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“Pic of the Week”, October 11, 2019: Robert W Service, the Bard of the North
While I love reading whenever I find the time, I’ve never been much of a fan of poetry, with two exceptions — the writing of Rudyard Kipling and (the man featured in today’s Pic of the Day) Robert W. Service.
Robert Service was born in England and began writing poems as a child, dreaming of a life of exploration and adventure, and of one day being a cowboy in Western Canada. He emigrated to Canada in 1895, although he never became a cowboy.
Service is well know to Canadians because of his writing about life in Canada’s Yukon territory during the Klondike Goldrush. He moved to the Yukon during this colorful period in history and loved the characters he met and heard …
Oct 10, 2019
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.All Trips / North America / Western Canada / Yukon
Historic Miles Canyon, Whitehorse
Miles Canyon is well known to students of the Klondike Goldrush. It was here that the Yukon River began a stretch of rough and dangerous water, the Miles Canyon Rapids and shortly thereafter the Whitehorse Rapids. Many of the home made boats and rafts constructed by the would-be gold prospectors were destroyed or over-turned in these rapids, and many people lost their lives here. The presence of these rapids catalyzed the formation of the city of Whitehorse as a access point to the Yukon River (down-river from these rapids) and Dawson City.
A hydroelectric plant and dam have since been built near the site of the Whitehorse Rapids, which resulted in flooding and effacement of the Whitehorse Rapids and to a …
“Pic of the Week”, July 5, 2019: ‘Ice and Flowers’, Kluane National Park
When I visited Kluane National Park headquarters, situated in the small and remote town of Haines Junction, Yukon, I was immediately drawn to this magnificent artwork. It was hanging near a large window, the framed backdrop being wonderful views of Kluane.
The work is called “Ice and Flowers” and was created by Yukon artist, Doug Smarch Jr. The work was inspired by the water drops reflecting the faces of those studying them up close.
(Click on thumbnails to enlarge, right arrow to advance slideshow)
Jul 4, 2019
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.All Trips / North America / Western Canada / Yukon
The Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre, Whitehorse
Canada’s Yukon territory is well know for its natural beauty and abundance of outdoor recreation. It’s a very sparsely populated region (one human for every 2 moose), but there are a few interesting indoor sites to visit including this one, which I think is the best in the territory.
Why was Beringia not covered with ice? Because while it was cold, it was too dry. The coastal mountains of Alaska so sheltered the interior of Alaska and the Yukon from moisture that there was not enough precipitation here to create a glacier. Because of thick ice sheets on the continents, the ocean levels were lowered and a land bridge appeared which allowed migration of people and animals between Asia and North …
Tagged Beringia, Ice Age, museum, Whitehorse, Yukon
.All Trips / North America / Western Canada / Yukon
Signs of Whitehorse
As many of you know, I like to collect photos of signage during my travels. Looking for signs helps me study the destination I’m visiting more carefully than I otherwise might have, and often tells me a lot about the nature of the city I’m visiting.
Whitehorse is the Yukon’s only city and the center of the territory’s commerce, tourism and government. And while it is a relatively young city, it dates to the Klondike Gold Rush, a most colorful and interesting period in history.
Here are some of the signs I encountered during my recent trip to northern Canada.
(Click on thumbnails to enlarge, right arrow to advance slideshow)
Tagged Signs, Whitehorse, Yukon
“Pic of the Week”, May 3, 2019: Whitehorse’s Horse
Erected near the public safety building on Two-Mile hill in Whitehorse is a horse crafted by Yukon artist Daphne Mennel. You’ll see it as you drive into the city from the airport. The piece is made of what appears to be scrap metal, which it is, but the community prides itself that all of the horse’s components were donated by Yukon residents. For example, the magnificent tail is made from electrical cable donated by Yukon Electric , with many other interesting building blocks ranging from a frying pan, an anvil, a radiater, garden utensils and more.
The horse statue has a great view of the city and surrounding hills. To me it symbolizes the spirit of the people of the …
May 3, 2019
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.All Trips / North America / Western Canada / Yukon
Street Art in Whitehorse
While by no means a large city, with only around 25,000 residents, Whitehorse is the major population center in Canada’s Yukon Territories. This large territory (482,000 km2, 186,300 miles2) is home to only 37,000 people (and about 75,000 moose), so Whitehorse’s influence in the region becomes apparent.
Whitehorse is changing and it is growing. These changes are perhaps most notable to someone like me who hadn’t been there for nearly 20 years. An appreciated addition was a proliferation of street murals on the buildings of the city. These varied greatly in theme and style, but most of them in some way represented life in and the history of the north — notably …
Tagged art, street art, Whitehorse
.All Trips / North America / Western Canada / Yukon
The S.S. Klondike, Whitehorse
One of the most popular attractions in Whitehorse is this sternwheeler which sits on the banks of the Yukon River in the heart of the city. It’s one of only two surviving sternwheelers which plied the waters between Whitehorse and Dawson City — a relic from the time when waterways were preferred transportation route , before roads and railway provided quick access to the heart of the Yukon.
Whitehorse exists in large part because it of its proximity to the Alaska panhandle (and as such was a passing-through point during the Klondike Goldrush), and because it was the furthest city upstream on the Yukon River that could be successfully navigated by these flat-bottom boats. (Just upriver from the city, the Whitehorse …
Tagged Klondike, riverboat, SS Klondike II, Whitehorse, Yukon River
