Driving along southern Yukon

Day 28 - Thursday August 20th

Today is our 15th wedding anniversary. Who would have thought 15 years ago that we would be celebrating this day in the Yukon!?

After getting a little later start, we visited the world’s largest fish ladder. This is in the connection with the only dam that is on the Yukon River. Salmon travel nearly 2000 miles from the Bering Sea to return to their spawning stream just south of Whitehorse. This is the longest salmon migration in the world. To help the salmon negotiate getting past the dam, 50 years ago they built a series of steps filled with water, that the salmon could either jump up or swim through little openings to get to the next level. About halfway up, there is a viewing area where they are observed and counted. They keep track of their genders and whether they are wild or raised in a hatchery. So far this season over 500 salmon have found their way up this ladder. While we were there we saw both a male and a female salmon. Some of the female salmon are taken out and their eggs harvested for the hatcheries. As part of the 50th celebration, the people of Whitehorse were invited to decorate wooden salmon which were presented in a wonderful display along the fish ladder. There were fifty of them, each different and all well done. There were two young interpreters there who did an excellent job of providing information and being very helpful. It was a very interesting place to visit. http://www.yukonenergy.ca/services/facilities/fishway/

Next we made a stop at Miles Canyon, a bit further up stream on the Yukon. The waters of the Yukon get forced through a canyon here that is less than a hundred yards wide with steep stonewalls. Gold stampeders had to navigate this rough water area in their boats that they had built themselves. Many didn’t make it. And this was right before the rapids, which was also a terrible spot where even more of them crashed The Mounties tried to regulate traffic so that only experienced boatmen controlled each boat passing through these difficult waters. The rapids are now covered by the lake backed up behind the dam. These guys had to really want to get to that gold! It was a beautiful area to look at.

Then we returned to the Alaska Highway headed southeast. An impromptu stop to eat our lunch gave us a chance to visit an amazing little museum: The George Johnston Museum. http://www.gjmuseum.yk.net/ This was dedicated to telling the story of a Tlgit Indian man, who was such an interesting combination of characteristics. He practiced and held very traditional beliefs and was an “early adopter” of such things as photography (teaching himself how to take and develop photos) and brought the first car to his town: a brand-new 1928 Chevy. Not so exceptional except that at that time there were no roads at all in this isolated town, it had to be brought in by steamboat. He and friends cleared 3 miles of forest to create a road and he set up his car as a taxicab, charging people $2.00 a person for a ride. In the winter, he drove the car on the 78 mile long frozen lake in their community.

He was able, as an insider, to document both everyday life and special occasions for his people during a time of great transition. There was a fine movie that we watched that told about his life. It also talked about the changes that happened when into this VERY isolated trapping community in the Yukon came The Alaskan Highway. It was really mixed as to the blessings and the curses of the road. The American soldiers brought with them many diseases that the Indian people had no immunity to, and many died. The soldiers and their wives also did not understand the Native ways at all, and there were a lot of misunderstandings and hurtful actions. One of the comments made in the film was that George Johnston took pictures to tell the stories of the past, but also that would be needed by those not yet born. It is such a blessing that there are so many people who have seen the need to preserve stories such as this great man. Even though he died many years ago, a beloved elder and successful businessman in the community, we felt as though we got to meet him today.

As we drove, MORE RAIN! We figure that we have had maybe 4 days this trip with no rain at all, and several days with non-stop rain. We haven’t had nearly as many hikes as we thought we might have. The wet, damp weather and mud haven’t seemed very inviting to get out and hike.

Being so late in the season surely accounts for the lack of traffic. But the fall colors are certainly coming in. It is interesting retracing our path from two weeks ago and seeing it looking much more fall-like.

The night stop would be back at Watson Lakes, home of the signpost forest. Our hotel for the night is another interesting place: a restored barracks for US Pilots during World War II. They were ferrying planes to the Soviet Union on “lend-lease”. http://www.airforcelodge.com/. One of the really interesting things we found out was that the barracks housed not just male pilots, but also a lot of women pilots. Due to the war (WWII), male pilots were busy off “in harm’s way”. This left a huge hole in domestic flying, with lots that needed to happen. Many women learned to fly during this time period, and many of them were part of the effort to get planes up through Canada and Alaska so they could be delivered to Russia. So, our hotel has two sets of shower rooms: one for men and one for women, just as it had originally. This barrack was originally some miles away on the Air Base, but was one of many moved into town and then sold for $1.00. A trapper bought it, and when he died, our current hosts bought it and rehabbed the place. It is now quite nice inside, but the same as it would have been in 1942 on the outside.