World's Largest Wind Vane - Whitehorse, Yukon
Whitehorse, Capital of the Yukon, is the unofficial “halfway point” along the Alaska Highway. Since we had been camping for 7 days, it was time to grab a hotel for a couple of nights, enjoy a hot shower, eat a few meals not cooked on a tailgate, and explore the only proper “city” in the Canadian Northwest.
We rolled into town around noon and our hotel room was not available until 3:00, so we decided to explore downtown and catch some lunch. Like most capital cities, Whitehorse draws many of those on the down-and-out and at times it can seem a little sketchy. We grabbed up our more valuable belongings (laptop, drone, camera) rather than leave them in the Jeep along the street and went to check out the Klondike Rib and Salmon restaurant.
We sat down at our table at stowed our bags on the empty chairs at our four-top. I looked at Pati across from me and she was giving me that look-over-there-but-don’t-look look. I did my best casual-over-the-shoulder-I’m-not-looking look and guess who was sitting at a table in the corner. It was our road friends, the mother-daughter team, Stacy and Brenda. Our “every time we meet them, we get distracted and forget something friends.” They were just finishing up and stopped to visit on their way out. We both instinctively grabbed our bags under the table for safe keeping, and when it was our turn to leave, would triple-check the table to make sure we hadn’t left anything behind! Klondike Rib and Salmon was definitely one of our favorite restaurants, and we ended up eating here a couple more times.
It wasn't really shorts weather, but all my long pants were dirty and I wanted to look nice out on the town.
Whitehorse has a nice public walkway along the Yukon River. At the south end of town, you can visit the S. S. Klondike Historic Site. The Klondike is a vintage sternwheeler similar to the ones that sailed the Yukon River during the Klondike Gold Rush. At that time the only way out of Whitehorse was 1,980 miles downriver through Alaska to the Bering Sea or climbing over the Boundary Ranges through Chilkoot Pass. Both of these options pretty much sucked and were quickly abandoned once a railroad was built between Skagway and Whitehorse. Of course, by then the “rush” was over.
Army LCC-1 Sno-Train
Another fun visit is the Yukon Transportation Museum which features unique forms of transportation from sled dogs and snow machines, to float planes and snow trains. The most notable feature of the museum is out front – a full-size DC-3 airplane mounted on a pivot, which claims to be the world’s largest wind vane. Another interesting exhibit is the Army LCC-1 Sno-Train – imagine a diesel-electric locomotive with giant rubber tires and no track. It was the perfect solution for hauling up to 45 tons of cargo across frozen tundra.
A little further up the road is the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Center. Beringia apparently loosely translates to “bunch of old bones we found while digging the road.” The center does have an impressive collection of prehistoric critter skeletons on display.
That thing on the floor to the right - that's an early "snow machine" or "snow mobile."
The MacBride Museum of Yukon History was our overall favorite. It features a diverse collection of artifacts that collectively tell the story of the Yukon. If you only have time to visit one museum in Whitehorse, the MacBride is the place. My favorite artifact – the Perry Davis Painkiller Thermometer. The thermometer consisted of a row of four bottles, containing mercury, coal oil, ginger extract, and Perry Davis Painkiller. The mercury froze at -40F, the coal oil at -50F, and the ginger at -60F. The Perry Davis Painkiller turned white at -60F, crystallized at -70F, and froze solid at -75F, at which point it was considered “too cold for man or beast.”
It could take two years to get a "real" thermometer (left.) You could make your own "Perry Davis Painkiller Thermometer."
Below the Line
Architecture of the Far Northwest
Whitehorse was our first exposure to what passes for architecture in Far Northwest. I don’t know if it has a technical name, but I would call it “contemporary warehouse,” or perhaps “industrial block house.” Pretty much every building looks the same. To get the idea, take the box from your most recent Amazon delivery. Now set it on the floor in the middle of the room. Now lie down on your belly with your chin on the floor and gaze upon the box. That’s pretty much what every structure looks like.
I imagine this makes some practical sense. In a land with temperature and daylight extremes, why would you want a bunch of pesky doors and windows poking holes in the walls? And building materials here are extremely expensive, so simple makes sense. But it is also very boring. Our hotel looked like a two-story pole barn from the outside. Arguably, the most interesting thing about our hotel was the key. That’s right. A key! I didn't take a photo of the hotel, but it pretty much looked like it was inspired by the key, minus the fancy bits on the end.
(Giant copper nugget, in front of the Telegraph Building, inside/under the Mac Bride Museum. Not sure who the bronze fellow is admiring it all.)
The one notable exception in Whitehorse is the MacBride Museum. Here the architects broke from tradition and carved out one corner of their giant, windowless box to allow the historic telegraph building.
The one upside to all of these boxy buildings is they make a great canvas for the local mural art community. This mural shares the story of the brave men participating in the Klondike Gold Rush who, if they were very lucky, would survive multiple trips over the mountain passes to transport their 1000 pounds of gear and provisions, build a boat and navigate the treacherous river rapids, survive cold, famine and disease, only to die penniless on a bed of cold, broken dreams. Very colorful. Fun stuff.
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