Wonder Why We Love Whitehorse?

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

I cremated Sam McGee.

- from "The Cremation of Sam McGee," by Robert Service

There is no doubt that the city of Whitehorse, the Provincial capital of the Yukon Territory, has seen queer things in its time.  Not least is the colorful history of Yukon characters and scoundrels, and the Mounties and other heroes that have brought them to justice:

The city was named after the White Horse Rapids of the Yukon River, located in Miles Canyon just upriver from the city before the river was dammed for hydroelectric power, in turn gaining their name for their resemblance to the manes of white horses.  A painting depicting this historical point is located in the city's MacBride Museum of Yukon History:

Whitehorse has a long and colorful past.  Archeological research south of the downtown area in the "Canyon City" area near our campground revealed evidence of use by First Nations for several thousand years. The surrounding area had seasonal fish camps and Frederick Schwatka, in 1883, observed the presence of a portage trail used to bypass Miles Canyon. Before the Gold Rush, several different tribes passed through the area seasonally and their territories overlapped.

The discovery of gold in the Klondike in August, 1896, by Skookum Jim, Tagish Charlie and George Washington Carmack set off a major change in the historical patterns of the region. Early prospectors used the Chilkoot Pass, but by July 1897, crowds of neophyte stampeders had arrived via steamship and were camping at "White Horse". By June 1898, there was a bottleneck of stampeders at Canyon City.  On their way to find gold, stampeders also found copper in the "copper belt" in the hills west of Whitehorse.

The famous White Pass & Yukon Railway linking Skagway, Alaska, on the Pacific Coast, to Whitehorse had began construction in May 1898 and complete two years later.  A portion of the White Pass & Yukon rail line is preserved for tourists to ride from Skagway to Carcross, accessible by bus from Whitehorse.

In 1920 the first planes landed in Whitehorse and the first air mail was sent in November 1927. Until 1942, river and air were the only ways to get to Whitehorse, but in 1942 the United States and Canada began construction of the Alaska Highway. The entire 1,553 miles of the Alcan was accomplished in 7 months, between March and November 1942. The Canadian portion of the highway was returned to Canadian sovereignty after the war.  Whitehorse, being located on the Alcan Highway, with its history of river traffic in support of mining, became an economic center.  In 1950 the city was formally incorporated and in 1953 was designated the capital of the Yukon Territory when the seat was moved from Dawson City after the construction of the Klondike Highway.

On our first full day in the area, we decided to drive into town and get to know it a bit.  After the tourist information center, our first stop was the Waterfront Totem Pole:

The totem pole, 33 feet high, was sculpted by master carver Wayne Price from Haines, Alaska and erected in 2012.  The totem pole was carved in remembrance of all of the First Nations children who were sent to residential school and suffered the many evils that have been documented about such schools in Canada and the United States.  The artist stated that each wood chip from the totem’s carving represented a life affected by residential school. The wood chips were signed by former students, family and friends of those former residential students that had died, then were burned and the ashes placed in a bentwood box that was installed as part of the totem pole.  Mr. Price explained that, "We put the ashes inside the box and seal it into the totem and by that act what we’re doing is we’re sending all those children back to their mom."

We walked from there to the MacBride Museum, where Kathy encountered the world's largest copper nugget, discovered in the hills near Whitehorse:

The musum is also the permanent home of the cabin of the real Sam McGee, who was fictionalized and memorialized in the eponymous poem by Robert Service quoted above:

Interestingly, poet Service used McGee as the model for his poem before McGee died.  The poem attained immediate fame, to the point that, when Mr. McGee returned to visit Whitehorse, he encountered a local con artist who attempted to sell him an urn containing his own cremated ashes!

Robert Service himself lived in a cabin in Dawson City, Yukon, located about a 6 hour drive north of Whitehorse (Service's home has been preserved and can be toured), but because of Sam McGee, Whitehorse also claims the poet as its own.  (We had a chance to visit Robert Service's summer cottage in Stewart, British Columbia, when we visited that town.  See our blog entry about Stewart, B.C.)

The MacBride Museum houses innumerable mementos of its colorful past.  In fact, a visitor can even walk into a turn-of-the-Century bar and lift a glass in memory of all those sourdoughs who rushed to find gold in the Yukon, only to discover that all the claims had been staked by people already living in the area:

Being hikers ourselves, we identify with these poor souls, who, having found their way to Skagway, Alaska, had to endure a freezing, deadly climb up the Chilkoot Pass or the White Pass to make their way to Lake Bennett, and then onto the Yukon River to sail their way downriver to Dawson City in their vain attempt to stake a claim for that elusive yellow metal.  David felt it was only fitting to re-enact their pilgrimage of privation:

Whitehorse also boasts an Old Log Church Museum, built as a church in 1900:

The city even boasts a log skyscraper!

Many of the buildings have been rehabbed or decorated to call to mind the city's early history:

As a city of about 30,000 people, Whitehorse is a prosperous, pleasant, very liveable city.  It has endless numbers of hiking and biking trails, the beauty and history of the Yukon River on which it sits, many lakes nearby for fishing or gazing, and all the services a resident could want.  We encountered two local residents who, like us, have family members living in New Zealand.  Their daughter lives in Christchurch with her partner; the two of them and their two young children survived the Christchurch earthquake.  Like us, the Whitehorse couple are avid hikers.  We first encountered them on our bike ride down the Yukon River (see our next blog entry on that), where they offered to give us a ride in their skiff as they took it out on Lake Schwatka for its first spring tryout.  We ran into them again downtown as they were shopping for some supplies for their boat. This caused us to pause and chat a while. We compared experiences on the Milford Track and Routeburn Track near Queenstown, New Zealand, and asked about their life in Whitehorse.  They were our kind of people.

After all this, and with all that we have seen here, David declared that Whitehorse is one of his favorite towns in the Far North.

Having satisfied our curiosity about this beautiful town, we picked an absolutely yummy restaurant for lunch - Klondike Rib & Salmon:

The restaurant is housed in the two oldest buildings still in use in Whitehorse. The dining room was originally opened as a tent frame bakery called, "MacMillan's Bakery," around 1900.  In 1929 the building was purchased by T.C. Richards and Willard Phelps. They called it “Klondike Airways” (as seen on the North side of the building) and it became a mail and freight business. Although the partners hoped some day to buy a plane as a means of transporting freight and mail, they never did. Using snowmobiles and caterpillars, the company carried about 110,000 pounds of mail to Dawson City each year. Before 1921, only first class mail was delivered in the winter. The rest of the mail waited in Whitehorse for the ice to break up and the steamers to sail. This usually happened sometime in May.  In the 1930's, the building was used by Jack French as a carpentry shop; and coffins were constructed for a mortuary in downtown Whitehorse.

Klondike Rib & Salmon specializes in Northern Foods, such as Fresh Northern Ocean Fish, smoked meats, wild game meats, home-made breads and desserts. They smoke their meats in their own smokehouse to achieve the delicious unique flavours their menu provides. The Halibut Chowder is to die for, as are the bannock scones served with the meals.  We loved the food so much, we returned twice for lunch and plan to return again for dinner.  David loved his Kick-Ass Klondiker Burger of bison, elk and wild boar.  Kathy rhapsodized over her salmon wrap and her pulled-meat boar sandwich.

Need we say more?