Curiosity got the best of me this afternoon and I decided to use my break to check out the Dawson City Museum. As side note, this was the first time I had to pay admission to a Dawson attraction. The fee is $9 for adults, but I was given the student rate of $7.50. Even at nine bucks, I wouldn’t have squawked!
The museum is housed in the old Territorial Administration Building and contains enough exhibits to occupy an hour or two. It is the ubiquitous museum found in capital cities that discusses the history of the area from prehistoric times to today.
when gazing upon this magnificent structure, remember that in the early 1900s, Dawson was the largest city west of Winnipeg and north of San Francisco, and was the Territorial capital!
“By 1900 most of the rough edges of early Dawson had disappeared.”
descriptions of the routes to the goldfields
Plaque about Percy Dewolfe, ‘The Iron Man of the North’ who for 35 years carried mail between Dawson and Eagle, AK
Percy Dewolfe. There is a dog sled race held in his honour every year.
Plaque supporting my earlier claim of the importance of Dawson in the early 20th century.
When a telegraph wire finally linked Dawson and Lake Bennett, Dawson had contact with the outside world and the newspaper industry boomed.
I’ve written before about the British Bank of North America and how it started in a tent. This is what the tent looked like. 🙂
the money sent to fund the bank was stamped with DAWSON or YUKON to identify it in case of a hold up
a couple of panels about the geological history of Dawson, which neglects to mention how man and his dredges created the landscape we see today
the North West Mounted Police kept law and order in Dawson; there was very little violent crime
description of placer mining, as opposed to the type of mining done in Val D’or, QC (my first stop on my RVing journey)
🙂
interpreters demonstrating a ‘rocker box’
$20 worth of gold!
this was my favourite part of the museum
plaque discussing how museums often only display the best stuff
rows and rows of artefacts, awesome
there was a large exhibit about prostitution in Dawson
entrance to the courtroom
the courtroom is still used every few months when the circuit judge comes
plaque about the history of the Territorial Administration Building and its architectural style (typical of the era)
My trip to the museum answered one of the most burning questions I have been pondering about placer mining: why were shafts dug in the winter when the ground had to be thawed. Surely, that was a lot of work! The answer is that by digging in the winter, the miners didn’t need to build supports for the shafts.
The Dawson City Museum is a respectable institution that offers good value for the admission charge. It sums up most of the other attractions and is probably the one thing you should see if you only have an afternoon in Dawson. But, oh, what a shame that would be. 🙂
I still have quite a few attractions left to see, but am glad that I have now nailed down all the big ones!