Canada/Alask 2019-9: Carcross, Yukon Territory
Fires and smoke precluding our planned trip to Dawson City, Yukon, we investigated the Southern Lakes Region of the Yukon instead.
In Carcross, 73 km south of Whitehorse, we searched out the post office to mail postcards. In so doing, I noted a sign for Chilcoot Trail Sourdough Bakery and said we must stop. (We've now learned that Canadian sourdough is not as sour as California's, but it's fresh and tasty.)
The building has its original doors, windows, rounded door header, and ship canvas on the walls and ceiling.More importantly, it has some of its original oakum used to chink wood. I say this because John McDaniel spent the typical long hot summer of 1977 in our first home in Fresno cleaning out the grooves of the shiplap on the west side and resealing it with oakum, a thankless job if ever there was one.
Carcross sits on Lake Bennett. It was at its south end at what grew to be Bennett City that Klondikers who survived the 30+-mile Chilcoot and White Pass Trails over the mountains from Skagway and Dyea, Alaska, stopped for the winter.
There they cut trees and built boats.
When the ice broke up in spring, they sailed, paddled, and rowed down Lake Bennett...
...past Carcross, or Caribou Crossing as it was then known, and into the Yukon River.
At Miles Canyon above Whitehorse, sage stampeders awaited a pilot to assist with the rapids here and at Whitehorse.
After that, there was the challenge of navigating Five Fingers Canyon.
With the advent in 1900 of the White Pass and Yukon railroad from Skagway to Whitehorse, Klondikers with their 1 ton of goods required by the Canadian government no longer needed to labor up the Chilkoot Trail on foot and horses no longer died packing the huge loads up White Pass Trail, which Jack London dubbed Dead Horse Trial. Caribou Crossing became Carcross to maintain the railway. Like many gold rush towns, Bennett all but ceased to exist. Today the WP&Y carries tourists from Skagway, Fraser, Bennett, and Carcross.
WP&Y swing bridge, though it no longer swings.
The Duchess sits near the WP&Y train station in Carcross. She used to have a partner, the Duke. After retiring from hauling coal, she was purchased by the WP&Y. Tourists took a sternwheeler from Carcross through the Taku Arm to Taku City, boarded the Duchess to go 2 miles to Scotia Bay, and took another steamer across Atlin Lake to Atlin. They often had to push the Duchess, and there being no turntable, the return trip was backwards.
Like many fine things (such as yours truly), the Duchess, and one would assume by correlation, the Duke, was made in Pennsylvania.
We stopped at Caribou Coffee, a lovely spot among a group of shops set up for the tour buses that come up from Skagway.
They have the lovely touch of providing afghans for customers who are borrowing their electricity to charge a computer! I also supported the Carcross branch of Whitehorse's Bear Paws Quilts.
By now charmed by Carcross's je ne sais quoi,we set up camp at the First Nations campground a stone's throw from town.
Loons swimming along Carcross Elementary School.
"Let me in!"
Perhaps colorful buildings help combat the rain and fog. Tommy Brooks, prospector and poet, at one time lived in the tiny house on the right. Note the moose antelers on the middle buildling.
St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, one of two churches in town. Pastor Bompas led the Anglican Church.
The Carcross/Tagish First Nation Learning Center is a handsome complex. The tribe has two moities (moitié: half, in French), Wolf and Crow. Wolf has 2 clans: Killer Whale and Wolf. Crow has 4 clans: Raven's Children, Wood Worm, Frog, and Split-Tailed Beaver. In this photo are the totems of Wood Worm, Frog, and Split Tailed Beaver.
Killer Whale, Raven's Children, and Wolf totems.
Decorative metal sheathing on Learning Center.
The Tagish are such handsome people. I love the sparkle of the boy on the left and the gentleness of the other.
An elegant stone sculpture in the Learning Center. Note the fierce expression in the face.
In Carcross, 73 km south of Whitehorse, we searched out the post office to mail postcards. In so doing, I noted a sign for Chilcoot Trail Sourdough Bakery and said we must stop. (We've now learned that Canadian sourdough is not as sour as California's, but it's fresh and tasty.)
The building has its original doors, windows, rounded door header, and ship canvas on the walls and ceiling.More importantly, it has some of its original oakum used to chink wood. I say this because John McDaniel spent the typical long hot summer of 1977 in our first home in Fresno cleaning out the grooves of the shiplap on the west side and resealing it with oakum, a thankless job if ever there was one.
Carcross sits on Lake Bennett. It was at its south end at what grew to be Bennett City that Klondikers who survived the 30+-mile Chilcoot and White Pass Trails over the mountains from Skagway and Dyea, Alaska, stopped for the winter.
There they cut trees and built boats.
When the ice broke up in spring, they sailed, paddled, and rowed down Lake Bennett...
...past Carcross, or Caribou Crossing as it was then known, and into the Yukon River.
At Miles Canyon above Whitehorse, sage stampeders awaited a pilot to assist with the rapids here and at Whitehorse.
