The Agnew Family aboard the "Dog House"

Today was the day for doing things inside Dawson City. We decided to go on a tour of the SS Keno, the last steamer to run on the Yukon River so we headed down to main street. As we were a few minutes early we went into a small jewelry shop and the woman who worked in the store came up to us and started chatting. Would you believe that she worked for Birks in Toronto for years then moved to Burlington and worked in women’s wear at Robinson’s in the Burlington Mall? The world is a small place! Riverboats were used on some of the rivers in Alaska and Yukon for moving supplies and people around. The SS Keno was used mostly to transport silver, lead and zinc ore from the Mayo District to Stewart. Next item on the agenda was the Dawson City Museum. This museum covered the geology of the area, first nations, gold mining, a photo story on dogs of the north and a collection of narrow-gauge locomotives. The museum had a demonstration on panning for gold and pouring gold. The young man put 6 flakes of gold into a pail of gravel. Next he put the gravel through a sluice box, then finally put it in a pan. It was neat watching him panning and sure enough he ended up with 6 flakes of gold. In the pouring gold demonstration, he melted gold in a furnace and poured the melted gold into a sand mold. When the gold hit the sand, the sand burst into flames — I didn’t think sand could burn but it did. Next he put the “coin” into a glass of water which steamed for a minute. When he removed the “coin” from the water it was safe to touch. Later that evening (around 10:30 pm) as it was fairly clear we decided to go up Midnight Dome Mountain. It was much clearer this time. The pictures from the dome were taken around 11:00pm — I still can’t believe how light it is. I am finally getting used to it though and don’t feel like I can’t go to bed before it’s dark.


“You may romance all you choose about steam boating but it would be very difficult to convince a deck hand, pilot, mate or engineer of a boat stuck on a sand bar with the water level dropping because the tributaries were freezing, that there was anything good to be said about that damn way to make a living.” 2nd mate Arthur E. Knutson



Demonstration of the Sluice Box at the Dawson City Museum



The gold!



View from Midnight Mountain Dome --- look at the formation the dredge trailings made.



View of the Yukon River from the Midnight Dome taken at 11:00pm (notice the glare from the sun)