It’s a common story of when the runt rises. It’s the same here with Granite. Named after a strong rock, Granite was a runt and passed over by all the men mushers. Susan Butcher saw him differently. She worked with him and he with her to form a winning team for the Iditarod for 4 consecutive years.
These women train where Susan trained
They don’t treat the women any different than the men for this race. It’s grueling and she did it. Lost to cancer, her legacy lives on as does the race. She wrote the words of her story before she passed. These dogs are amazing.
The Dogs are so Excited.
There isn’t a motor on this 4 Wheeler. She doesn’t need it. Pure joy when the dogs were released to run. dmc
Wow! Stepping into the 1890’s and right back out again to a modern city in Fairbanks, AK.
AirNorth only Jet on the runway
This was the last time going thru customs and using passports. The 45 min flight was quick and punctual unlike the flights that challenged us on the front end of our trip.
Arrived so early that we had to day check our bag and find something to do.
First stop is donuts. Walked here from the hotel and these donuts at “The Donut Shop” took us all the way back to Point Pleasant. Baby Soft Angel pillows perfectly sugared.
Now what?
Uber to the Alaska University
The high today is 81 and breezy. Googling info about the northern lights we found ourselves at the University of Alaska’s museum of natural history.
Meet OTTO. Otto is a 1250 lb Grizzly bear. They can get up to 1400 lbs. We sat next to a Canadian couple at Diamond Tooth Gertie’s. They just came from Denali which is where we are going. They came too close to an encounter with a momma Grizzly and two cubs. I saw the picture. NOPE!
We saw the Dynamic Aurora film and many other wonderful pieces of art, northern animals, birds, and cultural artifacts. It was a good day.
Puffins have always been on my favorite sea bird list. Tried to see them off the coast of Maine back in 2000 but only saw a whale dorsal fin. Not this time either but still love the look of them. I left my artwork to share with others.
Now for a nap! dmc
June 8th travel: about one hour on a chartered 737 from Dawson City YT to Fairbanks AK.
Not far from this very spot is where gold was first found. George Carmack and wife Kate Carmack were the ones to start what would become the stampeders trek to this area. In the span of just 4 years it swelled to the point of gold, bars, and brothels.
They don’t mention Kate Carmack except to say that she may have been doing the menial tasks of washing laundry or dishes at the creek when she discovered gold there.
Our Hotels Front Porch
Being a woman was hard then and the men of the time would have never admitted the discovery of what became such an historic event, was discovered by a woman. Women certainly had their place here and became legendary for opening businesses that supported the quest for riches. Belinda Mulrooney, an Irish immigrant and intrepid entrepreneur, became the richest woman in the Klondike.
Belinda Mulroney
Belinda Mulroney arrived in Dawson City in 1897 from Pennsylvania. By 1899 she had three claims in the Klondike valley. One, called 39 above, produced 19 thousand dollars in one cleanup in the summer of ’99. That year she had 12 men working for her on her claims.
But gold mining wasn’t Ms. Mulroney’s only business venture. With money from her claims, she built the Fairview Hotel, a three story building complete with dining room, office, bar and electric lights.
In 1898, there was a shortage of fresh drinking water in Dawson. Belinda Mulroney setup and ran a company called Hygenia Water, a bottled water company well ahead of its time.
Clear Blue Sky
It’s worth looking into how women had both supporting roles and also rose to become business owners and miners in what was considered by most to be the adventure of a life time. Even though most died or returned home empty handed, that spirit of adventure was thought of fondly. Surviving such a tenuous journey is nothing short of heroic. dmc
This afternoon’s excursion took us on an abandoned gold dredge tour. The pic doesn’t begin to show just how massive this old beast is. It’s the largest dredge of its kind in North America, built for the Canadian Klondike Mining Company. Number 4 was in continuous operation except for most winters and a few brief times for major maintenance, from 1913 until 1959.
Standing at 60 feet and set on a wood barge, #4 was built on land, then floated by water from ditches dug from nearby streams to the site. The whole rig was set in motion by large electric motors, and powered by hydroelectric dams up to 30 miles away.
Our park service guide noted that the dredge was so noisy, with 18,000 cubic yards of rocks tumbling through it in a day, that workers inside were left nearly stone deaf. It could be heard up to 10 miles away. It also razed the land, leaving long piles of rocks in its wake.
Canada Parks welcome sign at George Carmack’s (remember George?) Discovery Claim, that ignited the gold rush.
This stream is a short walk from the welcome sign. So this pristine stream is where it all began? And it’s been preserved? Amazing!
Knowing that the dredge miners had been all over every obvious place that might be hiding the yellow stuff, I asked a guide why hadn’t the stream where it started been dredged? Oh, that stream was dredged. This stream is on the claim site but not the stream where Carmack and company found gold.
A comment about my May 6th post: there are no northern lights (visible) here in the summer months because there’s literally no night. So, yes, the aurora really does spend the summer in Emerald Lake. And seeing the Lights stays on the bucket list.
We have almost the whole day to ourselves here in Dawson City, so we strolled about, looking at the shops. Didn’t see anything we liked enough to cram into our already overstuffed bags, but…
we did pay homage to (U.S.) National Donut Day.
Walked along the Yukon River, just downstream from where it’s joined by the Klondike River. Gosh, the dogs that live here leave hand-sized paw prints and scary big piles of scat. 🧐
Kayakers taking a break from their trip down the Yukon. Which is north during this stretch.
Found a great place to chill for a while. Cool (62), dry, and quiet.
