Dawson City Yukon Territory Canada.
In the summer of 1955 I was placer mining for gold near Dawson City on Klondike. 40 years later I went back to check out if anything has changed. I was greatly impressed with the restoration that the Canada Park Service did. In 54 Dawson City was decaying and run down but it was nicely restored just like it was during the great gold rush, hey they even left the streets in gravel. Brought back many memories, like me getting a Yukon drivers license at the Liquor store without any test for $2, or paying $1 bachelors tax a month for being single. The 17th of August is a special day the Discovery day, the first gold strike was found on that date. For me it was another discovery it was the only time in my life that I saw the inside of a jail, got into fight after too much beer and the Mounties looked me and my friend up for the night. I didnt get rich up there but I enjoyed every minute of it even that after losing about a gallon of blood during the summer months to the blood sucking mosquitoes, they are about the size of a humming bird up there. Btw. Gold was selling at $30 an ounce I found one 1oz. nugget which my grandson had mounted on a ring.
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3
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Poet Robert E, Service's Cabin
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This is Pick-Up truck country, if you see a car you can be assured it has not Yukon license plates
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This was taken at 11 pm from Midnight Dom the mountain behind Dawson, you can see the merging Klondike and Yukon river, the road on the hill is the beginning of the Top of the World highway which leads to Alaska.
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blacks2 wrote:
In the summer of 1955 I was placer mining for gold near Dawson City on Klondike. 40 years later I went back to check out if anything has changed. I was greatly impressed with the restoration that the Canada Park Service did. In 54 Dawson City was decaying and run down but it was nicely restored just like it was during the great gold rush, hey they even left the streets in gravel. Brought back many memories, like me getting a Yukon drivers license at the Liquor store without any test for $2, or paying $1 bachelors tax a month for being single. The 17th of August is a special day the Discovery day, the first gold strike was found on that date. For me it was another discovery it was the only time in my life that I saw the inside of a jail, got into fight after too much beer and the Mounties looked me and my friend up for the night. I didnt get rich up there but I enjoyed every minute of it even that after losing about a gallon of blood during the summer months to the blood sucking mosquitoes, they are about the size of a humming bird up there. Btw. Gold was selling at $30 an ounce I found one 1oz. nugget which my grandson had mounted on a ring.
In the summer of 1955 I was placer mining for gold... (
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Nice series Mike. :thumbup: :thumbup:
bcheary wrote:
Nice series Mike. :thumbup: :thumbup:
Thank you very much bcheary, glad you liked them.
I really enjoyed your background narrative! Sounds like some pretty good times. Nice set of photos too.
Cwilson341 wrote:
I really enjoyed your background narrative! Sounds like some pretty good times. Nice set of photos too.
Thank you very much Carol.
blacks2 wrote:
In the summer of 1955 I was placer mining for gold near Dawson City on Klondike. 40 years later I went back to check out if anything has changed.
Thanks for the Dawson City tour. Almost like being there. :D
Great series of photos and I really enjoyed the history lesson. Wow!! You were a pretty rowdy guy back in the day. I hope you haven't gotten into too many brawls recently. By the way, photo #6 is terrific. :thumbup: :lol:
Pictures and story - both excellent.
blacks2, fantastic.....nice pictures and interesting story. Very enjoyable! Thanks for sharing. :thumbup: Tejaswrangler :)
Thank you Blacks2. Dawson City is one of my favorite places and has it's own "smell"- a good aroma most notable after the first hard frost autumn. Good folk, too. Thanks for sharing your memories and photos and stirring up a few of my own...
blacks2 wrote:
In the summer of 1955 I was placer mining for gold near Dawson City on Klondike. 40 years later I went back to check out if anything has changed. I was greatly impressed with the restoration that the Canada Park Service did. In 54 Dawson City was decaying and run down but it was nicely restored just like it was during the great gold rush, hey they even left the streets in gravel. Brought back many memories, like me getting a Yukon drivers license at the Liquor store without any test for $2, or paying $1 bachelors tax a month for being single. The 17th of August is a special day the Discovery day, the first gold strike was found on that date. For me it was another discovery it was the only time in my life that I saw the inside of a jail, got into fight after too much beer and the Mounties looked me and my friend up for the night. I didnt get rich up there but I enjoyed every minute of it even that after losing about a gallon of blood during the summer months to the blood sucking mosquitoes, they are about the size of a humming bird up there. Btw. Gold was selling at $30 an ounce I found one 1oz. nugget which my grandson had mounted on a ring.
In the summer of 1955 I was placer mining for gold... (
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Your spirit of adventure as a young man gave you many happy memories and great pictures to look back on, Mike. You must enjoy sharing them with your grandson.
Really enjoyed your historical series here, Mike! Fun seeing what used to be, including you in front of that cabin!
blacks2 wrote:
In the summer of 1955 I was placer mining for gold near Dawson City on Klondike. 40 years later I went back to check out if anything has changed. I was greatly impressed with the restoration that the Canada Park Service did. In 54 Dawson City was decaying and run down but it was nicely restored just like it was during the great gold rush, hey they even left the streets in gravel. Brought back many memories, like me getting a Yukon drivers license at the Liquor store without any test for $2, or paying $1 bachelors tax a month for being single. The 17th of August is a special day the Discovery day, the first gold strike was found on that date. For me it was another discovery it was the only time in my life that I saw the inside of a jail, got into fight after too much beer and the Mounties looked me and my friend up for the night. I didnt get rich up there but I enjoyed every minute of it even that after losing about a gallon of blood during the summer months to the blood sucking mosquitoes, they are about the size of a humming bird up there. Btw. Gold was selling at $30 an ounce I found one 1oz. nugget which my grandson had mounted on a ring.
In the summer of 1955 I was placer mining for gold... (
show quote)
Great set Mike...loved the background info!! :thumbup:
Wonderful pictures and story. Why did they charge the $1 tax on bachelors?
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