Museum Day, Whitehorse, Yukon, June 19,2010

The MacBride Museum of Yukon History was our first visit of the day.   We happened to arrive just in time to catch a special program, the dramatic recitation of the Robert Service poem, the Cremation of Sam McGee. The young fellow did a fantastic job!  He took on the persona of Sam McGee standing in front of his own cabin.

I loved their title of an area of the museum, it contained a little bit of everything.

Reminds me of our stick and brick house.

 

Don’t you love these sunglasses.  Not much chance of breaking the lenses.

 

 

The museums generally have lots of old photos, I love the dog team photos, they were just big dogs, not all huskies.

  This dog was loaded with 40 pounds, he doesn’t look too happy.

Next on our agenda was the Yukon Transportation Museum.  All types of transportation was included, walking, trains, trams, boats, sleighs, and airplanes.

  This photo shows two stampeders struggling along the steep trails on Jacob’s Ladder near Sheet Camp, AK.

When the White Pass and Yukon Route (Railroad) were not on their tracks, they used horses and sleighs to provide transportation .

Here is a photo of the SS Klondike leaving Dawson City in 1955, its last trip.

Another very nicely done museum.

Oh, would you believe this is a weather vane…well it is, takes about a 5 mile per hour wind to move it, but we did see it move.

This afternoon we went out to see the area just outside of Whitehorse where the Yukon River narrows down in this basalt canyon, creating a very treacherous section to navigate, especially for the over 7,000 rafts and boats the stampeders arrived with in 1898.  You were only able to go down this section with an experienced pilot (for a fee).  Most of the rafts and boats pulled on shore in a make shift town called Canyon City where they could then take a tramway (also for a fee) around this difficult section to Whitehorse.

Here is an old photo of several rafts doing down the rapids.  Looks like the water was much higher today.

We walked to the ghost town of Canyon City, basically found lots of tin cans and depressions in the ground.

  On our way back, we both saw this tree, it was missing a trunk, just hanging there.   We think the trunk was across the walkway, but really not sure.

  Bob and the Yukon!!

Dinner tonight was crab legs eaten outside, the weather has been very nice and warm.

We are heading out tomorrow towards Dawson City, but plan on taking a side trip to Mayo and Keno.