Dawson City - A Wild Ride

Day 12 - 18 --- July 25th - 31st

Weather - Sunny/Partially Cloudy - 14 to 25 degrees C

To start things off, the day following our last supper was a bittersweet one. Earl and I took the ferry across the river into West Dawson for the first time and toured the Yukon River Campground, which we discovered was even nicer than the one we had been staying at. I picked a beautiful, cozy campsite right along the river with its own little beach area. We got my tent and everything set up, and Earl took me across the river again, delivering me to the museum for my first day of archival research. We hugged goodbye and promised each other that we would check in regularly, and then he was off back to Vancouver and normalcy.

After Earl set off back to Vancouver and I was left to my own devices for the next two weeks, I had to make deals with my parents and supervisor that I would stick to relatively safe areas and do relatively safe tasks. That said, nothing particularly exciting happened for most of the last week, so I have decided to sum up the remainder of my time in Dawson City with a single post.

Frankly, I have adjusted to being on my own quite well. The museum has kindly allowed me to keep my now hefty pack there. So, every morning, I would take my little zip-lock baggy of essentials and empty water jug and catch the ferry into town for the day. Every evening, I would collect my dinner and the next morning's breakfast from my pack, fill up my water bottle from the spigot of potable water behind the visitor's center, and take the ferry back to my campsite for the night.

The main activity in my life over this past week has been daily visits to the museum, which is blessedly open seven days a week. There were a lot of documents for me to go through:

• The funeral records of two local mortuary establishments.

• Several decades of Y.O.O.P. meeting minutes highlight their care (or lack thereof) of the cemeteries and their contributions to the funeral and burial of members.

• An entire file on Father Judge, who was responsible for St.Mary's Hospital from 1897 to 1898.

• St. Mary's Baptism, Marriage and Burial records from 1898-1956

• Ed and Star Jones put together entire binders in the 90s dedicated to each cemetery, including outside deaths, drownings, and unknown burials.

• A collection of documents from miscellaneous earlier investigative work that had been done in some of the cemeteries, mainly St. Mary's, including sketch maps!

I had lots to keep me busy, and beyond the opening ceremonies for the Olympics on the 26th, that was my life for most of the week. However, the 29th rolled around, and suddenly, things began ramping up quickly!

I was returning to the museum after lunch when the director approached me and handed me an e-mail from CBC Yukon. They had seen the museum advertising my community meeting the next day and wanted to know if they could interview me ahead of that. I mean...what? So, after working myself up sufficiently, I managed to text the gentleman back—because I am an absolute professional who can't handle phone calls.

Long story short, I was slotted in for 8:10 am the next day for Yukon Morning with Elyn Jones. I was told I would be sent the questions ahead of time so that I wouldn't be completely blindsided, but let me tell you, by the time 8:10 the next day rolled around, I still hadn't been sent questions, and I was petrified. So, if you listened to me on Yukon radio for some whacky reason, know that it was only half my fault that it was awful. Then, of course, after that horror show was over, I had my community meeting and presentation that evening, compounding horrors!

I say that, but honestly, aside from the presentation part, which always terrifies me, the meeting was probably the highlight of my week. Everyone I have met during my time in Dawson City has been so kind and welcoming, and those who attended the meeting were no different. The museum staff had purchased snacks and drinks for the event. I gave about a 15-minute presentation, and afterward, we ended up having quite a fun, thought-provoking and productive discussion about death during the Klondike Gold Rush, what things are recorded in history, why, how, the (many) challenges of my work and cemetery care in Dawson City. It turns out there are quite a few people who are miffed about the lack of care shown in their cemeteries. The presentation began shortly after 5, and we were there until about quarter to 7, so amazing.

The following day, I started by walking over to the Paddlewheel Graveyard, just a 20-minute hike from my campsite. It was absolutely breathtaking, I can't even put it into words. Three derelict hulking paddlewheels, just ghost ships rotting away in the woods, looming along the shores of the Yukon River. I spent more time there than I expected to, just admiring them and trying to capture their form in photographs. Then I headed back to my camp to pack up and say goodbye to my beloved site before heading to the museum for the rest of the day. And what a day it was, I was working in the museum just in the morning before my flight to Whitehorse at 5. As if things couldn't get wilder, I was approached by the museum director, Angharad, who had been thinking about my presentation and proposed possibly having the museum organize a community cleanup of the Typhoid Cemetery when I was back in August. Mind-blown. How absolutely amazing would that be? I was absolutely on board.

Needless to say, once I got to the airport, I was riding high. But things only continued to get stranger. I was waiting to board my plane when the mayor of Dawson sat next to me and, recognizing me from the posters the museum had put up, wanted to talk to me all about my presentation. I sat beside him and another student who had been working around Dawson and chatted with them the whole flight back to Whitehorse. It was such a treat; again, they were such kind people, and after I got settled in at my hostel, The Beez Kneez, I ended up meeting up with the mayor later for drinks. Only in the north!

So that's it! I'm writing to you live from Whitehorse, but I will be doing the same stuff here that I was doing in Dawson for the last week, so I might just turn that into a combined post again in a few days. See you on the other side!

-Nikki