Yukon Hotel | |
---|---|
Former names | Binet Block, Freeman Hotel, Miner's Rest Hotel |
General information | |
Type | Hotel |
Town or city | Dawson City, Yukon |
Country | Canada |
Coordinates | 64°03′33″N139°26′18″W / 64.0591°N 139.4383°W |
Completed | 1898 |
Owner | Eldorado Hotel |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 2 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | J.E. Binet |
Website | |
www | |
Official name | Yukon Hotel National Historic Site of Canada |
Designated | 12 June 1982 |
The Yukon Hotel is a National Historic Site of Canada [1] and part of the Dawson Historical Complex. It is a log building with a three-storey false facade [2] on First Avenue at the corner of Church Street in Dawson City, Yukon.
The building was constructed during the Klondike Gold Rush [3] in 1898 by J.E. Binet, who named it Binet Block. A local entrepreneur, he and his brother J.O. Binet also operated Malden House, the Marconi Hotel, and Binet Brothers Saloon, [4] and the Binet Bros. Hotel and General Merchants in Mayo. He and his workers used available materials, rushing to complete it by November. [5] The narrow building had large street-level windows flanking the main entrance. Only the facade was made of milled lumber, as it was in short supply; the remainder of the building was made of "rough logs chinked with mud". [6]
It was leased to the Government of Canada for $1000 per month, [7] which used it for the office of the Commissioner of Yukon, William Ogilvie, for land and timber agent offices, the territorial registrar, and as living quarters for the staff. [8] In November 1900, the government relocated its offices to the post office, newly constructed at the corner of Third Street and King Street. [9] [10] Binet then operated the building as a residence.
The building then changed ownership many times. Henry Freeman bought Binet Block in 1909 and operated it as the Miner's Rest Hotel. [11] In 1913, Minnie Witmore renamed it the Freeman Hotel. [12] The building was purchased by hotelier Emma Wilson in 1933, whose adjacent hotel was destroyed by fire. [13] She renamed it the Yukon Hotel [14] [15] after a previous but no longer existing hotel [16] operated by James Booge from 1898 to 1902 and John Borland from 1903 to 1907. [17] Wilson operated the hotel until 1957, after which it was boarded up. [18] [19]
Pierre Berton and other Dawson City natives urged the Government of Canada to save and restore the structure. [20] In 1975, the Heritage Canada Foundation purchased the "vacant and decaying" building for $1, and by 1980 had spent $386,000 to renovate it. [21] In 1983 the foundation sold the building, and in 1985, innkeeper and operator of the Eldorado Hotel, Peter Jenkins, purchased it. [22] [23]
It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada on 12 June 1982, and a commemorative plaque is installed on a large rock adjacent to the building. [24] It was selected based on its "representation of typical commercial structures built at the height" of the Klondike Gold Rush, such as siting flush to the sidewalk, roof pitch, three-storey false facade, and log construction. [25] It forms part of the Dawson Historical Complex with other frontier buildings identified by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, including the adjacent St. Paul's Anglican Church, the Bank of British North America building, and the Carnegie Library. [26]
Yukon is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 44,412 as of March 2023. Whitehorse, the territorial capital, is the largest settlement in any of the three territories.
The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration by an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of Yukon, in north-western Canada, between 1896 and 1899. Gold was discovered there by local miners on August 16, 1896; when news reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year, it triggered a stampede of prospectors. Some became wealthy, but the majority went in vain. It has been immortalized in films, literature, and photographs.
Dawson City, officially the City of Dawson, is a town in the Canadian territory of Yukon. It is inseparably linked to the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–1899). Its population was 1,577 as of the 2021 census, making it the second-largest town in Yukon.
The Chilkoot Trail is a 33-mile (53 km) trail through the Coast Mountains that leads from Dyea, Alaska, in the United States, to Bennett, British Columbia, in Canada. It was a major access route from the coast to Yukon goldfields in the late 1890s. The trail became obsolete in 1899 when a railway was built from Dyea's neighbor port Skagway along the parallel White Pass trail.
Bennett, British Columbia, Canada, is an abandoned town next to Bennett Lake and along Lindeman Creek. The townsite is now part of the Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site of Canada and is managed by Parks Canada. Bennett is also a stop on the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad during the summer months.
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park is a national historical park operated by the National Park Service that seeks to commemorate the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s. Though the gold fields that were the ultimate goal of the stampeders lay in the Yukon Territory, the park comprises staging areas for the trek there and the routes leading in its direction. There are four units, including three in Municipality of Skagway Borough, Alaska and a fourth in the Pioneer Square National Historic District in Seattle, Washington.
The Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin is a First Nation band government located in the Canadian territory, Yukon. Its main population centre is Dawson City, Yukon.
