Travel Guide to Dawson City, Yukon, Canada
In 1896, when George Washington Carmack found gold up at Bonanza Creek, Dawson City’s fate was sealed. It became the centre of the Klondike Gold Rush, and prospectors from all over the world arrived with gold fever in their hearts and minds.
It was the biggest thing to ever happen to the city, and within months the city had grown twofold, fivefold, tenfold… as more people arrived wanting to seek their fortune. The excitement and buzz only lasted a few years, and the claims to be staked, even less, but if you’re travelling to Dawson City, in the Yukon, it’s important to know about the turning point in the city’s fortunes and history.
Tourists to Dawson City can discover everything they could ever want to know about the gold rush, by following in the prospectors’ footsteps on the paddle steamers, sifting for gold up at Claim 33, reading some of the literature by Dawson City writers, and buying and selling gold in the shops.
The Gold Rush made Dawson City, and gave it its rich and colourful history, which will never be forgotten – but it’s the colourful, artistic town that’s left that makes Dawson City in the Yukon so memorable and unique.
Modern day Dawson City
To me, who’s lived in English cities for the past two years, and London before that, what struck me first about Dawson City was just how small it was. With the downtown area at just 11 streets by 8, I felt I’d walked them all at the end of the first day.
With a theatre (made from paddle wheeler wood), a huge city museum, hospital, two shops and six pubs, Dawson City is a fraction of the size it used to be. At its height, Dawson City was home to over 40,000 people, some living in tents in pursuit of gold. Today it’s only around 2000 who brave the city year round, and its ’40 below’ temperatures.
In the summer, the number doubles with national and international holidaymakers making their way up to Dawson City.
Thanks to the wealth and importance at the turn of the century Dawson City was one of the first places to get electricity and telephones – it became a sophisticated town with the latest fashions. All that gold floating about meant it developed at a fast rate, and filled with people used to a certain style of life.
Today Dawson City is known as more of an arty city, rather than a highly sophisticated one. They have artist in residence programmes, there’s a visual arts college and many an artist has come here to practice their craft.
It’s also known as being a sort of retreat for writers, with wordsmiths like Jack London and Robert Service enjoying the remoteness and quiet to allow the creative juices to flow.
It really is a unique and fascinating place to be – the colours, the buildings, the fact there aren’t paved roads and the challenges from extreme summers and winters mean that I’ve never seen anywhere else like it.
Some want Dawson City to be protected – and there’s a controversial UNESCO application in the process. But this would mean a change in the mining, so there’s plenty of opposition too.
Arriving into Dawson City
I arrived into Dawson City after many hours of flying from the UK feeling VERY low on energy, yet here I was at the place I’d travelled all those miles for, so I decided to do as any sane person would at 4pm, and go and indulge in some cake and coffee.
The Red Mammoth Bistro seemed the obvious choice. The ladies in there were lovely, so was the look of the cinnamon bun I chose. I plucked up the courage to ask about tipping as whenever I’d been handed the card machine so far – in Whitehorse in the Yukon – I’d always clicked the middle option ‘15%’, congratulating myself on my generosity.
I quickly learned that 15% is just ‘ok service’, 10% is for if it’s bad, and 20% is what they’re really looking for. If not 25.
I apologised for the 15% I’d just given for the cinnamon bun and the flat white, and assured them they poured it very well. No offence. I’m British – it’s 10% for excellent service and nothing more. I obviously needed to become a kind Canadian for my time here.
With that cleared up, I sat on their verandah sipping my perfect flat white and admiring the architecture of Front Street and enjoying the impressive mountains in the background. Made it.
And then, my eyes landed on an intriguing sign. “Parlour dress up”.
Errr, look like a bandit from the 1900s?
YES.
Peabody’s Dressing Up Parlour
I marched right into ‘Peabody’s Parlour’, coffee in hand, demanding a price list. Or at least, enquiring in a polite British fashion. And I booked in, for 45 minutes time. Giving me the chance to walk the two minutes to my hotel and do a hair and make up refresh.
Gawd it was SO good. They had tens of costumes, and hundreds of accessories. A whole room of a dressing up box. Fabulous.
I dressed as a bandit, as a can can dancer, as a Mountie and, I think, eventually, it was a Klondike prostitute with a penchant for Champagne?
Obviously my favourite, I had that one photographed by the professionals.
What do you think?
More things to do in Dawson City
1. Hike up to the Midnight Dome
Hiking up to the Midnight Dome was a definite highlight of Dawson City, although, I didn’t actually ‘hike’ like I planned. I was raring to go but then was warned against it, thanks to the bears in the area.
Instead I joined the Klondike Experience Midnight Dome tour and got driven up there. Good, because then I also got a bit of commentary and background too. The views were just amazing.
2. Visit the Tombstone Territorial Park
The Tombstone Territorial Park is one of the most iconic and impressive things to do in Dawson City. The sub Arctic tundra environment is just an hour or so from Dawson City. Unfortunately, my trip there was cancelled as there weren’t enough people on the tour – very sad.
I was booked with the Klondike Experience. Make sure to give them all of your availability when you book, and check your phone regularly to see if the trip is running. Or just pop in, it’s next to the Bonanza Market.
You can head over there by yourself, of course.
3. Join an interpretive tour of Dawson City
For just $6.30 you can join an interpretive tour around the city. I did two. One up at the Robert Service Cabin – where I learned as much about the poet and writer as you can in an hour – and then one around some of the old buildings in Dawson City.
I loved being able to see inside the closed buildings – felt kinda sneaky.
As well as an old bar, that’d been restored exactly as it was, and an old post office that’d been made too high and grand to afford to heat, we went inside Ruby’s Brothel. With that many single men around back in the day, brothels were big business. But Ruby was a friend to the men, as well as a madam. She was known locally as a philanthropist and gave much to the city both when she was alive, and dead. People liked her.
We were also taken to Lowe’s Mortuary. In the winter they used to stack the bodies till the ground had thawed enough to bury them. Things you never think about, hey?
Both tour were insightful and really helped me to bond with the city – bargain price too.
4. Drink the Sour Toe Cocktail
The most popular question for me on my Instagram Stories during my time in the Yukon was if I’d drank the Sour Toe Cocktail yet.
Now, the Sour Toe Cocktail is a DEAD person’s toe that is dropped in a Yukon whisky, and you’re meant to drink it.
“Drink it fast, drink it slow, as long as your lips touch the toe”
It’s gross. I didn’t do it. But, it is one of the most popular things to do in Dawson City, if not THE. Over 80,000 people have been signed in the ledger book and received their certificates.
The legend started with local man Louie Liken’s frostbitten toe found in a jar while Dick Stephenson was cleaning out his cabin 53 years later. He took it down to the Sourdough Saloon at the Downtown Hotel and dared people to drink it in a cocktail, as you do.
And so, the famous Dawson City Sour Toe Cocktail was born.
They’re actually on their 7th toe now, as people drink it. Cannibals. They’ve even had to up the fine to $2500 if you eat it, as it wasn’t stopping people at $500.
And where do they get the toe supply?
Locals leave them to the Downtown Hotel in their wills.
NOPE.
5. Explore Jack London’s cabin
Jack London wrote Call of the Wild and White Fang here, both set in Gold Rush times. You can take a look around his cabin and learn more about his life in the actual home he lived in.