Sunday, August 26, 2012
Cheri Aug-25-12
5:29 PM | 
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Sharp's Travels
We slept in until 7am this morning. About 9am we were ready to head downtown to check out the shops. Gay bought me a necklace at the Nugget. It is a circular pendent with a clear center that has specks of gold in it. It was a late birthday present. It’s so pretty!
We met Dick & Marie at the Sourdough Joe’s Restaurant for lunch. In 1896, just days before the gold strike, prospector Joe Ladue staked not only a claim, but a whole town site. Joe sold lots for only $5 in the winter of 1896, but by the next summer he was getting $8,000 for them. Dawson population grew from 25 to 5,000 in less than a year. In 2 years the population exploded to 40,000, making it the biggest western Canadian City.
At 12:45 we carpooled to Jack London’s cabin. World famous author Jack London voyaged to the Klondike Gold Fields as a 21 year old prospector. While he didn’t strike it rich, he later turned his Klondike adventures into fame and fortune with his legendary writings like Call of the Wild, White Fang, and To Build a Fire and more. London’s original cabin was relocated to Dawson City in the 1960’s from its original location on Henderson Lake. There were lots of pictures in the information center and the gal there gave us an overview of his life history. It was all so very interesting and then we all took a look at the tiny cabin he shared with two other prospectors.
At 2:30 we left for our tour of Dredge #4 on Bonanza Creek. It is the largest wooden hull, bucket-line dredge in North America. It was built in 1912 and is 2/3’s the size of a football field and is 8 stories high with a 16 cubic foot bucket capacity. The dredge could dig 48ft below water level and 17 feet above water level using hydraulic monitors and washing the banks down. The dredge moved along on a pond of its own making, digging gold bearing gravel in front, recovering the gold through the revolving screen washing plant, and then depositing the gravel out the stacker at the rear.
It is no longer in working order and has been restored as a tourist attraction. Our tour guide was really neat to listen to; she says she loves to have Spike’s groups come through. She tells Spike he hand picks some of the “greatest people”. It sure is a fascinating process.
At 4pm we were all ready to head to the gold fields for some REAL GOLD PANNING. Spike showed us all the proper way to pan. We all put on our boots, grabbed a pan and set to work. We dug up some dirt from the hillside and set our lawn chairs up in the Bonanza Creek, sat down and began to pan. Some of our gang were lucky and found some nice pieces of gold. Gay & I weren’t so lucky. If you put your glasses on and look real close you can see our little specks of gold. Oh well, it was lots of fun anyway.
At 7:30 we headed for the Downtown Hotel to their Sourdough Saloon. Gay missed his chance to have his Sourtoe Cocktail when we were here in 2008, so he wanted to be sure and get that in this trip. Roger & Gwen went with us. Gwen & I were the picture takers and Roger & Gay got in line to do the Sourtoe Cocktail. You have to order a drink and then they put a mummified real human toe in your drink and you have to let the toe touch your lips as you down your cocktail. You then become a member of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club and they both received a certificate stating they are following in the footsteps of Captain River Rat and have proven they are capable of almost anything! They are club members #46,879 & #46,880.
Gay and I then headed over to Diamond Tooth Gerties Casino. It is like stepping into the past at Canada’s oldest Casino. We each got $10 worth of chips and Gay quickly won $74. I, even more quickly, lost my $10. There was another couple there too—together their total winnings were $560. Some of us are real lucky.
We stayed for the gold-rush can-can show and then headed for home. It was late—good thing we can sleep in tomorrow.
To see pictures of the day click on this link https://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravels then click on albums: Dawson City day two.
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