Chasing our Dreams: JULY 31, 2012

Today was our first full day in Dawson City, YT which is in the heart of the Klondike. Dawson City is where the Gold Rush started in 1896. By 1897-1898 the gold had already been removed from the mines. People who made lots of money had no place to spend it so they headed out of here back to the United States. When they arrived in cities like Seattle and San Francisco it didn't take long for word to get out that there was a a lot of gold in Dawson City and lots of people headed here. They estimate that 100,000 stampeders headed north to claim their share. Not surprisingly, many of those who set out for the Klondike did not complete their journey. A lot of the ones who did come once they got here found that most of the gold had already been mined. Many just went back but the adventurous and optimistic ones saw it as a place to start businesses that would be needed here to support the miners with supplies, medical treatment, restaurants, brothels etc . It grew to a city of over 30,000 people. Today it has a population of about 1800 who remain year round. Temperatures have been known to plummet to minus

50 degrees celcius ( minus 90 degrees fahrenheit). The ground here is what they call permafrost (permanent frost).

Our interpreter on Dawson City Walking Tour

We all gathered for a guided walking tour of the town. The interpreters are all dressed in period dress. The city itself is quite unique with wooden sidewalks and dirt streets. You feel like you are back in the early 1900’s. Our interpreter was excellent. Our tour lasted 2 hrs with visits inside the Bank, the Post Office and Saloon. Our interpreter was born and brought up in Dawson City so she had lots of knowledge about the city and the Gold Rush Days. This is the nice part about being with a caravan,,,,we get to have a lot of guided tours. If we were travelling on our own, we would go to the museums and just go through reading everything, but with the caravan we usually have a guided tour and get so much more information.

After our tour, about 6 couples went out to lunch. Then the rain came and it continued all afternoon. Went back to the motorhome for warmer clothes and ended up staying there.

Tonight we went to Diamond Tooth Gerties,,a great show with can-can girls. Again a few members of our group were chosen to participate. It was lots of fun. Forecast for tomorrow is more rain. Since the roads are all dirt here,,,there is lots of mud.

The Girls at Diamond Tooth Gerties

We took a ride to the top of the Midnight Dome. From atop this mountain you can oversee Dawson City and where the Klondike River and the Yukon River converge. The picture below was taken at midnight. A couple of hours later the sun rises again.