing a sleeveless blouse 🙂
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The weather in Dawson was better than we expected. So yes, shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt were in order. The sunsets…sublime. Love the history of those buildings and the dredge. Fascinating what they accomplished in the literal middle of nowhere in 1898/1899!
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You might as well take advantage of the nice weather while you can. We did the historic downtown tour and the tour of dredge #6 as well. They were fantastic. You could spend a whole week in Dawson City doing all the various tours by Parks Canada.
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Yes, the Parks Canada tours conflict time wise, and if you want to do any hiking, then several days would be needed. I really wanted to do the Robert Service cabin. As to the weather, we actually were a lot luckier than the forecast called for.
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It was too bad that many of the tours overlapped as there were a few others that we would have liked to take too but didn’t have enough time.
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I also wish that they had info plaques by the buildings and indeed I am going to write to them to suggest that. That way, if you at least miss a tour, you have some info.
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Bernie, what was the date of the oldest grave? Your typing fingers must have fallen into habit with that “19.”
I’m really enjoying this armchair adventure and eagerly anticipating the posts to come!
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LOL. I changed the grave date but didn’t reply to your comment. I got so behind and had limited wifi as writing the posts and doing the photos takes the evening time up.
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