History and swans at Carcross, Yukon
On Monday, April 19th, I got a call from friends asking if I’d like to join them for a swan hunt. I sure would! I’m doing two blog posts about this outing because the Carcross and Tagish parts of it were quite different and each has enough photos to justify that.
We began our search at Carcross. The footbridge is often the best place to see the migrating swans in the Spring. I saw reports a few days ago that there were 150 there, so we parked by the post office and walked over.
There were some birds at the far side of the open water, but too far away to photograph, and no swans.
The water was clear, shallow, and calm – perfect conditions to see the footings of the wagon bridge that was built here in 1905 to access the silver mines on Montana Mountain.
This is that wagon bridge. The centre section could be opened to let steamboats through. This was a drawbridge, while the railway bridge just below swung open to allow boats to pass.
This day certainly rated a 10. I suggested that we walk back across the railway bridge because conditions were great to see the hull of the sternwheeler Australian.
Having a couple of teens along is good for some smiles 🙂
To save a building, regardless of its historic significance, there has to be either a local or a territorial will to do so (preferably both). The group of cabins of which the Bishop Bompas House was the star were all restorable when I first saw them 30 years ago, and could have been a tourist draw and historic resource of at least territorial significance.
The Northern Airways building has been set up as an aviation museum. The twist on the garage next door gets worse each year and it looks like its days are numbered.
Next, we drove a couple of blocks to the little Carcross Commons shopping complex. The next photo shows the Visitor Reception Centre, with St. Saviour’s Anglican Church behind it.
Everything was closed, but this looks like a nice spot for a coffee and snack when the Caribou Crossing Coffee Shop there is open on weekends.
The first building in the complex was the historic Skookum Jim House, which was moved from across the river in 2010. The house was built in 1899 by Skookum Jim Mason, a member of the arty what discovered the gold that started the Klondike gold rush. It was rebuilt after a fire in 1967.
The next photo shows Skookum Jim House in 2003.
We had planned to walk over to the highway bridge from Carcross Commons but the snow was too deep so we drove over. There were a couple of swans, but quite far away and back-lit – not at all what I wanted.
Walking onto the bridge, though, we saw a couple of swans in a good position, and swimming towards us. That’s what I was looking for 🙂
These beautiful birds were very cooperative, providing me with lots of good photos.
Off in the distance downstream, we could see the wreckage of the sternwheeler Gleaner, and more swans.
After a few more minutes of shooting, including some lovely displays of synchronized diving, we decided to move on to Tagish, where we were confident there would be swans in large numbers.
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Thanks for the trip to Carcross in the winter to see the swans. It’s one of our favourite places to explore and watch the train coming across the bridge.