Saturday, August 27, 2005
07/30/05 Friday through 08/01/05 Monday - Whitehorse to Dawson City
07/30/05 Saturday through Monday 08/01/05
We drove 337 miles today, from Whitehorse to Dawson City, YT. This is the only 300+ miles day we have on the trip. Our drive buddies were Larry and Marty Haber. They are from Fort
Meyers, FL. Marty drove all the way. Mom says she drives all the time She is the only woman on the caravan who does all the driving. I’m not sure whether Larry has a physical problem that keeps him from driving or if she just won’t let him drive. She is kind of a grouchy woman. I think she used to be a nurse, so I’m really surprised that her people skills are not better.
We had a lot of rain again today. Thank goodness it stopped before we got here to set up. We got a pretty nice site in the park, but I could not get their free Y-FI to work on our computer. Mom and I went out and walked about the town of Dawson City. Dawson City is named after the same man as Dawson Creek is. He was an engineer who did something outstanding for the country, not just mining, but I can’t remember what.
Dawson City is the site of the Yukon gold strike. It is still a mining area. In fact Mom and I ate at a hotel that was having a benefit for the miners Assoc. It was kind of a run down place and we would not go there often. The town is very old and quaint. It looks like some of the buildings have been here for the duration. It even has dirt streets and wooden sidewalks. Tomorrow morning we are going to a gold “dredge”, whatever that is. We will see how it works and then see what they do with the rocks to try to separate ore. It should be interesting.
Aside from being the longest trip we will take on the caravan, there is not much of note. We did stop at the Braeburn Lodge for a snack. They had cinnamon rolls that were the size of a plate, and about three inches thick. We bought one and have eaten off it twice today and it is not a third gone. We saw a neat place on the Yukon River where there were rapids. Marty, the lady with us was telling us about something she had learned yesterday in a museum in Whitehorse. When steamboats ran on the rivers they had to tie ropes to them and tie them to the bank. They then let the current swing the boats on the ropes to work them through the rocks of the rapids. We stopped and had lunch at the Moose Creek Lodge. They had a big metal statue of a mosquito out front. This area is notorious for it’s misquotes. I have seen little knives on sale for skinning misquotes, complete with a pattern to use to make you a coat from the skins. They kind of joke about it, but if you are outside for long it isn’t funny.
Mom didn’t make a lot of pictures today, but we are going to be here Sunday and Monday so we will have time to see the area a little. There is a lot of gold rush history here.
On Sunday we went, as a group, out to Gold Dredge Number Four. I didn’t know what a dredge was. Actually it is a method of mining. It is the first mechanized mining method used in the Klondike. I believe our guide said that in all there were twenty-six dredges used in the Yukon strike. It allowed the recovery of gold much less labor intensive. It also allowed the recovery of gold below the bedrock level. Placer mining where the shafts and tunnels were dug only went down to bedrock. The dredge is a massive piece of machinery. When we saw it Mary said it looks like a ship. In effect, it is a ship. It came to the site in pieces, shipped by rail to Whitehorse and by paddle wheeler on the lakes and rivers to Dawson City.
It was assembled and then dikes were put up around it to create a pond. Water was put into the pond until the 300-ton machine floated. It was the anchored and began to dig. It looks like a huge trencher The digging arm has 64 buckets which dug gravel and hauled it into a hopper, then the gravel was washed and dumped into a big sieve like thing which started with small holes at the top and ended up with holes about and inch and a half ate the end. The gravel was rolled through this and the rocks bigger than an inch and a half went out the back into the tail pole. The separated gravel went into sluice boxes and was washed down. The majority of the gold was caught in the mats in the first six feet of the sluice. Periodically, the mats were removed and stored in a safe until the guys came from the company office to get it. They had a guy on the fore deck panning samples of the gravel being brought aboard. When it stopped showing gold, they rotated the dredge on its anchor and started a new dig. The rotation was in four-foot increments until it reached 180 degrees. At this point the dredge anchor was lifted and it pulled itself forward to the next dig. The vast amounts of water used for washing the gold was dumped into a catch basin and the silt was allowed to settle out of it then it was pumped back into the dredge pond and recycled.
