Gold Panning

Walking in the steps of the Klondike Gold Rush is extremely easy when visiting in Dawson City, Yukon.  We had a great time during our road show. It was the 1900s all over again.

There were  venues with show girls and a casino depicting the times of the gold rush at Gerties Diamond Tooth Gambling Hall. There are people walking around town in period costumes providing interpretive tours.  There are heritage buildings honoring Yukon writers like Robert Service and Jack London. The downtown shops and stores are all in buildings reminiscent of the Klondike Gold Rush. OH.. how cute are the pastel colors! There are trails which miners traveled that are protected heritage trails. And there is a spot on the Bonanza Creek (The Discovery Claim) where the first strike of gold occurred sparking the Klondike Gold Rush. So you can see why I might sound a bit excited when talking about Dawson City – this is just the heritage attractions, there is still all the adventures!

So on our research road show we did it all. We visited the heritage sites, we went on the driving sightseeing tours like the Dempster and Top of the World Highway. And we went on any and every adventure we could fit in. We hiked in the same steps as the miners. We hiked to lookouts. We “wahoooed” at the show girls.  We tried our luck at the tables. We were in awe of the parlor singers – for their talent.  We took pictures at the site of the first gold claim. We talked with the actors dressed up at the Robert Service and Jack London heritage cabins. Such nice people they were too. And we went gold panning (photo above).

When exploring the off beat, backcountry roads there are always surprises. Sometimes we find a great adventure. Sometimes we find great scenery. Sometimes we come across wildlife. Sometimes we find nothing and get lost. Sometimes we even get a flat tire. One time, the excitement was so high in the backcountry we ran out of gas. However running out of gas sometimes creates an adventure in itself like a long hike back to civilization.. ha ha.

In Dawson City the back country roads brought us some excitement. It helped that on the gravel roads there were many mining attractions. We visited the ones on the map. Nothing really jumped out at us.. especially the big Dredge 4 machine.. now there is a destroyer of the environment.

So.. we moved on looking for something cool. Curiosity always seems to get the better of us. And, if there is one thing we have learnt about tourism is that tourism associations do  not tell you everything that there is to do and see in their communities. They have their favorites and they have their biases. And they have what they think they you want to see.. funny how most recommendations are paying attractions.

We stayed a long time in Dawson City. We spent some of our hard earned money in Dawson City. We stayed because of the adventures and sightseeing tours not for the paid attractions. And tourism should realize there are allot of us tourist out there like us who buy gas, stay in accommodations, campgrounds, visit grocery stores, restaurants and coffee shops while we adventure.

So back to the story.. side tracked again.. while we were looking for adventures we came across two surprise destinations in Dawson City not found in our research notes. One was the Fire Tower Lookout (future blog) and the other was Claim 33. Claim 33 popped up out of nowhere while we were on the backcountry gravel roads. All of sudden as we turn a corner there was this museum. There are artifacts and antiques on display in the front yard. There were old cars, trucks and a carriage. A building looking like a mining shack was the office. It stood in a mock village with other buildings – they too were pastel colors.

We looked around and soon notice there was not a soul on the property? No touirst, no host.  Just Bro and I. So we played tourist and read the interpretive signs, looked at artifacts and pretended to go gold panning. Yup.. in the middle of the yard there was a Gold Panning display. So.. being busy boys we took advantage of the situation and pretended to go gold panning since there was no one there to work with us. The gold was all ours. We were rich! To bad it was pretending to gold pan in a big bathtub.

I guess we will have to stay with the main plan and earn our riches through hard work. This getting rich quick scam is for the birds.