Category: History

Cathy and I finally got away for a few days. We’ve had awful weather this summer, and I’m not feeling particularly well – when you add COVID-19 concerns, the thought of travelling just hasn’t been as exciting as it usually is. Getting the rig ready took much longer than...

To the west of the city of Whitehorse lies a belt of copper-rich ground about 30 kilometers long. First discovered in 1898 by prospectors who had been headed for the Klondike gold fields, it was mined from then until 1920, and then again from 1967 until 1982. While the...

Friends and I have been trying for 4-5 years to get to unique glacial Lake No Lake by helicopter out of Atlin, but things just never came together – weather or schedules always got in the way. On Saturday, June 29th, though, four friends joined me on a charter...

On June 15th, two friends and three of our dogs joined me for a hike to the ruins of the Campman Bridge, built over the Slims River by the US Army Corps of Engineers during construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942. The hike began at 1:45 on the...

A couple of weeks ago (April 30th), I was working around the house doing various projects. Every time I went outside the sun got warmer and warmer, and I finally decided that I needed to get out hiking and soak up more of those rays. The Venus mine was...

Last week, in the middle of my rescue puppy adventure, I was honoured by being presented with the Annual Yukon Heritage Award. The ceremony, held at the start of Heritage Week, was at the Yukon Archives on Monday, February 18. Most of this post is copied from the press...

I’m writing this post on February 22, 2023, but as it’s a presentation I gave on October 24, 2018, I’m back-dating to look like it was posted then. Sometimes I find files in places they shouldn’t be. I stumbled across this Powerpoint presentation a couple of days ago, and...

On Wednesday I drove to Skagway and Dyea again. The Fall colours are a bit of a disappointment this year, but the South Klondike Highway is always a stunningly beautiful drive in any season. One of the definitive signs of Fall in the Yukon is the arrival of corporate...

I got home yesterday from a quick trip to Surrey (a suburb of Vancouver), where I went for the 50th anniversary reunion of my high school graduation class. From our little school, Princess Margaret Senior Secondary, 97 people (including some spouses) had signed up to come. It was wonderful,...

This little exploration was prompted by a couple of videos that were posted on Facebook recently, showing a beaver crossing 4 lanes of traffic on Two Mile Hill in Whitehorse. My response was something to the effect of “where is he going? There’s no water over there”. Somebody responded...