The crews at these dredges numbered a few over a hundred men. It only took four men to run the dredge. The others were support teams who prepared the area where they were to be digging as the machine pulled itself along. The season only allowed them to work from about May until October. They could not work when the temperature was 40 below or colder. This wasn’t because of concern for the men, but because the iron of the machine would break at that temperature.
I think that Number Four was one of the richest producers of the dredges. It was located on Rabbit Creek that was re-named Bonanza Creek because of the amount of gold taken from the strike.
When we returned from the dredge tour, we had some lunch and Mary went out to see the town. She spent the afternoon looking, shopping and taking pictures. I stayed at the house because we had to have rock-chips repaired on windshields. We had tow on the coach and two on the car. I was really dumb, because we bought a tow-car shield and I didn’t have it on. The roads had been so good that I was lulled into a false sense of security. For the first time since we left Dawson Creek, we got off of the Alaska Highway. We left Whitehorse and only drove about 14 miles on the Alaska Hwy before we turned onto Yukon Hwy 2. The is the stretch of road where we got hit by rocks. They had done a lot of resurfacing and covered the pavement with pea-gravel. Cars we were meeting threw the rocks up. About another 150 miles and we get back on the Alaska Highway for another while.
On Monday it rained for about half the day. It also rained a lot Sunday night, so it was pretty muddy. We had planned to go out to one of the strikes that is active and pan for gold. They charge a fee and give you a pan and some boots. They even give you a stool to set on so you don’t hurt your knees and b back. I guess they get a lot of old folks. Since the weather was so bad until mid-afternoon, we just went out and rode our bikes and look at the town. Our staff cooked supper for us. We had salad and red beans and rice with smoked sausage in it. They cooked us a nice breakfast yesterday morning.
Tomorrow we cross the border into Alaska!!!
We drove 337 miles today, from Whitehorse to Dawson City, YT. This is the only 300+ miles day we have on the trip. Our drive buddies were Larry and Marty Haber. They are from Fort
Meyers, FL. Marty drove all the way. Mom says she drives all the time She is the only woman on the caravan who does all the driving. I’m not sure whether Larry has a physical problem that keeps him from driving or if she just won’t let him drive. She is kind of a grouchy woman. I think she used to be a nurse, so I’m really surprised that her people skills are not better.We had a lot of rain again today. Thank goodness it stopped before we got here to set up. We got a pretty nice site in the park, but I could not get their free Y-FI to work on our computer. Mom and I went out and walked about the town of Dawson City. Dawson City is named after the same man as Dawson Creek is. He was an engineer who did something outstanding for the country, not just mining, but I can’t remember what.
Dawson City is the site of the Yukon gold strike. It is still a mining area. In fact Mom and I ate at a hotel that was having a benefit for the miners Assoc. It was kind of a run down place and we would not go there often. The town is very old and quaint. It looks like some of the buildings have been here for the duration. It even has dirt streets and wooden sidewalks. Tomorrow morning we are going to a gold “dredge”, whatever that is. We will see how it works and then see what they do with the rocks to try to separate ore. It should be interesting.
Aside from being the longest trip we will take on the caravan, there is not much of note. We did stop at the Braeburn Lodge for a snack. They had cinnamon rolls that were the size of a plate, and about three inches thick. We bought one and have eaten off it twice today and it is not a third gone. We saw a neat place on the Yukon River where there were rapids. Marty, the lady with us was telling us about something she had learned yesterday in a museum in Whitehorse. When steamboats ran on the rivers they had to tie ropes to them and tie them to the bank. They then let the current swing the boats on the ropes to work them through the rocks of the rapids. We stopped and had lunch at the Moose Creek Lodge. They had a big metal statue of a mosquito out front. This area is notorious for it’s misquotes. I have seen little knives on sale for skinning misquotes, complete with a pattern to use to make you a coat from the skins. They kind of joke about it, but if you are outside for long it isn’t funny.