After that, there was the challenge of navigating Five Fingers Canyon.
With the advent in 1900 of the White Pass and Yukon railroad from Skagway to Whitehorse, Klondikers with their 1 ton of goods required by the Canadian government no longer needed to labor up the Chilkoot Trail on foot and horses no longer died packing the huge loads up White Pass Trail, which Jack London dubbed Dead Horse Trial. Caribou Crossing became Carcross to maintain the railway. Like many gold rush towns, Bennett all but ceased to exist. Today the WP&Y carries tourists from Skagway, Fraser, Bennett, and Carcross.
WP&Y swing bridge, though it no longer swings.
The Duchess sits near the WP&Y train station in Carcross. She used to have a partner, the Duke. After retiring from hauling coal, she was purchased by the WP&Y. Tourists took a sternwheeler from Carcross through the Taku Arm to Taku City, boarded the Duchess to go 2 miles to Scotia Bay, and took another steamer across Atlin Lake to Atlin. They often had to push the Duchess, and there being no turntable, the return trip was backwards.
Like many fine things (such as yours truly), the Duchess, and one would assume by correlation, the Duke, was made in Pennsylvania.
We stopped at Caribou Coffee, a lovely spot among a group of shops set up for the tour buses that come up from Skagway.
They have the lovely touch of providing afghans for customers who are borrowing their electricity to charge a computer! I also supported the Carcross branch of Whitehorse's Bear Paws Quilts.
By now charmed by Carcross's je ne sais quoi,we set up camp at the First Nations campground a stone's throw from town.
Loons swimming along Carcross Elementary School.
"Let me in!"
Perhaps colorful buildings help combat the rain and fog. Tommy Brooks, prospector and poet, at one time lived in the tiny house on the right. Note the moose antelers on the middle buildling.
St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, one of two churches in town. Pastor Bompas led the Anglican Church.
The Carcross/Tagish First Nation Learning Center is a handsome complex. The tribe has two moities (moitié: half, in French), Wolf and Crow. Wolf has 2 clans: Killer Whale and Wolf. Crow has 4 clans: Raven's Children, Wood Worm, Frog, and Split-Tailed Beaver. In this photo are the totems of Wood Worm, Frog, and Split Tailed Beaver.
Killer Whale, Raven's Children, and Wolf totems.
Decorative metal sheathing on Learning Center.
The Tagish are such handsome people. I love the sparkle of the boy on the left and the gentleness of the other.
An elegant stone sculpture in the Learning Center. Note the fierce expression in the face.
In a huge tent next to the Learning Center, Master Carver Wayne Price of Haines, AK, was carving a 450-year-old red cedar log into a traditional Tlingit dugout canoe.
He also carved his own 28-foot-long canoe from red cedar and has sailed it over 600 miles, including from Haines to Juneau.
Over 80% of the project is done by hand using traditional tools.
Carcross/Taglish assistant Thomas Fawcett using a traditional adze.
Traditional tools to gauge the depth that has been carved out of the side.
Carcross/Taglish assistant Violet Gatensby works in the middle, scraping along the sides that have already been carved.
While Violet scrapes, Thomas sprays down the canoe.
When we returend about a week later, the center piece had been removed and the vertical ends added.
The canoe would be steamed the next by filling it with water and hot rocks and covering it with a tarp. The rocks would be continually replaced for 24 hours. The bottom would drops 4", the stern and bow lift 4-6", and the sides push out 9-12" each.
Carcross/Tagish Master Carer Keith Wolfe Smarch would assist with final details and colors. The 14,000-lb log would become a 450-lb canoe, 30-feet long, and able to carry 9 people--8 paddlers and 1 help.
A mural painting projecct was going on in the huge tent at the same time.
On exhibit in the Chilkoot Trail Museum were gorgeous mukluks...
...and cozy-looking mittens, both made of of beaver fur and moose hide.
He also carved his own 28-foot-long canoe from red cedar and has sailed it over 600 miles, including from Haines to Juneau.
Over 80% of the project is done by hand using traditional tools.
Carcross/Taglish assistant Thomas Fawcett using a traditional adze.
Traditional tools to gauge the depth that has been carved out of the side.
Carcross/Taglish assistant Violet Gatensby works in the middle, scraping along the sides that have already been carved.
While Violet scrapes, Thomas sprays down the canoe.
When we returend about a week later, the center piece had been removed and the vertical ends added.
The canoe would be steamed the next by filling it with water and hot rocks and covering it with a tarp. The rocks would be continually replaced for 24 hours. The bottom would drops 4", the stern and bow lift 4-6", and the sides push out 9-12" each.
Carcross/Tagish Master Carer Keith Wolfe Smarch would assist with final details and colors. The 14,000-lb log would become a 450-lb canoe, 30-feet long, and able to carry 9 people--8 paddlers and 1 help.
A mural painting projecct was going on in the huge tent at the same time.
On exhibit in the Chilkoot Trail Museum were gorgeous mukluks...
...and cozy-looking mittens, both made of of beaver fur and moose hide.
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