Forty Mile is best known as the oldest town in Canada’s Yukon. It was established in 1886 at the confluence of the Yukon and Fortymile rivers by prospectors and fortune hunters in search of gold. Largely abandoned during the nearby Klondike Gold Rush, the town site continued to be used by Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in. It is currently a historic site that is co-owned and co-managed by Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in and the Government of Yukon.
Tr'ochëk is the site of a traditional Hän fishing camp at the confluence of the Klondike River and Yukon River. The site is owned and managed by the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation, and is operated by the First Nation's Department of Heritage.
SS Klondike is the name of two sternwheelers, the second now a National Historic Site located in Whitehorse, Yukon. They ran freight between Whitehorse and Dawson City, along the Yukon River, the first from 1929 to 1936 and the second, an almost exact replica of the first, from 1937 to 1950.
Steamboats on the Yukon River played a role in the development of Alaska and Yukon. Access to the interior of Alaska and Yukon was hindered by large mountains and distance, but the wide Yukon River provided a feasible route. The first steamers on the lower Yukon River were work boats for the Collins Overland Telegraph in 1866 or 1867, with a small steamer called Wilder. The mouth of the Yukon River is far to the west at St. Michael and a journey from Seattle or San Francisco covered some 4,000 miles (6,400 km).
Bonanza Creek is a watercourse in Yukon Territory, Canada. It runs for about 20 miles (32 km) from King Solomon's Dome to the Klondike River. In the last years of the 19th century and the early 20th century, Bonanza Creek was the centre of the Klondike Gold Rush, which attracted tens of thousands of prospectors to the creek and the area surrounding it. Prior to 1896 the creek was known as Rabbit Creek. Its name was changed by miners in honour of the millions of dollars in gold found in and around the creek.
The Stewart River is a 533-kilometre (331 mi) tributary of Yukon River in the Yukon Territory of Canada. It originates in the Selwyn Mountains, which stand on the border between the Northwest Territories and the Yukon Territory. From there, the Stewart flows west, past the village of Mayo. The river is crossed by the Klondike Highway at the village of Stewart Crossing, and the highway parallels the river westward for about 56 kilometres (35 mi). After leaving the highway, the river travels southwest until it intersects the Yukon River 112 kilometres (70 mi) south of Dawson City. The mostly abandoned village of Stewart River is located at the mouth of the river.
A. J. Goddard was a Klondike Gold Rush era sternwheeler owned by Seattle businessman Albert J. Goddard and built for transport of men and supplies on the Upper Yukon River in Canada. She was assembled from pieces which were manufactured in San Francisco, shipped up to Skagway, Alaska, hauled over the Coast Mountains, and finally assembled at Lake Bennett. She made one trip to Dawson during the gold rush, was sold and sank in a storm on Lake Laberge in 1901. Her wreck was discovered in 2008 by Doug Davidge and was designated as a Yukon Historic Site.
The Grand Forks Hotel was a prominent roadhouse during the Klondike Gold Rush, situated near Dawson City in the Yukon region of Canada.
The O'Brien Brewing and Malting Company, also known as the Klondike Brewery, was a brewery founded by Thomas O'Brien in Klondike City, an adjoining settlement to Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada from 1904 to 1919. It was established during a period in which Dawson City was expected to become an important regional city, and used modern techniques and equipment imported from California. It was initially successful, selling 68,748 gallons of beer in 1905, but Dawson's population declined and growing temperance attitudes threatened the business. O'Brien sold the company in 1915, and in 1919 prohibition forced its closure. The brewery was abandoned, and the remains of the site are now owned by the Tr'ondek Hwech'in First Nation.
Grand Forks is a ghost town and former community at the confluence of Bonanza Creek and Eldorado Creek in the Canadian territory of Yukon. First settled about 1896, it became the second-largest settlement in the Klondike. With approximately 10,000 people living in or by Grand Forks during the Klondike Gold Rush, it was the only community besides Dawson City to have a municipal government. The Grand Forks Hotel was a roadhouse here during the gold rush.
Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall is a casino in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. It was first opened in 1971 by the Klondike Visitors Association, making it Canada's oldest casino. Gerties, as it is popularly known, as well as most of Dawson City is reminiscent of the area's Klondike Gold Rush history. Patrons are treated to a daily vaudeville show inspired by one of Dawson's most famous dance hall stars from the Gold Rush era, Gertie Lovejoy, who had a diamond between her two front teeth.
Dredge No. 4 is a wooden-hulled bucketline sluice dredge that mined placer gold on the Yukon River from 1913 until 1959. It is now located along Bonanza Creek Road 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) south of the Klondike Highway near Dawson City, Yukon, where it is preserved as one of the National Historic Sites of Canada. It is the largest wooden-hulled dredge in North America.