DAWSON CITY,YT

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August 8, 2011 DAWSON CITY, YT
Today is our 47th Anniversary!! What an interesting place to be spending it. The tour bus picked us up at 10:00 a.m. and took us up to the top of “The Dome” for a view over the city of Dawson and the surrounding area. From there we traveled out to one of the largest Gold Dredges ever built which operated from 1905-1965. Dredge #4 was designed in Ohio, but many of the parts were built on-site here in Dawson City, and then it was put to work in the Klondike River valley. As you can tell from the pictures, it was designed to move huge quantities of dirt and the dredges dug up this entire river valley and all the feeder river valleys for miles around. The valley is now filled with long lines of “tailings”, which are the piles of gravel left when the dredge had gone through. In the early 20th century environmental laws were nonexistent and Workers’ Compensation (the Canadian equivalent of OSHA) standards were unheard of, so the dangerous work proceeded until the dredges, the workers and the gold streams wore out. Then they just left everything where it was and quit - no land reclamation, no replacing of trees and no long-term security for any workers. Kind of depressing to see how greed-driven this quest for gold was. After visiting the dredge, we were given a tour of the town of Dawson City and then left on our own to return wherever we wanted. We went back to town for a few pictures and a little shopping, and then called it a day.

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