Friday, June 17, 2005
“The Northern Lights has seen queer sites. But the queerest they ever did see, was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge I created Sam McGee”
We’ve added a new feature to our journal.... it’s a map showing our route to date.
Today I heard "The Cremation of Sam McGee" twice. Once was at the McBride Museum and the second time was at the Frantic Follies. I’ll tell you about the Frantic Follies later in this journal. The McBride Museum was well done. It has a large area on gold mining, including an area where they show you how to pan for gold. Panning for gold seems like a lot of work to me. In the gold mining area they also include a National Film Board film that we think was done in 1957 by Pierre Burton. I remembered that he was from Dawson City but I didn’t know that his father was one of the thousands of people who came north to strike it rich. Pierre’s father didn’t strike it rich but he stayed in Dawson City for 40 years. I’m so impressed with the film that I think I may find myself a book by Pierre Burton. I hope he wrote one about the Yukon! The Museum also had a section of taxidermied (is that a word) animals. It gives me the shivers to look at them but it is a good way for people to see what the animals actually looked like. The last area of the museum was outside and consisted of old building include Sam McGee’s cabin and implements like trams, tractors and snowmobiles. One of the young women who worked at the museum came out and did a skit on the poem The Creation of Sam McGee. It turns out that Sam McGee was from Peterborough, Ontario not Tennessee and he was not cremated on the marge of Lake Lebarge. Robert W. Service met Sam in Whitehorse and because he like the sound of Sam’s name he asked if he could use it in a poem he was working. Sam left Whitehorse and returned when he was 71. While he was walking down the street he was approached and asked if he would like be buy some of the remains of Sam McGee. How could he resist. After she told us about the real Sam McGee, she did a good job of reciting the poem.
The boys decided that they didn’t want to go and see the Frantic Follies but Margaret and I decided we would go anyway. Was it ever good. It is a vaudeville type show and is hilarious. One of the jokes in the show was:
What is the difference between roast beef and pea soup? Everyone knows how to roast beef
They also recited a couple of Robert W. Service poems, one of them of course is The Cremation of Sam McGee. While one person was reciting it and couple of the guys were acting it out. I thought Margaret was going to pee her pants she was laughing so hard.
Ed and I also managed to take Zaph for swim in the Yukon river and a walk along the river to downtown Whitehorse. I really like Whitehorse... too bad they have winter up here.
testing out the cell in a NWMP office (at the Whitehorse museum)
The real Sam McGee's cabin, moved to the Whitehorse museum
The world's longest wooden fish ladder at Whitehorse
restored paddle wheeler, at Whitehorse
Today I heard "The Cremation of Sam McGee" twice. Once was at the McBride Museum and the second time was at the Frantic Follies. I’ll tell you about the Frantic Follies later in this journal. The McBride Museum was well done. It has a large area on gold mining, including an area where they show you how to pan for gold. Panning for gold seems like a lot of work to me. In the gold mining area they also include a National Film Board film that we think was done in 1957 by Pierre Burton. I remembered that he was from Dawson City but I didn’t know that his father was one of the thousands of people who came north to strike it rich. Pierre’s father didn’t strike it rich but he stayed in Dawson City for 40 years. I’m so impressed with the film that I think I may find myself a book by Pierre Burton. I hope he wrote one about the Yukon! The Museum also had a section of taxidermied (is that a word) animals. It gives me the shivers to look at them but it is a good way for people to see what the animals actually looked like. The last area of the museum was outside and consisted of old building include Sam McGee’s cabin and implements like trams, tractors and snowmobiles. One of the young women who worked at the museum came out and did a skit on the poem The Creation of Sam McGee. It turns out that Sam McGee was from Peterborough, Ontario not Tennessee and he was not cremated on the marge of Lake Lebarge. Robert W. Service met Sam in Whitehorse and because he like the sound of Sam’s name he asked if he could use it in a poem he was working. Sam left Whitehorse and returned when he was 71. While he was walking down the street he was approached and asked if he would like be buy some of the remains of Sam McGee. How could he resist. After she told us about the real Sam McGee, she did a good job of reciting the poem.
The boys decided that they didn’t want to go and see the Frantic Follies but Margaret and I decided we would go anyway. Was it ever good. It is a vaudeville type show and is hilarious. One of the jokes in the show was:
What is the difference between roast beef and pea soup? Everyone knows how to roast beef
They also recited a couple of Robert W. Service poems, one of them of course is The Cremation of Sam McGee. While one person was reciting it and couple of the guys were acting it out. I thought Margaret was going to pee her pants she was laughing so hard.
Ed and I also managed to take Zaph for swim in the Yukon river and a walk along the river to downtown Whitehorse. I really like Whitehorse... too bad they have winter up here.
testing out the cell in a NWMP office (at the Whitehorse museum)
The real Sam McGee's cabin, moved to the Whitehorse museum
The world's longest wooden fish ladder at Whitehorse
restored paddle wheeler, at Whitehorse
If you wish you can sign our guest book
We have added a web page with a map of our current location and route to date