Steamwheeler Graveyard

The Seattle.. forgotten...

The air horn went off in Dawson.. we were concerned… but the locals just ignored it. We assumed we could too. We spent the morning washing the bikes of all the caked mud and making sure the small parts work smoothly. We then headed over to the paddlewheel graveyard across the Yukon River. The Yukon River was too high to access via the beach. It took us a little bit of bush whacking to find it, and we are certain we crossed through the most pristine mosquito breeding ground the Yukon Territory has to offer…

Eventually we found it. The steamwheeler was the primary form of transportation in the goldrush days. Many travels came in through the Yukon River. The need for the ships decreased, and they were basically parked on the banks… to rot. Decades of vegetation growth and weather has hidden these ships and they have slowly rotted silently… forgotten. All the ships have collapsed onto themselves, and certainly what is left standing is not safe to explore. We climbed around as close as we dared, but they look and feel like card houses ready to completely fall. Because Parks Canada or the Canadian government has NOT made access to the graveyard easy… most tourists never venture out. They are unmarked with no parking area.

Jaz photographing the wheel on the steamwheeler
provides scale.. these things are massive!

There are seven ships out there. My favorite is the Seattle (no3). I think because that is the first one that you come to, and you can still clearly see her name on the hull. The Seattle was completed in 1898 for the Seattle Yukon Transportation Co. It arrived in Dawson on Aug of 1898 with 175 tons of freight. She lies forgotten in the trees.

We finished up with the steamwheelers and stumbled across a couple of women smoking pot. They offered to share the weed, but we refrained… although chuckled.

We then moved on to the restored Dredge that Parks Canada manages. We took a wonderful tour of these machines that chew the landscape up and spit it back out in piled of tailings that still… after a hundred years has not regrown. Amazing stuff!

View from the top of the Dome looking down on the
Yukon River

From there we drove to the top of the Dome for an overlook over the Yukon River valley… they sky was angry and I got to experience thunder and lightening… not something too common in Anchorage. Alas.. I ended once again.. nursing a Black Death at Kate’s. Tomorrow… we head back to Alaska over the Top of the World. It has been raining… we are hoping that it stops so that the trip will be dry and the road safe. Depending on time, we may go to 40-mile… 120 mile detour. We will see..

A chewy piece of equipment... a dredge...