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When news first broke of gold being discovered in the Yukon, what became immortalized as the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896-99 kickstarted a mass influx of prospectors into the small northern town of Dawson City. The hope of striking it rich was more than enough to stir the imaginations of an estimated 100,000 men and women who risked life and limb to make their fortune in the northern capital. Built up seemingly overnight, Dawson City was little more than a remote trade outpost at the dawn of the Gold Rush, with the first settlers forced to sleep in tents and under their own wagons. The town that became Dawson City grew exponentially over the next few years. Constructed mainly out of wood, and where extra expense could be spared, capped in pressed tin, the false fronts and wooden sidewalks of the saloons, hotels, banks, and theatres of Dawson City quickly came to resemble the Wild West. The epicentre of the Klondike Gold Rush was built very much in the same fashion as the countless frontier towns of the American Frontier, an appearance that has been maintained to this day thanks to a legacy of dedicated preservation efforts. This edition of Cityscape will take a look at the enduring legacy of the Klondike Gold Rush in Dawson City, a town that holds a special place within Canada's history.
Faced with what by any route, either by land or sea, was sure to be a journey fraught with peril, thousands of fortune seekers made their way to the Klondike via the infamous Chilkoot Pass, an unforgiving mountain stretch that soon became synonymous with the Klondike Gold Rush. Often carrying more than 100 pounds of supplies on their backs, and outfitted in the extraordinarily inadequate winter clothes and hiking gear of the day, travellers were often forced back by the cold, or simply died along the way. The vast majority of those who made it to Dawson City would leave as ruined souls with not a penny, or nugget, to their name.
Founded in 1897, and fittingly named after noted Canadian geologist George M. Dawson, Dawson City became the heart of the Klondike Gold Rush, the centre of activity for the thousands upon thousands of prospectors who flooded in each year. Before long, Dawson City had grown into a proper town, complete with hotels, saloons, banks, and more than one theatre, with nightly revues including popular renditions of the latest hits from Broadway, Dixieland, and the ever-popular art form of Burlesque.
By 1899, the Klondike Gold Rush was all but over, and the last stragglers and determined hopefuls abandoned Dawson City over the course of the next few years. The peak population of 40,000 in 1898 plummeted to well below 5,000 by 1902. Into the first half of the 20th century, Dawson's fortunes continued to slide. When the Alaska Highway was constructed just after WWII, it missed the city by no less than 500 kilometres and proved to be a deathblow to the city, with Whitehorse taking over as Yukon's official capital in 1953.
Falling onto hard times from the 1950s through to the 1970s, Dawson's population dropped to a record low of just 500 during this period. The city's Gold Rush-era cityscape fell into ruin, with some buildings collapsing completely while others were simply left abandoned to the elements. As the childhood home of Canada's Pierre Berton, who by this time was establishing himself as a literary giant and national icon, and home to celebrated poet Robert Service, as well as the inspiration behind many of Jack London's most famous works, the mythology surrounding Dawson City and its Klondike legacy never died. The public memory and cultural history of the city ensured Dawson's survival through even the hardest of times and up to the present.
Beginning in the 1990s, and continuing through the 2000s and on to the present, the rehabilitation and restoration of many of Dawson City's surviving historical buildings has now been completed. The cityscape today has largely been restored to its Klondike glory days, right down to the false fronts, wooden sidewalks, and hand-painted facades, which give the city its trademark aesthetic and architectural character.
Home today to no less than eight National Historic Sites of Canada, including the Dawson Historical Complex, which covers the entire downtown core, Dawson City has become a major tourist destination both among Canadians and international travellers from the United States and abroad, who come every year to explore the city's rich history. Visitors can try their hands at gold-panning, join a historical walking tour, or get spooked on a ghost walk. Parks Canada has been instrumental in the city's reinvigoration, with its host of archivists, architectural historians, restorers, and construction crews spending a great deal of the short summer season preparing the many public historic sites around town for the annual influx of visitors.
Having become a popular tourist destination, Dawson City's numerous hotels, many of which were built originally to host Klondike prospectors, have all been more or less restored by their owners to their former glory. The popular saloons and taverns which populate the ground level of most hotels have become popular watering holes, each serving their own unique brands of local culture and hospitality. In particular, a drink known since its invention in 1973 as the "Sourtoe Cocktail," has been served to an estimated 65,000 paying customers. The legendary drink gets its name from both the Klondike-era term "Sourdough," which referred to a Gold Rush veteran, and the real-life mummified human toe which is served as a garnish — to be returned, not swallowed — along with what one can only hope is one heck of a stiff drink.
Despite all of the restorative progress, there are still a handful of historic structures that for one reason or another have escaped restoration, including most famously the long-abandoned CIBC Building, which was once among the most well-appointed structures in all of Dawson. Built in 1901, the former bank building was clad in a decorative pressed metal facade, its Beaux-Arts detailing crafted out of a thin layer of pre-formed sheet metal installed over a rough-hewn timber frame and under-layer. Abandoned by the CIBC in 1989, the building has been left to rot, and much of its detail work has deteriorated beyond repair, with no hope in sight of any forthcoming restoration work to be performed.
While demolition by neglect has remained a concern within Dawson City, the issue has fortunately been contained to a relatively small handful of examples. While The CIBC Building is not the only structure in Dawson to be in an advanced state of disrepair, the small collection of others have been left with a much more purposeful eye towards living history. The so-called Leaning Buildings have been preserved in their dilapidated state as a prime example of elegant decay.
Dawson City exists today as an amalgamation of surviving, restored, and recreated historic structures. Today's cityscape is equal parts Disnified tourist playground and real-life working city. While striking a fine balance between kitsch and reality is always fraught with challenges, as one may look no further within Canada to other similarly popular historic districts such as those found in Quebec City and Old Montreal, the fine line between fantasy wonderland and functioning 21st city can often be blurred, and the example touted by Dawson City one which appeals to the best of each.
More than a century beyond the heady days of the Klondike Gold Rush, Dawson City remains a special place within Canada, its cultural heritage preserved for all to enjoy thanks to the efforts of those who have understood its worth even when most did not.
Cityscape will return soon with a new installment, and in the meantime, SkyriseCities welcomes new suggestions for additional cities and styles to cover in the weeks to come. Got an idea for the next issue? Let us know!