Mom didn’t make a lot of pictures today, but we are going to be here Sunday and Monday so we will have time to see the area a little. There is a lot of gold rush history here.
On Sunday we went, as a group, out to Gold Dredge Number Four. I didn’t know what a dredge was. Actually it is a method of mining. It is the first mechanized mining method used in the Klondike. I believe our guide said that in all there were twenty-six dredges used in the Yukon strike. It allowed the recovery of gold much less labor intensive. It also allowed the recovery of gold below the bedrock level. Placer mining where the shafts and tunnels were dug only went down to bedrock. The dredge is a massive piece of machinery. When we saw it Mary said it looks like a ship. In effect, it is a ship. It came to the site in pieces, shipped by rail to Whitehorse and by paddle wheeler on the lakes and rivers to Dawson City.
It was assembled and then dikes were put up around it to create a pond. Water was put into the pond until the 300-ton machine floated. It was the anchored and began to dig. It looks like a huge trencher The digging arm has 64 buckets which dug gravel and hauled it into a hopper, then the gravel was washed and dumped into a big sieve like thing which started with small holes at the top and ended up with holes about and inch and a half ate the end. The gravel was rolled through this and the rocks bigger than an inch and a half went out the back into the tail pole. The separated gravel went into sluice boxes and was washed down. The majority of the gold was caught in the mats in the first six feet of the sluice. Periodically, the mats were removed and stored in a safe until the guys came from the company office to get it. They had a guy on the fore deck panning samples of the gravel being brought aboard. When it stopped showing gold, they rotated the dredge on its anchor and started a new dig. The rotation was in four-foot increments until it reached 180 degrees. At this point the dredge anchor was lifted and it pulled itself forward to the next dig. The vast amounts of water used for washing the gold was dumped into a catch basin and the silt was allowed to settle out of it then it was pumped back into the dredge pond and recycled.
The crews at these dredges numbered a few over a hundred men. It only took four men to run the dredge. The others were support teams who prepared the area where they were to be digging as the machine pulled itself along. The season only allowed them to work from about May until October. They could not work when the temperature was 40 below or colder. This wasn’t because of concern for the men, but because the iron of the machine would break at that temperature.
I think that Number Four was one of the richest producers of the dredges. It was located on Rabbit Creek that was re-named Bonanza Creek because of the amount of gold taken from the strike.
When we returned from the dredge tour, we had some lunch and Mary went out to see the town. She spent the afternoon looking, shopping and taking pictures. I stayed at the house because we had to have rock-chips repaired on windshields. We had tow on the coach and two on the car. I was really dumb, because we bought a tow-car shield and I didn’t have it on. The roads had been so good that I was lulled into a false sense of security. For the first time since we left Dawson Creek, we got off of the Alaska Highway. We left Whitehorse and only drove about 14 miles on the Alaska Hwy before we turned onto Yukon Hwy 2. The is the stretch of road where we got hit by rocks. They had done a lot of resurfacing and covered the pavement with pea-gravel. Cars we were meeting threw the rocks up. About another 150 miles and we get back on the Alaska Highway for another while.
On Monday it rained for about half the day. It also rained a lot Sunday night, so it was pretty muddy. We had planned to go out to one of the strikes that is active and pan for gold. They charge a fee and give you a pan and some boots. They even give you a stool to set on so you don’t hurt your knees and b back. I guess they get a lot of old folks. Since the weather was so bad until mid-afternoon, we just went out and rode our bikes and look at the town. Our staff cooked supper for us. We had salad and red beans and rice with smoked sausage in it. They cooked us a nice breakfast yesterday morning.
Tomorrow we cross the border into Alaska!!!
